A Communist society is one where nothing is privately owned. In principle, everything belongs to “society”; in practice, everything belongs to the government, i.e., the ruling regime. If you want to turn America into a Communist society, you have two choices: One, brute force. Simply nationalize everything with the aid of police and troops. Seize private bank accounts, private homes and private property. This includes the private property of the middle class, not just the impoverished (who have little to begin with) or the uber wealthy (who can always protect themselves with money, at least until the police and troops turn on them, and maybe even then).

One reason you don’t find Communist systems in societies that already have a vibrant middle class is that the middle class would never permit it. As much as they might claim to subscribe to the woke theology of self-sacrifice, they like their cars, their clothes, their homes, their restaurants, their vacations, their pets, comfort for their children and their full grocery shelves.

So what’s the second way to install Communism in a country like America? Make the middle class feel massively and chronically guilty and ashamed. Make them frightened. COVID was a perfect way to do this. In much of the country, it’s still working. People who are NOT afraid of much else will run for cover if you say the word, “COVID.” And you’re told that you’re shameful if you don’t wear masks and get an experimental vaccine — even though both these things are sold as acts of self-protection, so there’s no harming others if everyone can protect themselves.

The media has made sure that fear and guilt carry the day. And then make members of the middle class feel guilty. Tell them that if they’re the wrong race, or the wrong political party, or if they use too much oil and gas, or if they have too much money, or if they succeed too much in life, or if they fail to teach their children woke ideology instead of traditional religion or common sense … tell them this makes them bad people. Tell them they can become good people, but only if they atone. How? By becoming woke and Communist, of course.

Fear and guilt, with a little self-loathing thrown in … and suddenly you have mass numbers of middle class people willing to go Communist. As recently as two years ago, I would have been skeptical that it could have happened in America. But it’s happening right before our eyes at this moment. Could it all fall apart? Could the massive unpopularity of Joe Biden and the people who employ and direct him come back to bite them? Absolutely. One way or another, it will all fall apart, because Communism ALWAYS does and ALWAYS will. It has to fail, by its corrupt and irrational nature; it’s the creed of failure for its own sake, of self-annihilation as a virtue. However, it can take just a couple of years or many generations for this all to play out. So we don’t yet know the outcome.

Regardless, it’s a horrifying commentary on the lack of rationality and integrity in so much of our culture that the Communists even got this far. Look at AOC. Look at the football stars and celebrities who promote it. Look at Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. They are not bright people. Look at the woke corporate business persons. Some of them are glorified politicians; some of them have accomplished something. They may be talented in certain areas, but intellect and any remote understanding of human behavior and human nature are not part of their talent. Something must be deeply wrong with them, intellectually and morally, to promote an ideology of self-annihilation when freedom, self-responsibility and individualism got them where they are. They must be horrible people to wish to deny for others what worked out so well for themselves. Bill Gates comes to mind.

It’s shameful and frightening that so many of us succumbed to unearned shame and irrational, overblown fear. Especially when it has been peddled by the least intellectually and ethically qualified to do so.

When the government systematically and decisively destroys the economy and military and no longer fears the people, the people should be rationally afraid — and angry as hell. When members of the government mock and make fun of the people when they complain of the resulting skyrocketing prices, defenselessness at their borders and shortage of labor and supplies, the people should be in a truly revolutionary mood.

As long as the government thinks we’re only afraid, but not angry, they will push harder and harder to destroy us. They will push us as far as we will take it. So far, we’re taking every bit of it.

Michael J Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason