The Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball took a page from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) playbook in their response to outfielder Jarren Duran making an “anti-gay slur” toward a fan who was heckling him as he stepped to the plate in a game against the Houston Astros on Sunday. The official statement from the Red Sox stated: “In consultation with Major League Baseball, the Red Sox today issued an unpaid two-game suspension to outfielder Jarren Duran beginning with tonight’s game against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park. Additionally, Duran’s salary from the two-game suspension will be donated to PFLAG (Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the United States’ largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and those who love them.”
Duran later appeared on camera in front of reporters to confess his sin and apologize. He also issued a statement released by the team: “During tonight’s game, I used a truly horrific word when responding to a fan. I feel awful knowing how many people I offended and disappointed. I apologize to the entire Red Sox organization, but more importantly to the entire LGBTQ community. Our young fans are supposed to be able to look up to me as a role model, but tonight I fell far short of that responsibility. I will use this opportunity to educate myself and my teammates and to grow as a person.” This statement was released after the Red Sox “addressed this incident with Jarren.” In other words, the Red Sox, in consultation with the MLB, put Jarren through a “struggle session.”
During Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the CCP fanatics who led the revolution used struggle sessions against those who strayed from the approved ideology. Long-time party leaders were accused of being “imperialists,” “rightists,” and “running dogs of capitalism.” This was often done in public to humiliate the accused. The accused was expected to accept the criticism, but more importantly, to confess his or her own sins and engage in self-criticism. Mao’s struggle sessions, writes Cato Institute scholar Doug Bandow, “were highlighted by coerced ‘self-criticism’ and public humiliation of anyone deemed insufficiently radical.” Newsweek described the CCP struggle sessions as “a form of physiological warfare designed to shape public opinion, and they were quite effective at enforcing class strictures and Chinese Communist Party dogmas.” It was imposing, one scholar noted, “obedience through public shaming.” It was an attempt at thought control. “Struggle sessions,” writes Stella Morobito, “are intended to enforce compliance in a person’s thought processes as well as in speech and are therefore a weapon in the war against independent thought.”
Perhaps the Red Sox will now have reeducation camps alongside spring training camps. Other teams will likely follow suit because there may be more baseball players that need to be reeducated on this and other matters. The possibilities are endless: drag queen shows, public readings of Heather Has Two Mommies, mandatory attendance at Gay Pride events, public lectures on the benefits of transgenderism, and more struggle sessions for those unwilling to accept the LGBTQ political agenda.
Duran should have called the heckling fan a “white Christian nationalist” or “right-wing nut” or an “election denier” or a “Trump supporter.” Those slurs are okay. Had he uttered such slurs, he might be invited to appear on MSNBC or CNN, or get a gig as a guest lecturer at one of our more distinguished universities or today’s military academies. Perhaps he can write a book about his experiences, where he can engage in more self-criticism, confess politically-incorrect sins, offer more apologies–then he will be the “role model” that the thought police can boast about to our children. And it would sure help his cause if he let it be known that he is voting for the Harris-Walz ticket.