I’ve seen it all before: compelled sorrow at “leaders’” funerals, compelled joy as thousands clapped in unison and cried themselves hoarse “Long live the USSR, Long live the USSR, Long live the USSR”. It was all one big theater production. None of the foot-stomping, screaming comrades gave a shit about the USSR. But they knew that the louder they yelled and the harder they clapped, the better their chances for a promotion, or their kid getting into college.
It all starts with compelled speech. Your display of high virtue when using “correct” pronouns or empathizing with the right “community” will win you points with our equivalent of the “comrades”. It is no longer a question of just being courteous. You MUST use the correct language…or you won’t get that promotion, or worse, you’ll get fired. Compelling people to speak a certain way leads to compelling them to dress a certain way, associate with only approved crowds and all the way down the line to re-education camps.
The most frightening thing to me personally, is how few are aware of this devastating trend. “It’s just being polite”. Sure! Just like shooting up your right arm in a rigid salute was polite when passing an officer on the street in 1935 Berlin. It wasn’t polite. It was compelled behavior. Remember: it’s irrelevant who’s doing the compelling - storm troopers in black uniforms or equity/inclusivity storm troopers.
Do not fall for the politeness trap. Do not use words you feel are stupid, unnatural, coerced. Stand up to the inclusivity mob.
What brought me to the United States (other than the weather, which was definitely a factor), was American staunch individualism. I am an individualist. I don’t believe in “community solutions” because I have seen the destruction and havoc they bring. “Community solutions” turned Czechoslovakia from the third richest and most developed country in Europe between the wars (only behind Great Britain and France), into an economic basket case and a massive prison called the “Czechoslovak Socialist Republic” in a matter of months. Months, not years! The industry was nationalized and ruined. People’s property was stolen and frittered away. Only the top Communist cadres lived well and traveled freely. That is what killing individualism does. It has done it in countless countries over and over and over again. Yet here we are, shouting communist slogans “We’re all in it together”, denigrating and coercing and spitting on farmers, truckers, “essential workers” (itself a socialist concept, of course). If we don’t reclaim our robust individualism and our right to pursue our lives and our happiness any way we see fit, we are lost.
Do not be tricked into using compelled speech. I’ve seen it all before
Sad part is that the compelled behaviour is enforced by billionaires social media owners of Google, Twitter, Facebook. Those who are cheering the enforcers of compelled behaviour are either blind, or plain stupid that same time allow “free expressions” by those who despise our way of life and under the authoritarian regimes. Similarly, those wannabe dictators, or supporters of one party system in our North American society get also a free pass, while dissenters get Go to Jail
This post is incredibly timely. I live in a blue state hell zone and my kids are stuck in a communized (if that's a word) public school for now, where they are asked to introduce themselves with pronouns from age 6 on. Things are radicalized at an accelerating pace and I don't know if we can stop it--but damned if I won't try. Hearing from survivors of Communism, like you, is so important, so please keep it up. I also read another survivor's story (and warning) today--great interview. https://www.theepochtimes.com/communism-is-a-cancer-on-humanity-its-a-cancer-thats-moving-quickly-says-gulag-survivor_4539221.html