Biden, Forerunner Of Soft Totalitarianism

‘Live not by Lies ‘

Do you have any doubts about where America’s Left is leading? Last night’s speech by the president was an important step on the path to ideological freedom

I was on my way back from the US and didn’t get to Joe Biden’s prime-time speech. Oh, but oh! Oh, did I miss Joe Biden’s prime time speech? They were so savage. It is hard to believe that the White House permitted this speech be presented in this manner. It is a very bad appearance to deliver a speech in which millions of Americans are “threats” to democracy and it is done in this fascist-aesthetic setting.

I actually read the speech on the White House Website last evening while I waited for the connection to Atlanta. While I thought it was inappropriate for a US President to use such a setting for a speech that is so partisan, I found it not as terrible as I had expected given the imagery. The imagery will be more important than the words at the end. You know what? I am not a MAGA man, never have been, but I was never a Never Trump person. It is still quite chilling to listen to an American president speak words such as

And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They don’t believe in the rule-of-law. They don’t believe in the power of the people.

They refuse to accept the results of a free election. They refuse to accept the results of a free election.

MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.

They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.

They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.

More:

I believe America has reached an inflection point. This is the moment that will determine what’s next.

And now America must choose: to move forward or to move backwards? Do you want to build the future, or dwell on the past? To either be a nation that inspires hope, unity, and optimism or fear, division and darkness.

MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They love anger. They are attracted to chaos. They thrive on chaos and do not believe in truth.

But together — together, we can choose a different path. There is a better way. To the future, forward The future is possible. Future to dream, build and achieve.

And we’re on that path, moving ahead.

And:

Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans: We must be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving American democracy than MAGA Republicans are to — to destroying American democracy.

We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart. There are many dangers that we must not allow to prevail today. You’ve probably heard the news about violence being accepted as a political tool in this nation. It’s not. This is not an acceptable weapon.

So I want to say this plain and simple: There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever.

Bite me, but let’s look at the context. Although Joe Biden is not known to have ever supported left-wing violence in any way, the Left generally in the US downplayed and excused George Floyd’s rioting. It was called “rebellion” by some. Remember NPR raising that book, “In Defense Of Looting “ By a Tranny Author?” We have witnessed left-wing mobs remove and deface statues of historic figures over the past two years. They can be removed through the political process. Although some may find this unacceptable, it is still done within law and order. This is mob violence.

Let’s not forget the ideal of America Joe Biden, his team and their supporters stand for.

An America in which children are able to have their bodies mutilated and their parents can keep them secret by doctors and surgeons trying to alter their gender. Parents may also be disempowered and kept under surveillance by minor children. An America in which once-trusted institutions, like local public schools, are now in the business of corrupting the minds of little children sexually, and lying to parents about it (see Chris Rufo’s latest).

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America, where it is possible to be fired if you don’t give the right answer to the question “What makes a woman?” “

An America in which people are promoted and kept back on the basis their race. In this America, “whiteness” is demonized.

America in which our historical memories treat the Founding Fathers and their founding principles with contempt.

An America where the US military has been destroyed and is in danger of being incapacitated by progressive culture-war politics imposed from above.

An America in which the tech industry collaborates with the US government to suppress political speech deemed unhelpful to progressives.

An America where every institution, even Big Business, is controlled by the Woke. They reject liberal ideas like tolerance and free speech.

While there are many things I don’t like about MAGA Republicans. But when Biden states this:

They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.

I want to shout: “YOU PEOPLE, ARE THE ONES COMPELLING US ALL TO LIVE BY LOIES OR FACE PUNISHMENT!” “

Don’t forget either how the White House press secretary defined the MAGA Republican enemy this week:

“And if you are not with where the majority of Americans are, that is extreme. This is extreme thinking. “

There is very little more un-American and dangerous to democracy than to say people who dissent from the crowd are “extremists” because they dissent from the crowd.

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It seems to me very clearly that the Administration is setting the stage, both rhetorically and physically, for suppression of religious and political dissent within this country. People who fled Communism in order to seek refuge here have warned Americans over and over that something evil and dark is coming. Here is the introduction to my book about that, Live Not By Lies:

There always is this fallacious belief: ‘It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.’ Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.”–Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and with it Soviet totalitarianism. The communist police state which had oppressed Russia, and the rest of Europe, was gone. It was the end of the Cold War, which dominated the second decade of the 20th century. The former captive countries saw the rise of capitalism and democracy. Totalitarianism was gone forever.

