Progressivism, the Rise of Authoritarianism, and the Destruction of the Four Olds in the United States

Progressivism, the Rise of Authoritarianism, and the Destruction of the Four Olds in the United States

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Mark Twain

If you’re anything like me, you have had nothing but an insatiable urge to turn off the news, get off social media and if you never heard the words “in these trying times”  again until the day you die it would be too soon.

But we don’t. We stay glued to the stories, the videos, and the outrage. We are, without mincing words, a captive audience. The people of the United States have been locked in their homes for months on end. We’ve run out of things to do, projects to complete, and we’ve grown tired of the combination of books and video games we have to occupy our time, so there is an inevitability of watching the media and stories unfold with what seems to be a near-constant panic for months on end. What started as a 15-day lock down for the good of the people to flatten the curve of the Coronavirus epidemic has become 3 months of jobless isolation for many, left to casually observe what seems to be the destruction of our social cohesion. We see what appear to be race riots in every state of the Union. Where I currently live, Seattle, rioters have taken over the East Precinct of Capital Hill and established an autonomous zone where rioters have set fire to multiple buildings with little that can be done. 

But this is the smaller picture; the things I think the media would rather you focus on. The broader issues at play here are far reaching and spell the end of the United States.

I know the reaction that statement will get. “Oh look another alarmist saying people’s actions will end the US.” Riots have happened before; and the affected areas recovered. Even if you just bring up the scale it does not mean recovery is impossible or even unlikely. But institutional change is the issue here.

If it was what appears on the surface as simply treating people better and ensuring Black Americans are treated equally to others I would have no issue. Across the country the push for “defunding the police” and “abolish the police” has gained momentum and gaining favor at an alarming rate.

I don’t personally have a problem with this. The current state of militarized police presence is in fact a problem and must be addressed.

But institutions such as the idea of law and order as well as equal protections of the people’s rights are now under attack. I am now convinced there is an overwhelming minority of the US in positions of power that want the United States experiment to end. The aim is not to lose the land to another state, nor surrender to a military power, but instead to install an authoritarian body with an ethnicity-based pseudo religious faction at the head for the ends of equity and equality of outcome. The main problem is that this comes with a major dose of violence and hostility at its core.

For those familiar with history, China went through similar growing pains installing their regime during their cultural revolution. In 1966 the Communist Party of China (CPC) launched a socio-political and economic movement to rid China of old traditions and customs to usher in a revolutionary new age of equality and install communism into mainland China. This began by calling on the urban young to “bombard the headquarters” and to rebel and riot in the streets. When they had some control and overwhelmed authorities, CPC placed their own men into positions of power and instituted cultural change wherever they could. China then started a campaign for the “Destruction of the Four Olds”: old culture, old traditions, old habits and old ideas.  China began the destruction of the Four Olds on August 19th, 1966, after calling for the installation of the “Four News”, claiming that the old Chinese culture was to blame for economic backwardness and new ideas were needed. This began simply, by replacing names of streets and shops to enhance the importance of their movement. Names such as “Blue Sky Clothing Store” and “Cai E Road” was renamed to “Defending Mao Zedong Clothing Store” and “Red Guard Road”[1] respectively, and I can’t help but think about similar current events.

This is where the destruction of our Four olds and the installation of their ideology as a tangible material began. The Four Olds are known primarily today as traditional facets of culture that must be destroyed for divisive movement to succeed. If they are successful, there will be no culture to bind the people together. By dividing and conquering, the cultural revolution will be complete. By bringing in new customs, culture, habits and ideas, the traditions holding a group together as one solid people would die.

In China, this was achieved by speeches, rioting, harassing intellectuals not in line with their ideology, tearing down statues, burning books and destroying artwork of traditional Chinese heritage. We see this today seemingly all around us. Speeches from the likes of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Kshama Sawant and Stacy Abrahms continuously are put on the front page as near gospel and accelerating their popularity and ascendancy to positions of power. Current events in Minneapolis, Seattle and many other urban city centers are downplayed as anything but riots, regardless of onlookers knowing exactly what is and is not a riot. Intellectuals such as Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro — despite being experts in their respective fields, and while holding different political ideologies from one another — have all found themselves on the wrong side of this progressive revolution to the point of threats, harassment and demonization. Lump all of this together with tearing down statues, banning “politically incorrect” books from Amazon Kindle services and targeting conservative journalists such as Andy Ngo, Cassandra Fairbanks and Tucker Carlson physically with intimidation and beatings is as much of a dividing line as I can think of. 

In China this was all done under the guise of progress; unfortunately most of this is simply rewriting history, dragging old culture through the mud and demonizing their lineage.

When reading this, you may be inclined to think to yourself “this really sounds familiar.” It does — for good reason. The tactic is successful.

The Soviet Union did the same thing under Josef Stalin, who often had soviet intelligence photoshop “disappeared” soviet loyalists out of pictures and China was no different. Keep in mind the CPC was aided by Soviet advisors during the cultural revolution.

