James Hirsen rants against communism in his April 10 Newsmax column:
Communist ideology should have been sidelined decades ago.
That’s what so many of us thought was going to happen following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Instead, the malignant ideas and strategies of communism, derived from the twisted mind of Karl Marx, gained a significant academic, institutional, and cultural foothold in the Western world.
Here’s how things played out; it’s not at all good:
Just about the time when the 1970s counterculture appeared to be fading away, a quiet yet insidious revolution was set in motion here in the United States.
There was no red flag waving in the air bearing a hammer and sickle.
Rather, a long march through American universities began to take place.
New left radicals weren’t storming barricades.
Instead, they were earning PhDs.
Humanities and social science departments became ideological echo chambers.
Drawing from Antonio Gramsci’s theory on how the ruling class maintains power, and also the Frankfurt School’s critical theory that derided capitalism and promised social liberation, communist principles became the blueprint for how to deconstruct a societal framework, with the ultimate goal of supplanting it with a Marxist one.
Hirsen offered nothing to disprove anything Gramsci said or the Frankfurt School concluded. He continued to huff:
Looking back, it seems that for America communism was custom-tailored to focus on culture and identity, a relatively easy way of conditioning our society to turn against neighbor.
It was then marketed, i.e., propagandized, to an already-primed public to reshape institutions from within.
We need look no further than our universities to see how the reshaping from within worked to our country’s immense detriment.
The faculties of almost all the elite universities in our nation have come to lean decidedly to the far-left politically. In most cases, there are entire departments that are devoid of any dissenters to the dominant ideology.
[…]It appears that we are currently facing a potential “Mother of All Existential Threats” — that being that communism could seep into our hearts, minds, and souls under the cover of virtue.
Whether the unthinkable occurs in a single stroke or bit-by-bit, the result is the same. . .
The America we love and cherish ceases to exist.
This is why we must be duty-bound to reverse this trajectory.
A good place to start is to hold accountable the politicians who are already out of the communist closet.
This is an imperative since having avowed communists holding public office is a new occurrence. Even Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., didn’t cozy up to communist candidates until somewhat recently.
Another idea is to join the religious revival now extant — if you haven’t already.
There is nothing like faith, hope, and love to turn your world around.
May God bless America, now and forever. May we decide to cherish and keep her.
Hirsen fails to consider the main reason communism continues to be in the discussion — the failure of capitalism to help all citizens. Also, Hirsen is supposed to be an entertainent columnist, yet there is nothing entertaining here.