When I was growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, we practiced “duck and cover” drills in school. If you’re not familiar with the term, they were exercises forced upon schoolchildren in response to the fear that the Soviet Union was becoming a competing nuclear power and would ultimately drop “the big one” on us. The drill would happen at any point during the school day. The local firehouse siren would start wailing with a weird, oscillating, ascending/descending tone. Then the school bell would go off. “Get under your desks and cover your heads!” the teacher would shout. Some days when the siren would go off, we were herded down the stairs to the basement cafeteria, lined up, and told to sit in silence against the wall with books over our heads while we waited for the “all clear” siren. Images of horrific fiery mushroom clouds and Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet First Secretary of the Communist Party of Russia) banging his shoe on the table at the United Nations went through the minds of every kid who grew up during that time. It was frightening, to be sure.
The threat of communism was very real. Not only did we learn about it through those “duck and cover” drills, but it was taught in our history and civics lessons. School curriculums taught us about the evils of communism, the communist system and the communist philosophy. Names like Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung were very familiar. We learned that communism killed 60 million people under Stalin and some 50 million under Chairman Mao’s communist rule.
I don’t know when schools stopped teaching about the horrors of communism, but they obviously have. We’re seeing a resurgence of Marxist and Leninist principles being taught in our schools, universities and even in our military. Those principles are made to sound good by giving them fancy names like “social justice” and “equity.” But Marxism by any other name is still Marxism.
Just this week, our tough-as-nails governor of the “free state” of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed into law a bill requiring that public schools again teach “ideologies, such as communism and totalitarianism, that conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States.”
That’s a great start and he should be applauded, but we may already be pretty close to the bottom of that proverbial slippery slope.
Here are some examples of communist strategies historically used to control the masses, as compared to what’s happening in our country today:
Communists control their media. The state-run media is the sole provider of the "official" narrative.
Our mainstream and big tech media promote the progressive and leftist agenda, while simultaneously censoring conservative media and dissenting opinion. Anyone who steps out against the approved narrative is de-platformed and cancelled.
Surveillance is crucial to root out dissidents.
In the U.S., we’ve recently learned that the Department of Defense, regardless of First Amendment protection, is reviewing the social media posts of military personnel in order to root out “extremists.” Even the US Postal Service is monitoring our social media activity.
The communist education system indoctrinates children in government-approved thought and propaganda.
American public schools are now teaching the 1619 Project and critical race theory, both based on Marxist principles. Also, there is a selective teaching of a progressive version of history that omits the exceptionalism of our founding, the Constitution and America’s role as a force for good in the world.
The communist party consists of oligarchs and elites who dictate their ideologies without living under the same rules.
Here, Silicon Valley billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) decide who can speak and who can’t. Woke CEOs of companies like Coke and Delta Airlines criticize us for our insensibilities. And of course, the same people who preach about climate change, rising sea levels and carbon footprints (e.g. the Obamas, Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio) own and live in seaside estates worth millions and fly all over the world in their private jets.
Communists revise and re-write their history.
We do it a little differently here. We topple statues, deface monuments, rename buildings, ban books and subscribe to cancel culture.
Communists instill an underlying climate of fear to intimidate anyone considering speaking out against the system.
In America, we’re encouraging students and employees to report on each other for using the wrong words in private conversations. Or we publish their addresses and work locations if we find they voted for the wrong candidate or contributed money to the wrong charity. We don’t have the KGB yet, but it’s close…we have language police.
Communist judicial systems are corrupt.
Here, we have liberal judges who write legislation from the bench instead of enforcing existing laws. Sanctuary cities defy the law. Enforcement of existing law is selectively applied to those who are on the correct side ideologically; while those who are not, are dealt with heavy-handedly. Jurors who return the “wrong” verdicts are harassed and doxxed.
I’m sure there are many other examples I could list. The progressive left believes that, no matter what, the ends justify the means. To them, employing communist-style tactics of division, control, and intimidation under the guise of equity, fairness, and social justice are worth it in order to achieve the fundamental transformation of America away from the democratic principles on which it was founded.
The Soviet Union collapsed when the citizens finally woke up and decided they had had enough of the lies and hypocrisy coming out of the Kremlin.
The alarm clock is ringing, America. It’s time for us to wake up.
Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.
– Mao Tse-tung
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