One of the best brainwashing operations in American history is the creation of anti-anti-Communism.
It really is an amazing achievement, if you think about it. Anti-communism should be as common and socially acceptable as anti-Nazism, but while the latter is so pervasive that everybody that anybody on the left opposes is labeled a Nazi or a fascist (which really are not quite the same thing, but that is another story), it is socially unacceptable to label even open communists “communist.”
Communism was in the mass murder business well before Nazism was, and it inspired mass murder and starvation long after Nazism was stamped out.
Yet while you could spend years looking for Nazis in culturally prominent positions and come up with a grand total of 0 examples, open communists are everywhere in Hollywood, academia, the media, and in politics. A number of prominent Democrats have accepted co-endorsements from the “Democratic Socialists of America,” which is basically a communist political party, and it’s hard to find an academic department in any university that doesn’t host more than a few communists.
The Mayor of Los Angeles, who is doing a superb job running her city into the ground after beclowning herself as a Congresswoman for years, is a communist. She made her bones in politics fronting for Fidel Castro as a member of his Venceremos Brigade.
In 2016, when Fidel Castro died, Karen Bass referred to him as ‘comandante en jefe’ (commander-in-chief) saying his passing was a ‘great loss to the people of Cuba.’ She also reportedly gave a eulogy for a senior member of the Communist Party USA.https://t.co/tbTIfc6ODv
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) June 8, 2025
Bass is only one of many communists in the government and in the NGO complex. Every time you hear references to “Critical Theory” and/or “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” you are being fed communist propaganda. That is not an exaggeration–Critical Theory is explicitly Marxist, and DEI is all about Marxist redistribution of money and power in society and inverting the social hierarchy.
“Decolonization” is a communist ideology. Alphabet ideology is deeply tied to communism. Antifa shares its logo with the German communist party.
Yet, in my experience, and no doubt in yours, if you mention the term “communist,” your ideas are immediately dismissed. You are a paranoid conspiracy theorist who sees Reds behind every corner.
As I said, this is perhaps the most successful brainwashing operation in American history–far more successful than what the totalitarian governments were able to accomplish in their own countries, ironically enough.
Anti-anti-communism has its roots in the cultural rejection of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. McCarthy and the reaction to his campaign to root out communists in the United States’ government created a cultural disgust toward critics of communism. Some of that had to do with legitimate concerns with McCarthy’s tactics, some of which were truly awful, and much had to do with the fact that he provided a convenient hate object.
He managed to make Communists look like victims of a witch hunt because they were able to be lumped in with people who were being legitimately smeared. And, by conflating people who merely held socialist and communist opinions with actual Soviet spies, he managed to blur the lines between enemies of the United States and people with disagreeable opinions who have every right to hold those opinions.
The result was something of a blanket cultural amnesty, and the rise of a powerful cadre of communists in our country who really are in positions of power in the United States. It says something bizarre that CIA Director John Brennan was a former communist.
When Brennan voted for Gus Hall, the Cold War was raging. Stalin’s legacy was in the rear-view mirror, but well known. The Vietnam War had just led to over 55,000 American deaths, and the killing fields of Cambodia were fresh in our minds. Mao’s Cultural Revolution had just ended.
Still, being a communist is no barrier to attaining cultural and political power in the United States. Communist ideology is now commonly taught in our schools, while freedom and free markets are portrayed as vehicles for oppression.
It is perfectly acceptable to be a communist in America. But try pointing out that somebody is a communist or that a policy being pushed is communist, and you will quickly find out that it is you, not they, who is the extremist.
It is immensely frustrating that opposing communism makes you an outcast in polite society. The campaign to discredit anti-communism has been so successful that Karen Bass made the short list for Biden’s Vice President, and she waltzed into one of the most powerful political offices in the country.
Go figure.
