History, Communism, and “Brain Warfare”

Are we seeing history repeat itself? Beware of a political party that changes words. Democrat leaders – and sympathizers in the media and education – appear to be working with intent, insidiously, and effectively to change word meanings. The goal is no mystery: Culture conversion, a Marxist tenet and tactic.

Historically, George Orwell – in “1984” and “Animal Farm” – was terrified seeing words redefined, in modern parlance “repurposed” or “reimagined,” by the Soviets.

His writing is compelling, more so as fiction, describing a powerful government able to issue mandates and force conformity through fear, shaming, intimidation, surveillance, coercion, physical and psychological warfare – against their own.

What he described was communism, made possible by consolidation of power and redefinition of language to enforce conformity, gradually eliminating rights and thought of them, suppressing the idea that liberty, merit, individual opinions, faith, and even property control were legitimate, important, and should be desired.

What he foresaw was a time when those in power, even in liberal societies – that is, open, diverse, and right-respecting societies – would succumb. They would see opportunities for gain in false narratives and oppression, by changing words.

So, looking around, do you see any words changing, any efforts to reshape public thinking, force cultural conversion with fear, shaming, intimidation, surveillance, coercion, physical or psychological warfare, fostering power consolidation?

Do you discern any traditional words being “repurposed,” “reimagined,” given new meanings by those in power to consolidate power, promote one-party rule, marginalize those who believe in personal rights – free speech, worship, defense, no home invasion, unfair confiscation, captivity, abuse by prosecutors and courts?

Do you see any way in which those currently in power – government, media, and social media – are trying to shift cultural definitions, and put right-lovers off balance?

If not, think about how the Marxist push has infected us, and how right Orwell was about the invasion of freedom-loving societies by communist tenets and tactics.

Think about how intentional and insidious those in power are being, especially in the modern Democrat party shot through with socialist, Marxist, and communist ideology, redefining words like “illegal” (modifying aliens, drugs, personal and property crimes), blithely shrinking freedoms tied to speech, religion, family, defense, equal justice under the law, due process, electoral integrity, and tradition.

Attempted is a Lenin-line “fait accompli,” forcing new definitions for words like boy, girl, gender, biology, discrimination, Title 9, or “reimagined” definitions of the 14^th Amendment, insurrection, impeachment, peaceful protest, felony bribery, foreign corrupt practices, RICO, telling you to abandon faith, accept their view on life, liberty, happiness, and triggered hysteria, morality, administration of the laws. Do you see it?

Here is the thing:  The list is long, could fill a book, and is not neutral. The Marxist forces at work, which China supports, seek an opening. This administration, and some in the Democrat Party, allow this opening, accept it, look away, are complicit.

Have you heard any apologies for a candidate who destroyed servers with 30,000 (likely incriminating) emails, mishandled classified information like Vice President Biden (also unindicted), and briefed President Obama and Vice President Biden with her corrupt strategy for winning in 2016? Any consequences or nods and claps?

From a “Russia collusion” story that was false – sapping a Republican president – to the January 6^th hearings that now look themselves dark, to snap impeachments violating due process, to irregularities from COVID accommodations, have you heard any Democrats with integrity say, truth matters, life is not black and white?

Have you heard any leading Democrat say that “girls matter” – hundreds of millions in our lives, towns, and nations who are losing privacy, dignity, respect, safety, confidence, the chance for scholarships, the chance to fairly compete and win against other girls – or do they join the mania prioritizing gender dysphoria?

Have you heard anyone say “Wait, wait, I think biology, DNA, objectivity, diverse thought, robust debate, Judeo-Christian values, history, the exceptionalism of this nation – are worth defending!”  

No, and there is a reason. It goes back to the insidious creep of ideology through changing of words, weaponizing word change to clip individual liberty. As the non-profit JSTOR noted recently: “What we are beginning to see is that the more subtle the manipulation of language and the more unobtrusive the word-as-weapon becomes, the more insidious its effect on an unsuspecting public,” particularly in politics.

As Allan Dulles wrote in 1953, four years after Orwell’s book: “I wonder …whether we clearly perceive the magnitude of the problem, whether we realize how sinister the battle for men’s minds has become in Soviet hands,” adding the stakes are incalculably high in this battle with communism, what he called “brain warfare.”

We are there again, mark the date. We must again fight for truth, identify redefinition as untruth, and grasp how communism works, “brain warfare.”

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.