Victor Davis Hanson lists 10 ways Americans becoming ‘Sovietized’

The changes have come on America abruptly, many in reaction to the election in 2016 of Donald Trump as president. And they’re becoming greatly amplified under President Joe Biden.

Article by Bob Unruh from WND.

They include ideological campaigns that require a single-point of view from everyone, public character attacks on those who dare to disagree, a unified government/media voice, spying on opinions, and more.

They are signs that, just perhaps, Americans are becoming “Sovietized,” according to Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution.

In a commentary this week, he lists 10 “symptoms of Sovietism”

He notes that in the Soviet regime, “There was no escape from ideological indoctrination — anywhere.”

And in America today? “Wokeness is becoming our new Soviet-like state religion. Careerists assert that America was always and still is a systemically racist country, without ever producing proof or a sustained argument.”

He also pointed out Soviets “fused” the media and the government, and in the U.S., “In 2017, a Harvard study found that over 90% of the major TV news networks’ coverage of the Trump administration’s first 100 days was negative.”

Third, there was the Soviet surveillance industry that isolated “ideological dissidents.”

In America, he warned, it was revealed the Department of Defense is hunting for “extremist sentiments,” the post office is monitoring “social media postings of Americans,” and “CNN recently alleged that the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security is considering partnering with private surveillance firms to get around government prohibitions on scrutinizing Americans’ online activity.”

Then the Soviet’s didn’t teach, but indoctrinated, children.

“Currently, cash-strapped universities nationwide are hiring thousands of diversity, equity and inclusion staffers and administrators. Their chief task is to scan the admissions, hiring, curriculum and administration at universities. Like good commissars, our diversity czars oversee compliance with the official narrative that a flawed America must confess, apologize for and renounce its evil foundations,” he said.

The “pampered” in the Soviet Union ran the country, and were exempt from requirements imposed on others, he said. In America, “Woke Silicon Valley billionaires talk socialistically but live royally. Coke and Delta Airlines CEOs who hector Americans about their illiberality make millions of dollars a year.”

“What unites current woke activists such as Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James Mark Zuckerberg and the Obamas are their huge estates and their multimillion-dollar wealth. Just as the select few of the old Soviet nomenklatura had their Black Sea dachas, America’s loudest top-down revolutionaries prefer living in Martha’s Vineyard, Beverly Hills, Montecito and Malibu.”

Sixth is the ability to rewrite history, and in America it’s exhibited by those society members who “indulge in a frenzy of name-changing, statue-toppling, monument-defacing, book-banning and cancel-culturing.”

The Soviet society was permeated by “fear” and “stool pigeons,” which is seen in America now as thousands scouring the internet “to find any past incorrect expression of a rival?” It’s created “thought criminals,” he said.

Then in the Soviet Union prosecutors and courts were “weaponized.”

“In America, where and for what reason you riot determines whether you face any legal consequences,” he wrote.

And just as the Soviets “doled out prizes on the basis of correct Soviet thought,” the Pulitzers, the Emmys, the Grammys, the Tonys and Oscars reflect “the most politically correct work from the most woke.”

Finally, he explained, “The Soviets offered no apologies for extinguishing freedom. Instead, they boasted that they were advocates for equity, champions of the underclass, enemies of privilege — and therefore could terminate anyone or anything they pleased.

“Our wokists are similarly defending their thought-control efforts, forced re-education sessions, scripted confessionals, mandatory apologies and cancel culture on the pretense that we need long-overdue ‘fundamental transformation.'”

“Ask yourself whether we are headed down this same road to perdition,” he said.

‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $4100 per month in order to maintain operations.

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