Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Left Isn’t Just Marching Through Our Institutions, It’s Imploding Them
The Federalist ^ | 22 Oct, 2025 | Chris Bray

Posted on 10/22/2025 6:08:50 AM PDT by MtnClimber

When the long march through the institutions gives destructive and ridiculous people control of the institutions, the institutions become destructive and ridiculous, and then they become destroyed and ridiculous.

The law professor Glenn Reynolds has talked for years about the premise, in public policy, that people can be brought into the middle class if you give them the markers of middle-class status. Having a college degree is middle class, so make it easier to get a college degree. Owning a house is middle class, so lower the barriers to homeownership. 1.) Make it all much easier. 2.) Give people way more free stuff. 3.) Larger middle class!

“But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class,” he writes. “Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

Mistaking the markers for the substance, for the things that cause the creation of the desired thing, gives us this: [X post at link]

The idea behind the “long march through the institutions” is that the capture of the symbols of cultural authority is the same thing as the capture of cultural authority. The markers are the substance. See, people listen to their ministers and their professors, so if we get jobs as ministers and professors, people will listen to us. The job title is the authority. “As your minister, I advise you to embrace socialism and get a lot of abortions, and I direct you to notice that I am wearing a clerical collar, so.”

This language is ubiquitous in 21st-century America. It’s status markers all the way down. Experts say. Officials say. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dismantling the CDC, and that’s very dangerous, because our health authorities are the experts. A lot of very important professors are telling you to do [insert thing here]. You can’t advise your child against gender transition — you don’t even have the right credentials.

Antonio Gramsci, and the New Left activists who followed him, looked at institutions like churches and universities and concluded that they had authority because they were churches and universities. They looked like authority, they performed the symbols of authority, they made authority noises, and so people followed. SNIP


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: intercession; leftism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last
To: MtnClimber

Next will be the destruction of NYC. what will rise in its ashes apis anyone’s guess.


21 posted on 10/22/2025 8:21:32 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Next will be the destruction of NYC. what will rise in its ashes apis anyone’s guess. I’m too old to care about what will transpire and my kids are too indoctrinated ro reason.


22 posted on 10/22/2025 8:23:42 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

The Left is attempting, through many decades and a number of generations, what Pol Pot did over night - destroy, yes destroy, a culture and its institutions, so you can build a new one from scratch.

Where Pol Pot acted by just tearing everything down immediately, the Left chose to do it by becoming moles buried within the institutions so they can destroy them by “transforming” them, until they are no longer the beacon of foundational western society but the home of the apparatchiks of the Leftist uni-party running everything.


23 posted on 10/22/2025 10:51:47 AM PDT by Wuli (uire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

bump


24 posted on 10/22/2025 2:56:25 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (To live free is the greatest gift; to die free is the greatest victory. —Erica Kirk)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Henry Hnyellar
Whoever chose to look at these things as institutions made the first mistake.

There are multiple definitions of "institution". You are using a narrow one. Institutions of civilization include, but are not limited to the following:

• Judicial system
• Education system
• Lawmaking bodies
• Religious organizations
• Military
• Post office
• Libraries
• Civic Infrastructure
• Energy production
• Agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Law Enforcement

25 posted on 10/22/2025 5:12:48 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

This is a spiritual battle in an foolish attempt to tear God off His throne. It won’t succeed. Make sure you’re secure with the Victor.


26 posted on 10/23/2025 4:10:00 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GingisK
"There are multiple definitions of "institution". You are using a narrow one. Institutions of civilization include, but are not limited to the following:"

There is another (clang-clang).



Mental institution.

27 posted on 10/23/2025 2:18:18 PM PDT by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: clearcarbon

That is one that desperately needs to be revitalized.


28 posted on 10/23/2025 2:32:36 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson