Biden’s New “Woke” Military Has A Model In Mao’s China

Revolver ^ | 5 Feb, 2021

[MtnClimber]

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is going to war against “extremism.”

On Wednesday, Austin decreed that over the next sixty days, the entire U.S. Armed forces must go through a stand-down period in order to address the supposed shadow army of fascists and racists who fill its ranks.

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What might that look like? An exclusive report from Breitbart on Thursday described how special forces were threatened with consequences for embracing “extremist” symbols like…Pepe the Frog:

Henry “told us that if anyone gets caught wearing, buying, selling, affiliated with in any way, any of those things on those list, that the first thing he’s going to do is chapter us out of the Army. The second thing is, he’s going to handle the investigation by sending it over to the DHS,” the source said. “He didn’t quite outright say that we would be arrested, he used the word ‘detained.’”

Some of the imagery on the slides clearly refer to hate symbols, such as a swastika or other Nazi-related symbols. However, also included is “Pepe the Frog” — an internet meme frequently posted by members of the political right to troll the political left. [Breitbart]

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There is a frightening precedent for all of this: The darkest days of Mao’s China.

After the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Marshal Peng Dehuai was the country’s first defense minister. Although a committed Communist, Peng was also a professional soldier committed to building a strong People’s Liberation Army. Peng introduced a proper rank system, promoted skilled commanders rather than Communist political apparatchiks, emphasized discipline and proper training, and opposed the growing personality cult centered on Mao Zedong.

But Peng’s professionalism and independence were his downfall. In 1959, Peng was politically isolated and then removed by Mao, who replaced him with the more firmly loyal Lin Biao. Where Peng was committed to the PLA’s professionalism, Lin was the exact opposite. He undid many of Peng’s useful reforms, solely for political reasons. Rank was abolished as a capitalist artifact. Commanders seen as too friendly to the USSR or insufficiently loyal to Mao were purged. Instead of focusing on military matters, about forty percent of a soldier’s time was spent on political matters, being indoctrinated in the arcana of Maoism. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, the infamous Little Red Book that became the world’s best-selling non-religious book, began as a text Lin issued for PLA personnel. Eventually, the PLA’s indoctrination efforts led to it being labeled the “great school of Mao Zedong Thought,” and its methods were promoted within the civilian bureaucracy and wider Chinese society.

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

“Zampolits” I believe is what they were called in the Red Army.