My last column elicited several comments, such as seeing commies under every bed and questions the values under attack, those of white Anglo Saxon Protestants? This column is intended to address these naysayers.

It doesn’t take much to see the truth in what I claim. Does anyone question that the nation’s intellectual elite, many board rooms, entertainment, and sports have in fact taken a knee to Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, and The New York Times’ 1619 Project?

That this is true is there for all to see. As Heather MacDonald observed: “Corporations, law firms, banks, tech companies, publishers, museums, orchestras and theater troupes now routinely denounce the alleged racial oppression that is said to be endemic to the United States in particular, and to the West more broadly.”

This is also the case within our government ranks. UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Human Rights Council that “the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents.” The National Archives Records Administration placed a “harmful content” warning on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The ideological underpinnings of these denouncements are what is now termed cultural Marxism. The economic clash between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie of the old Marxism failed to materialize. Critical theory took Marxism and morphed it into a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole.

It saw destroying Western civilization requires the cutting off the very roots of culture. For many years now, we’ve seen the radicals attempt to accomplish this.

Hebert Marcuse saw the “ghetto” population and the Black liberation movement of the 1960s as the perfect foil against capitalism and the systems of Western civilization. His student, Angela Davis, a radical Black liberationist, took up his call,and laid the groundwork that was later to become critical race theory. Anyone embracing the tenets of the theory knowingly or not, are embracing the new cultural Marxism. In this respect, they’re everywhere.

Regarding the values under attack, first and foremost, freedom of speech. The first villain is cancel culture. Anyone paying attention to the news does not need evidence of the pernicious and pervasive nature of this reality. This is fact.

Then we have big tech becoming the arbiters of truth. Yes, they’re private companies and can do as they please, but when they become the embodiment of today’s public square, their arbitrary decisions on truth are having harmful effects on our civic discourse.

Then we have our government using their Big Tech friends as proxy to squelch speech contrary to this administration’s agenda. Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration is in “regular touch with the social media platforms” about misinformation and disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccine roll-out, and that it is “flagging problematic posts for Facebook.”

Lapdog Facebook obeys. What the government can’t do, this administration uses Big Tech to get done. This is government’s flagrant disregard and violation of our sacred 1st Amendment guarantee of free speech.

Most amazing is, like the Wizard of Oz, the curtain has been pulled back on corporate media. Elon Musk’s purchasing Twitter, making it private, and becoming a true free speech platform have them railing against such a move.

Exemplar of the media’s vitriol is The Washington Post’s Max Boot. In response to Musk’s offer to buy Twitter, he stated, “For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”

So terrifying that in their panic they don’t even realize they’ve admitted their own gluttony for control.

Then we have the audacious affront of having schools in Florida and elsewhere having discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Thank you, Gov. DeSantis, for blocking this repugnant assault on family values.

This assault on family values emanates from another critical theory offshoot, “Queer Theory.” This astoundingly is occurring in schools across the nation. Another column on this will present details. Where is the focus on learning the ABCs — reading, writing, and ’rithmetic?

Our public schools are a dramatic failure. They’ve become citadels of indoctrination.

Other values under assault are meritocracy, equal opportunity, equality before the law, color blindness and individual rights.

The radical progressive cultural Marxist are playing the long game. They see our children as the last bulwark to build and fortify their radical agenda. They want to create little CRITS to grow and become adults with the critical consciousness of CRT. If we allow this to happen, the country of our founding, and Western civilization will be no more.

Manny Montes lives in Auburn.

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