“It’s not a harmless organization,” an ex-Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member recently said about the DSA. “These people seem perfectly willing to cohabitate with Maoists, Trotskyists and people who have this thrill to violence that’s profoundly troubling….”
This warning, issued by one Jake Altman, may be a statement of the obvious to many readers. Yet one point will be news. That is, outsiders may consider Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a DSA member, an organization standard-bearer. But you know what she actually is now?
On the outs with DSA purists.
AOC isn’t far left enough for their tastes — and they can’t outright endorse her, we hear.
Also warning of the socialist threat recently is the daughter of one of history’s most notorious communist tyrants. Alina Fernández, whose father was late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has an urgent message: It’s later than you think. The current socialist revolution has “been a long time in the making,” she says — since the 1960s. So its culmination may be nigh.
Note that this aligns with a warning from famed Soviet KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov. He warned in the mid-1980s that the “demoralization” process — communist subversion’s first stage — was already “more than complete.”
(Demoralization’s definition: Brainwashing the target population with your own ideology while discrediting its traditional, civilization-preserving ideology.)
Altman’s Altered Attitude
The Democratic Socialists of America are now “controlled by communists,” lamented the aforementioned Jake Altman in a Newsmax interview last Sunday. And now they’re taking over the Democratic Party itself. Altman, who has been making the media rounds sounding the alarm, has elaborated on this. For example, on Fox News’ The Will Cain Show July 25, he explained:
When I joined [the DSA] … more than ten years ago at this point — when I joined … they were advocating for Scandinavian social democracy. And then, over a 10-year period, we saw the organization just become more and more extreme and move from that cozy Scandinavian social democracy to really something quite frightening.
Note here something important: Contrary to left-wing fantasy, Scandinavia is not socialist. Scandinavian officials have repeatedly emphasized this, too. For example, consider 2015 comments by then-Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. As The Copenhagen Post reported at the time:
“I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism,” Rasmussen said.
“I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.”
In fact, Sweden instituted privatization reforms in the 1980s precisely because the nation’s socialistic elements caused economic stagnation.
It is true that Scandinavia has a larger welfare state than does the United States. It also fails to protect certain important liberties (e.g., it has “hate speech” laws). But socialism is something specific: It involves replacing market forces with central government planning.
Returning to Altman, he explained what he found so “frightening” on the July 18 edition of Fox’s Saturday in America:
I had concerns even 10 years ago. I remember raising them — I was in a debate on behalf of the national organization — and I said, “Look, I see the direction the organization is headed, I’m not sure I’m the right person to represent it.” I was assured at the time, “We agree with you, Jake; it’s a few people, clustered around Jacobin magazine, and you’ll be fine to represent us.” So I did. I was debating with Leninists who were saying … Bernie Sanders, AOC, they’re not real socialists. … People in DSA will try to minimize it and say it’s a few people … they’re a small minority. As you’ve shown, look at the executive board, it’s full of this alphabet soup of extremist caucuses.
This includes “Maoists in DSA,” Altman told host Kayleigh McEnany, “who are quite open about it — their desire for revolution….”
They have, as he put it, “this thrill to violence.”
Of course, none of this will surprise Fernández, who has seen it all before. As she told Newsmax July 26:
Socialism, as stated by Lenin himself, is the first step to communism. So don’t get fooled by the changing words or the softness of the words in advocating for democracy, because what they’re doing is a very precise agenda that has being a long time in the making. And they received these instructions or this indoctrination already in the schools. So that’s where you need to start — watching what you’re learning in school.
The point is that the DSA’s posing is not new. Communists have always marketed themselves under the “socialist” label. Why, communist “evil empire” the USSR stood for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Ideology Hasn’t Lost Its Sting, But the Word Has
Unfortunately, none of this will cut much ice with most young DSA supporters. The reason is that, because of the indoctrination Bezmenov and Fernández lamented, “socialism” (and often even “communism”) is no longer a four-letter word.
Consider: Approximately 15 or 20 years ago I was discussing communism with a young man online. He wondered what could be wrong with it. He had no idea that its adherents killed 60 to 100 million people in the 20th century.
It was likewise with a young fellow I know personally. When I informed him of the above body count when he was about 17, it raised his eyebrows. He’d attended “good” (read: overrated and guilty of malpractice) schools in a wealthy suburb, too. But he’d never been taught about communism’s reality. Moreover, he was just one of many millions. Explanation?
Education has long ranged from indifferent to sympathetic toward communism. The demoralized have been teaching those who would become even more demoralized, and the subversion continues apace. It’s an ignorance that breeds even more ignorance.
An Elusive Teaching Moment?
There’s another problem, too: Many of these young folks can’t be taught to know any better. First, people often embrace ideologies for emotion-based reasons, and emotional foundation forms while young and can become intractable. “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree” — and twisted trees bend toward twisted beliefs.
Second, note here that communist movements (e.g., the Maoists, Khmer Rouge) would purposely alienate children from their elders. Well, this has happened in our society. As with a leftist who recently disowned me, millions of young people blame their elders for man’s current moral state. And, of course, you won’t learn from people whom you fancy to be the toxic cause of all our ills. Apparently, the world has just been waiting for tatted, body-pierced, purple-haired, overweight Karens to finally straighten out civilization for us.
Of course, these cultural devolutionaries are not completely wrong. Owing to sin’s effects, we’re all somewhat responsible for the world’s state (which, mind you, could be far worse). Their fatal mistake is in arrogantly and ignorantly believing they’re not part of “all.” They not only instinctively magnify the speck in others’ eyes, but mistake the beam in their own for an inerrant yardstick of Truth.
But it’s not — it’s a stake of lies impaling their minds, hearts, and souls.
Addendum: For those interested, illustrative interviews with New York City socialism sympathizers are below.
