Is Maoism Coming to America?

Mao Zedong, the murderous dictator of Communist China from 1949 to 1976 was probably responsible for more death and misery than any single human being ever.

If you think Mao’s monstrous reign is “ancient history” and has no relevance to the world we live in today… think again. 

The tactics Mao used to take over and ruin China in the middle of the twentieth century are the same tactics the modern left is using to take over and ruin America in the twenty-first century. Mao called this Marxism with “[Chinese] characteristics.”

What we now call “woke”—the radical leftism that tells us that men give birth, that to be colorblind is to be racist, that social workers should replace police officers—could easily be called “Maoism with American characteristics.”

So, let’s define Maoism, and then we’ll get to its “American characteristics.”

In 1949 Mao took over China and held power for three decades using a very simple tactic, the dark art of demonizing your enemy. I call it “hatecraft.”

What Mao did was divide everyone in China into two categories: “the people,” who agreed with his agenda, and “the enemies of the people,” who did not agree with his agenda. 

For the enemies, no quarter was given. They were blocking progress, so they had to be destroyed; they weren’t even considered people. “Not to have a correct political orientation,” Mao said, “is like not having a soul.” Anything Mao did to them was, therefore, justified.

These enemies—prosperous farmers, landowners, and other so-called “counter-revolutionaries”—were prohibited from earning a living, were subjected to random arrest, and had their property confiscated. Many went to “thought reform” prisons to “wash their brains” of their incorrect values. 

And those were the lucky ones. 

Countless more were just simply executed for having the “wrong” opinion. 

America is not Mao’s China. No one is being lined up and shot for their “counter-revolutionary” beliefs, but the tactics—the hatecraft—employed by the American left borrow heavily from Mao’s playbook. 

Here are some examples:

Covid-19 was a health catastrophe because “anti-vaxxers” selfishly ignored the safety of their fellow citizens and wouldn’t get the vaccine. 

“The people” vs. “the enemies of the people.”

Our planet is at risk of total destruction because “climate change deniers” won’t acknowledge the “obvious” fact that fossil fuels are putting too much CO2 in the atmosphere. 

“The people” vs. “the enemies of the people.”

Even “our democracy” is threatened by those “deplorables” who support “fascist” candidates.  

“The people” vs. “the enemies of the people.”

Mao combined his hatecraft with a formula he called “unity, criticism, unity.” Here’s how it worked: The state announced the need for national unity. Everyone was “invited” to join. Those who resisted, however, were made to recognize their “crimes” and to confess them. If that required some torture, well, that was a small price to pay for unity. If they continued to resist, they were purged, i.e. destroyed. Only then could society arrive at what Mao called a “new unity on a new basis.” That was how “progress” was achieved. 

Today, the same formula is in play. 

We might imagine a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) coordinator in a business or university saying, “We just want a place where everyone feels like they belong, but because of systemic racism and sexism, some members of our community don’t feel included.” 

But who’s responsible for that systemic racism and sexism? 

Answer: anyone who doesn’t agree with the DEI worldview, which would include most of the people in the room. This “privileged” majority must acknowledge their own complicity in this systemic oppression or risk being purged, or, in today’s terms, canceled. Only then can we all move forward together into a new “sustainable” and “inclusive” future.

In Mao’s China, the process was so vicious that people would do almost anything to avoid being tagged “an enemy of the people.” Thus, they were made to conform. Today, in America, you’re not called “an enemy of the people”—you’re called racist, or transphobic, or homophobic, or something-phobic, and the fear of that is enough to make most people conform. 

This is pure Maoism. 

During his notorious Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, Mao recruited his Red Guard right out of high school and college. Students were encouraged to denounce long-cherished Chinese values and to publicly humiliate their “rightist” teachers and professors. Even family members were not immune to their attacks. The students did all these things and more, including desecrating historic and religious sites. 

The parallels to modern American campuses aren’t exact of course, but they’re close enough for alarm. 

Mao’s been dead for almost half a century, but Maoism is alive and well in America. We call it woke, but it’s really Maoism with American Characteristics.

It must be stopped before it destroys our country.

And we can only stop it if we understand it, learn its tactics, and expose them. 

Consider yourself warned. 

I'm James Lindsay, Founder of New Discourses, for Prager University.