I was not familiar with Ed Sheeran until he got wrapped around the axle following a dispute with another entertainer I wasn’t familiar with named Macklemore. The two men parted ways earlier this month following a string of anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian outbursts by Macklemore during a concert tour in which Sheeran was the headliner. The Left immediately pounced on Sheeran after the split, resulting in him later crying on-stage as he apologized to concertgoers on September 19.
Sheeran seems like a decent enough fellow, but he strikes me as being woefully out of his depth when it comes to dealing with mobs of enraged Democrats flooding social media with a torrent of hateful things about him. Perhaps, in his apology, he succumbed to public pressure. His apology may have been a simple business decision. Either way, Sheeran was quickly denounced by others for having caved to the militant Left, which he surely did. But whether he or anyone else realized it, Sheeran simply fell prey to one of the organizational tenets of Bolshevism. The Russian word for it is samokritika.
Samokritika is a process used by early 20th century Bolsheviks, designed to ferret out counter-revolutionaries. A person, through intense peer pressure, interrogation, and ongoing attacks, would eventually publicly confess their political or ideological errors after a time of “self-criticism.” Vladimir Lenin liked it. Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh did too. So does Xi Jinping, the man President Trump will meet this week in Washington, D.C. Samokritika has the communist stamp of approval, but it has nothing to do with honest introspection. It’s merely a coercive vehicle for obtaining agreement with the party because doing so is easier than suffering its ongoing hostility. It culminates in a humiliating act of contrition, one that satisfies authoritarian demands for submission, and Democrats use samokritika to this day in an attempt to keep their party members in line.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman so far has resisted it. But Fetterman's fellow Democrat, Rep. Seth Moulton (MA-6), could not. Moulton submitted and apologized last month for saying in 2025 that he didn’t want his daughters to be injured by boys competing in girls’ sports. But his exercise in samokritika failed. Moulton was crushed in his bid to win his party’s September 1 Senate primary, losing by an embarrassing 30-point margin to an 80-year-old career politician who won his first election in 1972.
High-profile confessions like Sheeran’s are not uncommon among celebrities. These beleaguered souls instantly become fodder for coverage by news media eager to support their ideological allies, holding up notables like Sheeran as an example of right-think for targeted political blocks, usually younger and more persuadable voters. In this most recent example, the message is clear: Ed Sheeran admits he was wrong, so be like Ed and agree with us.
But the principles of samokritika are not the sole province of politics or pop culture. Many Americans find themselves facing it in ordinary social or family settings. Beginning with activism promoted by former President Barack Obama to get in the face of friends and family members to support Obamacare and other pet issues, this push toward ideological submission has only increased. Fifteen-to-twenty years ago, the cause was socialized medicine. Today, it’s antisemitism, transgender ideology, and the agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The reasons liberals use authoritarian tactics like this today are several. Firstly, it’s been taught to students of Marxism-Leninism, so they understand its utility in fomenting social discord and obtaining obedience. Secondly, and more to the point, they do it because it works. This is especially true at the grassroots level. When people we know or trust seek to force submission to an ideology through coercive means, it’s often easier to simply agree and avoid the risk of further abuse, slander, guilt and social ostracism.
Consider, for example, the plight of parents with a gender confused child who are asked by a medical professional whether they want a live son or a dead daughter. It’s a cynical ploy, rooted in Bolshevism’s samokritika, which compels parents to publicly admit the error of thinking their daughter is a girl. It’s also a cruel lie, particularly in light of new data analysis showing “no evidence that state prohibitions on surgeries, puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones for minors with gender dysphoria have increased suicide rates.”
The increased prevalence and power of socialists among the slate of Democrats seeking office this election cycle, driven in large part by their increasingly radicalized base, suggest samokritika isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s a useful tactic for militants who are studied in the ways of Lenin, Marx, and others cut from that cloth. The best defense is to recognize it for what it is, and resist capitulating to this tool of repression.
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