This bears several parallels to how we are seeing events unfold here in the US. We witness a near complicity from our leaders with the destruction of anything we may find traditional as something harmful with the instant denunciation of anyone who disagrees with progressive-based tactics and sentiment as racist, homophobic or a multitude of other “ists that can destroys the opposition’s character.

Many leaders of different ethnic backgrounds have denounced Black Lives Matter and their calls for revolution. Black members of the conservative side of the argument such as Ben Carson or Candace Owens are often maligned as “Uncle Toms” or other slurs. Black businesses in the area have been burnt and looted with a complete disregard for any standard of sympathy for members of their community.

The murder of George Floyd has become, potentially, the burning of the Reichstag for the US progressive movement: false-flag justification for rampant and unrestrained consolidation of power, for the left with racial justice as a cause. Authorities have been unable to stop the riots 2 weeks after the start and members of the rioting who have been arrested have been let off without punishment. Many state prosecutors have decided to not prosecute rioters for fear of more riots in response. We’re seeing it play out like many times before; we see riots in the streets across the country and a government willingly complicit to the demands in hope they are spared by those rapidly gaining power.  Their concessions to BLM  have destroyed our sense of equality under the law.

Just months ago we saw conservative protesters take to the streets against the authoritarian measures of the Covid-19 lockdown labeled violent and racist right-wingers. And although state governments were in a hurry to prosecute shop owners and use anti- Covid-19 lock down protestors as a scapegoat for overuse of power, BLM and rioters who have now caused upwards of $100 Million dollars in damages and are regularly praised by these same government officials and media, in spite of their lack of social distancing while burning the local police stations.

Following years of identity politics wherein the subjective oppression status of the individual may see them held less accountable for bad acts and more praised for good, intra group tensions have come to a head. Dividing lines are being drawn based almost completely on skin tone and oppression status. The destruction of the Four olds is well under way in the United States. Even former members of the Health Department have excused the actions of rioters across the US stating the “ends justify the means” during what is reported as the most dangerous pandemic since the Spanish Flu. It seems no matter what they do, they can do no wrong.

There is no more equality under the law, there is no more “men are created equal,” there is no more law and order set by the scales of a blind woman. The street signs are being renamed, digital books are being burnt, statues are being taken down,  and the ability to worship without interference from the state is being erased before our eyes. The old culture, ideas, habits and customs of the US are gone. Freedoms and liberties such as going to work, being able to open a business, and casually seeing friends and family without the government breathing down our neck have now been replaced with fines or imprisonment for violators of governmental decree without a vote of the people.

You watched it happen.

You saw the modern day browshirts of Antifa assaulting your fellow citizens simply for having a differing opinion and did nothing.

We allowed the media to brew hatred of each other by clicking the links and letting them spin us up into a frenzy, and we allowed the government to dictate what is and is not essential.

We allowed continuous rampant hypocrisy from our leaders, right and left, and let them go scot free.

We did this to ourselves. We didn’t fight back and we have no one else to blame. Our Four Olds are gone. The slow decline of Western Society has officially passed the event horizon and the inevitability of this downward spiral has caused irreparable harm to racial, class and civic cohesion.

This is not a warning. This is a simple notice. The government has officially picked sides with those willing to commit terrorist acts to achieve their goals. Many in the movement have advocated for racial wars, redistribution of wealth and abolition of entire justice systems. Those who want fairness and justice under the law to be applied to everyone equally and have high hopes to see police who abuse their power face nothing but the harshest of consequences do not entertain the interest of mob justice and therefore are agitators or racists to be condemned.

It has always been an American ideal that those in authority who abuse that authority should be held even to higher standards and swift justice; but mob justice is not justice. Almost everyone across the US agreed the death of George Floyd was unjust to say the least. The rookie officers claim of “only following orders” is the antithesis of American standards following the Nuremberg trials, and those who utter that sentence deserve nothing but scorn and punishment under the law.

But the ensuing riots, racial cajoling and demand for white guilt have successfully split a near completely unifying tragedy. We have been divided. As stated by Abraham Lincoln “A house divided can not stand.” Our house will not stand, the foundation has been replaced by pandering politicians, groveling corporations, and a blatant misunderstanding of what actually creates white supremacists. Having a mob demand the apology for the original sin of being born with white privilege and having politicians support and apologize for said original sin spawns the terminal dividing line of animosity. Mixing in an ever increasing power hungry government with the ability to shut down your capacity to make a living and support your family spells the end of our Four Olds… for good.

But hey, at least you didn’t catch Covid, right?


[1] Li, Gucheng. A Glossary of Political Terms of The People’s Republic of China. Chinese University Press. p. 427

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. This is a brilliant article, offering a balanced and fair capture of perspectives.

  2. I feel the hypocrisy and I think a lot of people do as well. Unfortunately a lot of people are scared of being seen as against the equality/BLM movement so I they let the hypocrisy slide. Nowadays, if you’re not pro BLM you’re considered a racist. And if you keep quiet you’re ignoring the inequality and suffering of minorities because your white privilege has put blinders up over your eyes. Politicians bend the knee for re-election and in a bid for social rest. If insurrection was all it took to take down law and order than perhaps the Joker was right… I’m slightly more hopeful for western society going forward than the author but did enjoy the read.

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