At the 15th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC), hosted by Heartland Institute, Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks revealed how globalist U.S and world leaders, government scientists and bureaucrats, and media are quickly implementing policies that reflect the “Cultural Revolution” horribly implemented by China’s Chairman Mao.
According to Oaks, the globalist community, enamored by the total control the Chinese Communist Party exhibits over its populace, is using Maoist tactics to undo the “inalienable rights” of life, liberty, and property born from the Magna Carta that are the hallmark of the American “experiment” that has brought the vision of freedom to billions worldwide.
Like Mao, Deng, and Xi, these globalists favor an atheistic, amoral power structure to which all humanity must bow in worship.
Oaks, whose career includes 17 years managing institutional portfolios at Farmers Insurance and Intermountain Healthcare, said that environmental and social governance (ESG) and capitalism are incompatible and that ESG is a recipe for tyranny. Sustainable development (SD), he noted, was created in the aftermath of Beijing’s “takeover” of the United Nations. The Chinese Communist Party was integral in creating SD goals that do not apply to China.
In much of America and the world today, Oaks warned, dissent or criticism of ruling class mandates (ESG, CRT, SD) is targeted for punishment, even when following those mandates ends in disaster. When Sri Lanka banned traditional fertilizer, the World Economic Forum predicted it would be rich by 2025. Instead, crop failures led to food panics and economic collapse.
Oaks then laid out 12 ways in which the radical Left in the U.S. is following the path of Mao’s Cultural Revolution (which ended with millions of Chinese in early graves).
Step 1 is purging and canceling political enemies and silencing their voices. Step 2 is creating a “cancel culture.” Mao waged war against the “Four Olds” – traditional ideas, culture, habits, and customs. Here the Left attacks the Founding Fathers, traditional values and institutions (including churches), and even literature.
Step 3 is dividing society by defining some as “oppressors” and others as “oppressed.” In Mao’s China there were five red and five black classes; here, white males, conservatives, Christians, and heterosexuals are the “oppressors” of people of color, women, transgendered, and the poor. Critical race theory is the wedge that the Left is using to expedite the great divide.
Step 4 is indoctrination of children, pushed by radical teacher unions for decades, to turn them into “social justice warriors” while deemphasizing math, science, and history. Any work that celebrates the freedoms upon which America was founded is excoriated as “racist” in origin.
Step 5 is toppling statues, burning buildings, looting private property, defunding the police, and weakening the military through “woke” cultural mandates. Step 6 is forcing name changes for sports teams, schools, and streets to remove any memory of those who built America. Another example is attacks on literature (Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl).
Step 7 is the public shaming and forced apologies by white Americans in the name of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) “theologies.” White males are barred from many jobs, and unqualified minorities and trans “women” are pushed into jobs requiring high skills levels.
The very concept of “merit” is vilified, for example, by public schools that refuse to release SAT scores so as to deny children the opportunity for National Merit Scholarships.
Step 8 is declaring white Americans as “guilty at birth” for the sins of ancestors and imposing penalties for past words and deeds that including loss of jobs or tenure. Step 9 is encouraging families and neighbors to turn against each other for not wearing a mask or having the “wrong” political views.
Step 10 is redefining social norms away from capitalism and human freedom to promote a multi-gendered society, “stakeholder capitalism” that destroys initiative, and creates chaos and confusion. One major tool is to change the meaning of words to fit the “narrative.” All this requires turning over decision making to “experts” whose decisions often have disastrous results.
Step 11 is turning the press, mainstream and social media into parrots of the deep state bureaucrats. Just as in China since Mao, the government works with these institutions to silence dissent by redefining all dissent as “disinformation.” This was rampant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Left seized upon to implement its entire antihuman agenda.
Step 12 is using mob tactics of fear and intimidation, a tactic long used on college campuses but now extended to the expressly unlawful intimidation of Supreme Court justices and the targeting of parents and pro-life activists in contrast to paying “inconvenienced” violent “protestors.”
Oaks’ view of Communist China is gaining traction across the United States, according to a recent Gallup Poll. When asked which country is America’s greatest enemy, 50 percent of respondents named China (though only 30 percent of Democrats). That view was shared by 76 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of Independents.
Oaks’ viewpoint was recently echoed by Xi Van Fleet, who escaped Mao’s Cultural Revolution decades ago. Van Fleet has challenged critical race theory by exposing its similarities between Mao’s division by class and America’s burgeoning division by race.
Interviewed on Hannity, Van Fleet said, “They use the same ideology, same methodology, even the same vocabulary and with the same goal. The ideology is cultural Marxism, and we [in China] were divided into groups as oppressor and oppressed…. The methodology is also very similar. It’s cancel culture. We basically cancelled the whole Chinese civilization pre-Communism. And we changed our school names, street names, store names. We changed even our personal names.”
Even comedian and social commentator Bill Maher recently alleged that America’s “woke” left is embodying the tactics of authoritarian movements like the Red Guard, who would attack those who didn't agree with their ideology. Meanwhile, President Biden, whose family and friends have been recipients of millions of dollars of Chinese cash, merely calls China a “competitor.”
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and a frequent writer on world affairs.
NOTE: The Heartland Institute is the chief sponsor of the ICCC. Cosponsors included the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SePP), the CO2 Coalition, the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, and Reality News Media.