Note: The views and opinions expressed in blog/editorial posts are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of Misbar.
When people make comparisons to Hitler or Stalin, it’s easy to roll your eyes and tune it out. Such comparisons are overused by people on both sides of the political aisle and have thus become like white noise to many Americans. However, the claim that the American media is becoming Sovietized has some credence.
In his book “Live Not By Lies,” Rod Dreher recounts the stories of several immigrants who escaped communist countries and came to America. Many of them, he claims, are alarmed at what is happening in America today and frustrated at the failure of their fellow Americans to recognize it for what it is- pre-totalitarianism. Dreher describes how many immigrants from what was formerly Czechoslovakia believed that totalitarianism could never happen there, and how Americans currently believe that it could never happen here.
He says, “Under the right circumstances, yes, it can happen here. It wouldn’t happen in the same way as in Russia and Eastern Europe- times have changed- but the totalitarian temptation presents itself with a twenty-first-century face. The parallels between a declining United States and prerevolutionary Russia are not exact, but they are unnervingly close."
He goes on to draw many parallels between America today and the Bolshevik revolution, pointing out the many similarities between what happened then and what is happening now.
If America is in a state of pre-totalitarianism as Dreher believes it is, then the media is complicit in it – if not the driving force of it. The current American press is intolerant of opposing beliefs, is complicit in the reframing of our history, and uses group identity to maintain power for one political group.
The American Press is Intolerant of Opposing Beliefs and Covers Stories to Fit their Narrative
Dreher claims that totalitarianism is a state in which nothing can be permitted to exist that contradicts a society’s ruling ideology, and he insists that the “woke” ideology of the radical left in American today is such an ideology under which dissenting beliefs are not tolerated.
The “woke” media has most certainly played a role in this intolerance of dissenting beliefs. For one thing, they refuse to cover stories that do not fit a narrative they have already decided upon, and for another, they consistently cover democratic politicians favorably and republican politicians disfavorably, regardless of the facts.
Examples of this bias include the media’s insistence upon framing all mass shootings as being the result of white supremacy, even when investigators and those close to the perpetrator suggest that there were other underlying reasons. In the Boulder, Colorado shooting, the media even jumped to blame the tragedy on white supremacy, before finding out that the shooter was a Syrian immigrant.
The same thing happened when a white man shot and killed multiple South Korean women in a massage parlor. The media immediately claimed that it was an act of anti-Asian hatred and was a result of white supremacy, even though the shooter himself claimed that he had shot the place as a result of his intense guilt over his sexual addiction and the fact that he had visited these places to engage in sexual activity, over which he felt disparaging guilt.
Regardless of these facts, the media insists on blaming white supremacy for these tragedies. The Bolsheviks did the same thing, preaching hatred of the rich and blaming all bad things on one class of people.
This kind of media coverage is propaganda because they are only interested in covering stories that will continue to paint America in a certain light, and whenever a tragedy occurs, they seize on it if they think they can blame it on white supremacy and paint America as a racist country full of white supremacists.
In the same way, under Soviet communism, the media was complicit in framing news stories to fit their narrative which perpetuated hate against the ruling class. They did not cover stories that did not fit this narrative, and they skewed stories and ignored facts in favor of the narrative.
The New York Times wants to Reframe History to Demonize one Group of People
Dreher details what happened in the Bolshevik revolution, explaining how Karl Marx attempted to reframe all of history as though everything was about social class. Marx’s writings framed the rich as the oppressor and the poor as the victim, always. Thus, an entire class of people was demonized and used as a scapegoat for the regime to maintain power. Dreher believes that this same sort of thing happened when the New York Times launched the 1619 project, which intended to reframe all of American history through the lens of slavery as if it was the central and driving force of all that has happened in America since.
He says, “No serious person denies the importance of slavery in US history. But that’s not the point of the 1619 project. Its goal is to revise America’s national identity by making race hatred central to the nations’ foundation.” This history project teaches that Americans fought the Revolutionary war to preserve slavery. Even though countless historians have refuted this claim, the project is still being taught in classrooms across the country. People who fear that the United States Press is being Sovietized also point to the fact that one of the most trusted names in journalism published and promoted this project, even though many historians refuted its claims. This does bear an uncanny resemblance to the propaganda that flowed through the Soviet-controlled media.
The American Press Use Group Identity to Maintain Power
Dreher also points out that Social Justice Warriors of today resemble the early Bolsheviks in that they, like the Bolsheviks, once did, “believe that justice depends on group identity and that achieving justice means taking power away from the exploiters and handing it to the exploited."
Soviet Communism maintained power by separating people based on group identity and using propaganda to generate hatred toward the ruling class. In this way, the regime maintained power over everyone.
The American press does the same thing today. By reframing history and perpetuating propaganda rather than objective news, they continue to foster hatred toward those who are perceived to be in power. By generating hatred toward the wealthy, upper class, and white people, they promise to make things better if only Americans will keep them in power. Like the Bolshevik’s they separate people based on group identity and foster hatred in order to maintain positions of power.
Yes, the American Media is Being Sovietized
It doesn’t take much knowledge of history to draw these comparisons and realize that the American press is acting much like the Soviet regime’s propaganda acted after the Bolshevik revolution. The American press has tried to reframe history, is selective about which stories they cover and how they cover them and attempts to keep Americans divided by group identity in order to maintain positions of power. The similarities are too stark to overlook, and Americans are starting to see through the lies of the mainstream media.
