Friday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

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Four Stages of Marxist Takeover

Via The American Spectator

The journalist and Soviet defector long ago pegged the current left-wing moment.

It’s important to understand that this is a revolutionary moment in American history, and it isn’t a bad idea to act in ways that would fall under the traditional description of “accordingly.”

But it’s also important to understand that the revolution taking place in America is not yet a “kinetic” one. That may come soon, or it may not. The battle taking place presently is a war of information — or disinformation, as the case may be.

And the revolution is a Marxist revolution. You should make no mistake about that. The groups fomenting it, the intellectuals promoting it, and the money financing it are all quite open about who they are.

The object of this information revolution? To begin with, defeating Donald Trump and installing Joe Biden as the Hard Left’s puppet president. Biden is, for now, palatable to the American people in ways that actual communist Bernie Sanders, spawn of a communist Pete Buttigieg, Sandinista sympathizer Bill de Blasio and other far-left revolutionary (remember: Sanders has spent years traipsing around the country calling for a revolution) figures were not. But despite his lack of bona fides, Biden offers something quite beneficial to the Left — he is wholly incapable of executing the duties of President of the United States owing to a clear deficiency of mental function which shows itself every time he makes a public appearance. Couple that with Biden and his handlers being so utterly devoid of principle and scruples that he and they are willing to serve as an empty vessel into which might be poured whatever horrors the Left is willing to use him to bring on.

Joe Biden isn’t Vladimir Lenin. Biden is Alexander Kerensky, the Russian politician who served as the vessel for the revolutionaries to overthrow the old guard in 1917 and then, once he had proven himself useful toward that end, was shuffled aside so the real power could assume control. And as in Kerensky’s case, what comes after will bring the end of all that we know.

They’re not even trying to hide this anymore. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors repeatedly says “We are trained Marxists.” Antifa’s imagery, dogma, public statements — all straight from the Marxist playbook. The bleatings of the Democrat Socialist crowd, including AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and the rest — unabashedly Marxist. What do you think every one of these “community organizing” outfits catching oversized checks from the Soroses of the world are teaching to their new recruits? Where do you think critical race theory, repressive tolerance, and intersectionalism, the tools of the cultural revolutionaries setting fire to all our traditions and institutions, came from? They came from the Frankfurt School, all of whom were Marxists.

This playbook was written long ago. If you think that Bernie Sanders or Kshama Sawant or Alicia Garza are smart enough to dream up a plan for taking down the greatest society the world has ever known, you are out of touch with reality. The only way they could have been as effective as they have so far is to follow somebody else’s plan. Which they are doing.

The reason you believe a Marxist revolution on these shores is far-fetched is that your faith in America’s institutions makes you believe the loss of your freedom and prosperity are impossible.

That confidence isn’t a flaw in your character. To the contrary, it’s a sign of your patriotism. But this moment makes that confidence unwarranted, if not obsolete.

Read the entire article HERE.

Remember the Red Guards Before You Cheer the Woke Mobs

By Peter Van Buren/The American Conservative

Today statues, tomorrow mass firings—or even worse. There’s a history here.

I’m ambivalent about statues and J.K. Rowling being torn down, but terrified of the thought process behind the destruction. Decisions should never be made by mobs.

Is America on the edge of a cultural revolution?

The historical namesake and obvious parallel is the Cultural Revolution in China, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. Its stated goal was to purge capitalist and traditional elements from society, and to substitute a new way of thinking based on Mao’s own beliefs. The epic struggle for control and power waged war against anybody on the wrong side of an idea.

To set the mobs on somebody, one needed only to tie him to an official blacklist like the Four Olds (old customs, culture, habits, and ideas). China’s young people and urban workers formed Red Guard units to go after whomever was outed. Violence? Yes, please. When Mao launched the movement in May 1966, he told his mobs to “bombard the headquarters” and made clear that “to rebel is justified.” He said “revisionists should be removed through violent class struggle.” The old thinkers were everywhere and were systematically trying to preserve their power and subjugate the people.

Whetted, the mobs took the task to heart: Red Guards destroyed historical relics, statues, and artifacts, and ransacked cultural and religious sites. Libraries were burned. Religion was considered a tool of capitalists and so churches were destroyed—even the Temple of Confucius was wrecked. Eventually the Red Guards moved on to openly killing people who did not think as they did. Where were the police? The cops were told not to intervene in Red Guard activities, and if they did, the national police chief pardoned the Guards for any crimes.

Education was singled out, as it was the way the old values were preserved and transmitted. Teachers, particularly those at universities, were considered the “Stinking Old Ninth” and were widely persecuted. The lucky ones just suffered the public humiliation of shaved heads, while others were tortured. Many were slaughtered or harassed into suicide. Schools and universities eventually closed down and over 10 million former students were sent to the countryside to labor under the Down to the Countryside Movement. A lost generation was abandoned to fester, uneducated. Red Guard pogroms eventually came to include the cannibalization of revisionists. After all, as Mao said, a revolution is not a dinner party.

The Cultural Revolution destroyed China’s economy and traditional culture, leaving behind a possible death toll ranging from one to 20 million. Nobody really knows. It was a war on the way people think. And it failed. One immediate consequence of the Revolution’s failure was the rise in power of the military after regular people decided they’d had enough and wanted order restored. China then became even more of a capitalist society than it had ever imagined in pre-Revolution days. Oh well.

I spoke with an elderly Chinese academic who had been forced from her classroom and made to sleep outside with the animals during the Revolution. She recalled forced self-criticism sessions that required her to guess at her crimes, as she’d done nothing more than teach literature, a kind of systematic revisionism in that it espoused beliefs her tormentors thought contributed to the rotten society. She also had to write out long apologies for being who she was. She was personally held responsible for 4,000 years of oppression of the masses. Our meeting was last year, before white guilt became a whole category on Netflix, but I wonder if she’d see now how similar it all is.

That’s probably a longer version of events than a column like this would usually feature. A tragedy on the scale of the Holocaust in terms of human lives, an attempt to destroy culture on a level that would embarrass the Taliban—this topic is not widely taught in American colleges, never mind in China.

It should be taught, because history rhymes. Chinese students are again outing teachers, sometimes via cellphone videos, for “improper speech,” teaching hurtful things from the past using the wrong vocabulary. Other Chinese intellectuals are harassed online for holding outlier positions, or lose their jobs for teaching novels with the wrong values. Once abhorred as anti-free speech, most UC Berkeley students would likely now agree that such steps are proper. In Minnesota, To Kill A Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn are banned because fictional characters use a racial slur.

There are no statues to the Cultural Revolution here or in China. Nobody builds monuments to chaos. But it’s never really about the statues anyway. In America, we moved quickly from demands to tear down the statues of Robert E. Lee to Thomas Jefferson to basically any Caucasian, including “White Jesus.“

Of course, it was never going to stop with Confederate generals because it was not really about racism any more than the Cultural Revolution was really about capitalism. This is about rewriting history for political ends, both short-term power grabs (Not Trump 2020!) and longer term societal changes that one critic calls the “successor ideology,” the melange of academic radicalism now seeking hegemony throughout American institutions. Douglas Murray is more succinct. The purpose “is to embed a new metaphysics into our societies: a new religion.” The ideas—centered on there being only one accepted way of thought—are a tool of control.

Read the entire article HERE.

NBCUniversal News Group formally plans to replace half of its workforce with women and people of color

Via American Greatness

NBCUniversal News Group formally plans to replace half of its workforce with women and people of color, according to The Hill.

The announcement came in a memo from the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, Cesar Conde, who described the plan as the “Fifty Percent Challenge Initiative.” The memo said that NBCUniversal will spend the next 100 days “taking feedback for the plan,” and determining how the company should be “held accountable.”

Conde said, in part, that “we want to increase diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera, and earn the trust of every community in America that relies on us for exceptional journalism.” Conde continued by noting that “we understand this is a challenging time to start this effort, but there are always reasons to say ‘not now’…we have to start today.”

The push for such widespread affirmative action comes amidst ongoing race riots and far-left demands for elevation of minorities over White people. Women already make up about half of NBCUniversal’s news division, but Conde claimed that the number of minorities on the news staff – only about 27 percent of the workforce across NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC – is “not good enough.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Colorado town threatens residents with one year in jail if they defy mandatory face mask order

Via The Washington Examiner

A Colorado town is threatening residents with up to a year behind bars and large fines if they disobey face mask requirements implemented in response to the coronavirus.

The mayor of Englewood, Colorado, with the blessing of the City Council, imposed an emergency order that went into effect Thursday, mandating that every person over the age of 6 wear a mask outside his or her homes, according to the New York Post.

First offenders will face $15 fines, and second offenders will have to pay $25, but the maximum penalty listed is $2,650 and 360 days behind bars or both.

“Any person charged with an offense under this Emergency Order may choose to enter a plea of not guilty and be entitled to a trial as authorized by the law,” the order states.

Just over 35,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Colorado, resulting in 1,704 deaths in the state.

Cities and states across the country have started imposing mandatory face mask restrictions in response to upticks in coronavirus cases, and some are also calling on the federal government to impose a nationwide mask mandate.

Supporters of face masks, including guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, maintain that wearing face coverings is instrumental in stopping the spread of the virus, while critics wary of government restrictions during the pandemic cite reputable studies that cloth masks aren’t effective.

Read the entire article HERE.

Governors Reinstate Lockdowns To Combat Recovering Economy

Via The Babylon Bee (Satire)

U.S.—Governors across the country have reinstated lockdowns mere weeks after slowly starting to lift them, citing a “concerning spike” in jobs and the economy.

Worried that the increase in jobs, prosperity, and happiness would hurt them in November, they reacted to the economic upturn quickly, shutting down businesses and locking people back in their homes.

“We can’t let this economic spike continue,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. “That would go against SCIENCE. The SCIENTISTS say that locking down an entire population is the best way to prevent dangerous economic spikes.”

“Also, we wanted to mention that this message was brought to you by PlumpJack Estate Winery. Use code NEWSOM for 10% off your next tasting!”

The governors noticed that people were happier with their lives, glad they could go back to work and reopen their businesses, and having fun outside. Unable to tolerate this kind of freedom and general satisfaction with life in the age of Trump, they scrambled to lock back down.

“We’re seeing a concerning rise in the number of people disregarding the government and going on with their lives,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “If you’re outside enjoying yourself or contributing to the economy, I’ll get you, my pretty! And your seeds too!”

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on politics and culture HERE.

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