With the rise of Bernie Sanders in late 2015, and his congressional confidants- “The Squad”- soon after; popular media conservatism has been ablaze over the threat of a resurgent socialism. This rhetoric continued well into the 2020 campaign. During the recent election, we were bombarded by conservative media claiming Joe Biden is a trojan horse for this very brand of new socialism. Donald Trump made it a point in countless rallies and speeches himself. Many congressional candidates fell in line as well, and ran on the promise that they would protect us from a big, and quite scary, modern socialism.
Throwing the politicking of such claims aside, just how socialist is the Joe Biden-led Democratic Party? The notion of Joe Biden as the harbinger of American socialism is genuinely laughable. Judging from the results of the 2020 Election, it seems most swing voters thought so as well. Further, even self-branded “democratic socialists” in the likes of the Sanders camp do not seem to be able to differentiate their views from those wanting to expand welfare statism. But the problem with conservative media pushing this new red scare is not whether it’s accurate or not, it’s that it is a distraction from the very real threat of the left. The reality is, that what the left is pushing today is much worse than socialism.
A few days ago, Vice reported that members of the staff at Penguin Random House confronted management with tears in their eyes about their decision to publish Jordan Peterson’s latest book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. They cried about Peterson’s alleged transphobia and baseless claims of encouraging white supremacy. But the debacle at Penguin Random House is not the first reported instance of this occurring. This follows stories of other such cases, like when staff at Spotify, in September of last year, allegedly revolted against management over Joe Rogan’s supposed Transphobia.
Rather than take this seriously, the response of many conservatives was to laugh at the silliness of it all – the notion of Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan being bigots is indeed laughable – but many seem to miss two important points: First, these staff members are deadly serious. They really do believe that Peterson and Rogan are evil bigots. It’s not a youthful phase of misplaced zealotry, they are adults who actually believe it. After all, if you believed that your company was promoting Nazism, would you not be suspicious? But most importantly, although they are staff now, in a few years these people will be management – and they will most likely not be accepting any of Jordan Peterson’s latest work. This reminds me all too well of when we laughed at the ridiculousness of the University – acting like trigger warnings and safe spaces would never bleed into society-at-large.
The ideology we need to take seriously in fighting is not a resurgent socialism. This ideology is called Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT has thoroughly dominated American culture since it began its infiltration of the University. Every day we learn of the surrender of another company, school, association, or academic department to this ideology. The highly problematic theory teaches that the fight between good and evil can be simplified to a fight of racism and antiracism – that racism is the ultimate law of nature. What follows is that every narrative becomes one of a struggle between that of oppression, and subsequent liberation (they view themselves as the liberators). To them, the existence of white supremacy and bigotry is a self-evident truth that is not up for discussion. It is the job of a Critical Race Theorist to geolocate the racism present in any given situation. If you doubt the existence of white supremacy in all things or in a given situation, it is simply evidence or your own deep-seated white supremacy. Yet it is not only that they believe all white people are racist – there is also nothing a white person can do to not be racist. The only acceptable white person is one who confesses their deep prejudice on their knees to a crucifix of tolerance.This methodology is not limited to race, either. Wider Critical Theory is applied to sexism, transphobia, Islamophobia, fatphobia, homophobia, etc.
With this world view, when a black man dies at the hands of police, it is self-evidently racist murder – there is no nuance permissable. The cop is representative of a larger white supremacist power structure that is actively seeking to prevent the thriving of all black men, let alone the one in question. With this absolute battering-to-the-brains of gradation, the only conclusion possible of their theory is that America itself is also self-evidently racist. To them, America was designed to be racist, always was racist, and always will be racist. America cannot not be racist. A non-racist America is like a square circle, it is a contradiction in terms! Many even believe that America IS racism. Anything positive that has come about because of America is overshadowed by the fact that it is built upon evil. As they chant on the streets of Portland: “No borders, no wall, no USA at all!”
Let us be extra clear. This does not simply mean dismantling the American regime – it means dismantling the American nation and its shared history. It means tearing down statues of not only the Confederacy, but even those that make the traditional American nation look positive. Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and even Fredrick Douglass are not exempt. It means teaching youth that American history is found only as a source of shame. It means proclaiming that anything that America has tainted with its racist filth, like property rights, or capitalism, or even the family, is evil.
Unfortunately, it is only getting worse. What we are witnessing now is the marriage of major corporate business and Critical Race Theory. They censor speech, they punish dissent, they subject their employees to involuntary “racial sensitivity training”, where white employees are forced to “confess their racism” and their “complicity in upholding racist systems”. On TV, in movies, and even art is beyond apparent. We have all seen it.
Even foreign governments are toying with it. At the UN, China is condemning the US for its “systemic racism” and “killing of unarmed black men” while at the same time engaging in mass genocide of its Uyghur population. Real moral arbiters, aren’t they?
It is with this, dare I say, self-evident dilemma, that the threat of socialized health care and free college is truly the least of our worries. An American nation will struggle, but ultimately survive a socialist government. The nation cannot survive a radical cultural revolution that seeks to eliminate the very identity and structure of its most basic institutions. But, this is precisely what we are facing.
While it may be nice to hear freshmen Republicans in congress forming an “anti-squad” to fight socialism, it really misses the larger picture. We need to mobilize against Critical Race Theory. We need the government to protect our rights from the corporate race police. We need to protect our statues and our culture. None of that is possible if we do not garner the courage to stand up as individuals.
Will our grandchildren be proud Americans? I don’t know. But I do know that conservatives and conservatism were born for this fight. We who understand the importance of tradition, we who understand that good things are easily torn down but not easily created, we who know how special America is – we can beat them. Our nation and traditions are worth fighting for. Truth is on our side.
