The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) was a cataclysmic purge that targeted capitalists and “class enemies.” Although the true number of casualties may never be known, estimates range from a few hundred thousand to millions of lives.
Today’s Democrat (they’re not democratic) party rhetoric, amplified by their marionettes in the media and academia, increasingly mirrors the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s demonization of capitalists. Democrats routinely refer to conservatives, Republicans, white people, Christians, and Jews as Nazis and existential threats to “our democracy” (meaning the [D] party). Their inflammatory language and tacit endorsements of violence risk escalating into broader societal conflict.
Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution was a campaign to rid China of “capitalist roaders” and enforce ideological purity. The CCP branded landlords, intellectuals, and traditionalists as enemies and dehumanized them through propaganda. Fueled by slogans like “to rebel is justified,” the Red Guards conducted “struggle sessions,” where they publicly shamed and tortured victims like the writer Lao She, who was beaten and possibly murdered. Many zealots were recruited from colleges and universities by their instructors. Ironically, many of those same professors were later targeted by the very students they had recruited. In Guangxi, zealots took this vilification to grotesque extremes, going so far as to engage in cannibalism. These acts were not spontaneous, but orchestrated. Traditional culture was annihilated, Confucian temples were torn down, Buddhist relics burned, and opera banned as bourgeois.
The CCP’s rhetoric justified the violence, framing capitalists as subhuman threats, leading to massacres like Dao County’s 9,000 killings. This systemic dehumanization left China scarred, with institutions hollowed out and a “lost generation” exiled to re-education camps.
Some of that sounds disturbingly familiar. Although we haven’t seen incidents of cannibalism, or people being tortured and murdered in public, we are seeing college students attacking their Jewish classmates. We’ve seen Democrat party leaders and media influencers openly calling for violence against members of law enforcement, conservatives, and Republicans, calling them “fascists,” “Nazis,” and threats to democracy using “Gestapo-like tactics.” Some Democrats have called for Trump-supporters to be sent to re-education camps. Maxine Waters urged supporters to publicly confront Trump officials, while Kamala Harris praised “mostly peaceful” riots that caused billions in damages and dozens of deaths. Jesse Kelly likened Democrat rhetoric to jihadi programming, warning that it primes followers for violence. The White House blamed Democrats’ “Gestapo” rhetoric for a 1,000% surge in assaults on federal agents. Legacy media outlets like CNN and MSNBC continually frame conservatives as dangerous, much like how CCP propaganda vilified capitalists. China’s suppression of dissent created echo chambers that fueled division, much like what passes for news programming on legacy media outlets.
This rhetoric has catastrophic consequences. Antifa and BLM militants, often tacitly endorsed by Democrat silence, have assaulted conservatives, from elderly Trump-supporters in Portland to the 2017 congressional baseball shooting by a “Bernie Bro.” Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh’s family was threatened by a deranged leftist. Donald Trump narrowly escaped assassination twice; Corey Comperatore and Charlie Kirk were not so fortunate.
The left’s cancel culture mimics, on a smaller scale, the CCP’s struggle sessions. Those who dissent on gender ideology — J.K. Rowling, for example — face doxing and harassment. Critical race theorists vilify “whiteness,” echoing Mao’s attacks on tradition, while statue-toppling and the renaming of schools recalls the “Destroy the Four Olds” frenzy. Such dehumanization normalizes violence, as was seen in China when communist ideological fervor justified atrocities.
To prevent an American parallel to China’s catastrophe, Democrat leaders and prominent voices in the media and academia must act decisively:
The CCP vilification of capitalists ignited a decade of violence, cultural erasure, and societal collapse. Today’s Democrat rhetoric, amplified by the legacy media, risks a similar path by dehumanizing conservatives. They’ve already started on that path, as shown by the 2020 riots, censorship, and physical attacks.
We are standing at a crossroads. Democrats must de-escalate now, or they risk a cultural collapse that echoes Mao’s chaos.
Can they do it? Yes.
Will they do it? I find it unlikely. Their base has been taken over by extremists. They’re on the wrong side of every issue and can no longer debate the issues on their merits. Any move toward normalcy is a move to the right, which their base will likely reject...violently.
Image via Pxfuel.