So goes the tale. Like most Americans, I believed the threat of totalitarianism was over. Then, in the spring of 2015, I received a phone call from an anxious stranger. The caller was an American doctor. I was told by him that his mother, an immigrant from Czechoslovak, spent six years in prison as a political prisoner back home. Her mother was a member of the Catholic anticommunist resistance. The old lady, now in her nineties and living in the same home as her son and their family, had just told her American son about the events today in America. It reminded him of the time communism arrived in Czechoslovakia.

What prompted her concern News stories about the mob violence against a pizzeria in Indiana’s small town. The owners of an Evangelical Christian church told a reporter that they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding. The threats to their property and lives were so overwhelming that restaurant owners had to close their doors temporarily. The attack on the pizzeria occurred amid a wider debate over gay rights and religious freedom. The US-born doctor claimed that he had been warned by his parents about the dangers associated with totalitarianism throughout his childhood. He wasn’t concerned, after all this was America. It is the country of liberty and individual rights. The rule of law applies to every nation. America was created out of religious liberty and he had been proud to point out the First Amendment in the US Constitution. He was struck by something in Indiana and began to wonder if he was right.

This kind of stuff is easy to forget. We are all familiar with the experience of having to get our parents off the edge after watching a cable news show that stoked fear and anxiety. This was most likely the case for the elderly Czech woman.

The tension in his voice and the fact he felt the need to contact a journalist that he did not know that would cause me concern, telling me it was too risky for him to name me if I published anything about him, both rattled me. My question was posed to him: “What if the elderly Czech woman sees something that the rest of us don’t?” Is it possible that we are seeing a shift toward totalitarianism within Western liberal democracies? If so, how can we see this because the new form is different than the previous one.

Over the following years I talked with many people who lived once under communism. They shared their opinions on the declaration of an old woman. Do they think America’s current trend toward totalitarianism is also true?

They all answered yes, often emphatically. My question often surprised them because they believe Americans are hopelessly ignorant on this subject. Talking with emigrants in America who have found sanctuary, I learned that many of them are angry at the fact that Americans fail to recognize this.

What makes the West’s current situation similar to the one they fled? Every society is bound by rules, taboos, and has mechanisms for enforcing them. People who lived during Soviet communism will be disturbed to see the similarity in the elite and elite institutions’ abandonment of old-fashioned liberalism. This was based on defending individual rights and is being replaced by a progressive creed which views justice as a matter of group. This encourages individuals to identify with all kinds of groups, whether they are ethnic, sexual or otherwise, as well as to view Good and Evil in terms of the power dynamics between them. These progressives are driven by a utopian vision. It drives them to reinvent history and to promote social justice.

These utopian progressives constantly challenge the norms of thought, speech and behaviour. It is impossible to predict when the people in power will make you a villain because of something you did or said that was perfect yesterday. The consequences of violating these new rules can be severe, with your livelihood at risk and your reputation irreparably damaged.

People become instant pariahs because they express a politically incorrect view or provoke a progressive mob. This mob amplifies their scapegoating via social media and other conventional media. The Left uses the pseudonyms of diversity, inclusion, equity and other egalitarian terms to control thought and speech and stigmatize those who disagree. It is difficult for Americans to understand what’s happening, especially if they have not lived in this sort of ideology fog. This isn’t a copy of the Soviet Bloc countries with their secret police and gulags as well strict censorship and material deprivation. These people are warning that this is exactly the problem. Americans are blinded to the growing threat to their liberty by the fact that life in America is so much more free than it was under the Soviet Bloc. This, along with the fact that those who want to take away freedom speak of oppression as liberating the victims.

” I was raised and born in the Soviet Union and am frankly shocked by the similarities between these developments and Soviet propaganda,” said one Midwest professor.

Another professor from Czechoslovakia was blunt as well. I was told by him that his friends began to notice a change a decade ago. They would listen more carefully and lower their voice when they were expressing their conservative opinions. He would speak his conservative views in a natural tone and the Americans would begin to look around the room for anyone else listening.

“I grew up like this,” he tells me, “but it was not supposed to be happening here.”

What is happening here? A progressive and deeply anti-Christian militancy is rapidly overtaking society. Pope Benedict XVI described it as a “worldwide dictatorship seemingly humanistic ideologies”, that drives dissenters to the margins. Benedict described this as a manifestation “the spiritual power and Antichrist.” It manifests in public and private institutions, corporations, academia, media and the daily practices of American life. Unimaginable technological abilities allow it to monitor private lives. It has virtually no place to hide.

The vision of the old hard totalitarianism required that Christianity be eradicated. We are not prepared to resist the sneakier attacks of this soft totalitarianism.

Communism, as we all know was militantly atheistic. It declared religion its death enemy. The Soviets and their European allies murdered clergy and cast an uncounted number of believers, both ordained and lay, into prisons and work camps, where many suffered torture.

Today? The Western world has become post-Christian, with large numbers of those born after 1980 rejecting religious faith. They will oppose Christians when they stand for their principles, in particular the defense of traditional family and gender roles and the sanctity and human life. However, they won’t understand why Christians should accept dissent that is based on religious beliefs.

Without order in our spiritual lives, we cannot resist soft totalitarianism. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Nobel laureate and great anti-communist dissident. He also preached this message to Orthodox Christians. His belief was that the root of communism’s crisis, which created it and maintained it, wasn’t political.

After his Gulag Archipelago revealed the corruption of Soviet totalitarianism, and made Solzhenitsyn an international hero; Moscow expelled him from the West. Solzhenitsyn released a last message to Soviet citizens titled “Live Not by Lies!” The essay challenged the assertion that totalitarianism was so strong that ordinary men and women cannot alter it.

Nonsense he stated. Totalitarianism’s foundation is a system built on lies. It is a system that exists because people are afraid to challenge the lies. The writer stated, “Our way must always be: Never support lies!” While you may not be strong enough to speak out publicly and tell the truth, you can refuse to believe what you don’t believe. While you may not be capable of overthrowing totalitarianism in its entirety, it is possible to find the resources within your own community to allow truth to prevail. The writer stated that if we are forced to live under the rule of lies, our answer must be “Let them rule not through me What does it look like for us today not to live by lies?” This book examines this question through interviews and testimony left by Christians and others from the Soviet Bloc who experienced totalitarianism and share their wisdom.

The first part of this book argues that liberal democracy, despite being permissive in its appearances, is becoming a form of totalitarianism similar to the one it won during the Cold War. This book examines the causes of totalitarianism and reveals the disturbing parallels between modern society and those that led to the rise of twentieth-century totalitarianism. The rising soft totalitarianism will be examined by the author. It will examine the dominant ideology of social justice, found in academia, as well as surveillance technology. These technologies have become increasingly common not through government decrees but because of the persuasiveness of capitalism. The section concludes with an examination of the central role played by intellectuals in the Bolshevik Revolution. We cannot ignore the ideologic excesses our politically correct intelligencesia.

Part 2 examines more in detail the forms, methods and resources of resistance to soft totalitarianism’s lies. What is the essence of resistance to soft totalitarianism’s lies? How does living in truth and willing to endure pain have anything to do? What is the greatest cell of opposition to the family? What is the best way to build resilience when faced with persecution? What can be done to learn how to identify the lies of totalitarianism and defeat its tricks?

How did they do it? What did they do to protect their family and themselves? What was their secret to keeping their faith, integrity and even their sanity intact? What is the reason they are so worried about what lies ahead for the West? Will we be able to hear them or continue believing that this can’t possibly happen?

A Soviet-born immigrant who now teaches at a US university in the heartland emphasizes the importance of Americans treating people like her seriously.

” It is impossible to know what tomorrow will bring, warns she. You don’t know what totally normal thing or words you will say, and they can use that against you in order to defeat you. These were the realities that Soviet Union citizens saw. This is how it works .”

My Czech friend, an emigrant, advised me to not waste my time with this book.

“People must experience it to fully understand it,” he said cynically. “Any time I try to explain current events and their meaning to my friends or acquaintances, I am met with blank stares or downright nonsense.”

Maybe he is right. He might be right. To prove his mistake, I wrote the book for my children as well.

If you’re not yet familiar with the book, the speech of the President last night should open your eyes about the many changes that these former communist refugees have seen in the country over the years. And I hope you will read the book, because they have solid advice about how to resist, and how to prepare the resistance. It doesn’t take forever. This is happening in front of us.

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