BLINDING HISTORY

By Diana West, TOWNHALL

Diana WestFor logic-minded Americans still genuinely puzzled as to how it could be that our presidents and secretaries of state and generals and pundits keep hammering home the big lie that Islam has nothing to do with jihad, that the religion of conquest is a “religion of peace,” I have a special warning. Such widespread, politics- and mass-media-driven brainwashing is nothing new.

Just as today’s opinion-makers seek to divorce Islam from its impact — for example, brutal conquest, forced conversion, religiously sanctioned sex slavery, beheadings — past opinion-makers worked equally hard to divorce communism from its impact — for example, brutal conquest, forced collectivization, concentration camps (Gulags), mass murder.

It worked. Unlike Nazism, communism has never been judged guilty or even held responsible for the carnage and suffering it has caused. On the contrary, it remains a source of “liberal” statist ideas such as Obamacare. My book “American Betrayal” delves deeply into this dangerous double standard. In short, it not only enables collectivist policies to strangle our remnant republic, but also explains why American students can find a drink called Leninade, emblazoned with a hammer and sickle, for sale on a college campus. It is also why silkscreens of Warhol’s Chairman Mao, history’s top mass murderer, are sought-after items for the homes of the wealthy.

There are no such trendy portraits of Hitler, and who would want them? Who would want to swig a bottle of Hitlerpop, decorated with a swastika? So, why Leninade? Not only does the stench of death not follow the Communist murder-cult, the brand lives.

Barring a groundswell of common sense, I predict that Islam, the brand, will most likely remain separate in the public mind from the violence and repression it causes and has caused for more than a millennium. That’s certainly the direction leaders from both political parties have been relentlessly herding us in for over a decade, insisting against all reason — against all sacred Islamic texts — that “Islam is peace.”

This means that not only must we contend with this cycle of expansionist jihad — a recurrence that should be familiar from Islamic history were it, too, not subject to whitewash — we must simultaneously withstand a campaign of lies designed to subvert our understanding of how Islam, in fact, has everything to do with beheadings and other violence both in the Islamic world and in the West.

And yes, such whitewashing has happened before. Stalin’s Red Army occupied half of Europe at the end of World War II, but Americans were told they had won the war and that “Uncle Joe” was a great guy. Then there is the whitewash of the transformation the Cold War wrought at home, where agents, agents of influence, fellow travelers, and dupes worked to advance Moscow’s will just as Soviet tanks (and agents, too) imposed it abroad. The conventional wisdom, however, set forth by academics, historians, think tank analysts, journalists, filmmakers (whether “liberal” or “conservative”), remains suspended in the amber of the “Red Scare,” the 1950s period during which anti-Communist “witch-hunters” searched for “Reds under the bed,” allegedly in vain. Never mind that many hundreds of American traitors had infiltrated the federal government in previous decades. The important thing, says the conventional wisdom, is not to connect the dots and examine whether these proxies for Stalin influenced the “American Century.”

That, of course, is exactly what “American Betrayal” does, thus enraging all keepers of conventional wisdom. No matter. The more I learn about the extensive penetration by Stalin’s secret agents into the federal government over the two decades that FDR and then Harry Truman held the Oval Office, the clearer it is that the American ship of state had too many hands loyal to the USSR pushing at the rudder, influencing, to varying degrees, the direction of U.S. policy and strategy, even if not especially during World War II.

Such is the once-hidden history that comes into closer focus since the U.S. and Russian governments released some subset of their vast secret archives — intelligence documents, FBI files and the like. Reigning “court historians” keep looking the other way, hoping Americans never notice the big picture: that FDR presided over the biggest national security disaster in U.S. history, the massive infiltration of the U.S. government by agents of a foreign power.

Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary, “The Roosevelts,” typifies this blackout. For example, take the series’ treatment of the Yalta Conference, the final meeting of the so-called Big Three wartime leaders. Old news footage shows the conference table, from Stalin to FDR to Churchill. The camera also shows a man who sure looks like Soviet military intelligence agent and U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss. Next to him is top White House aide and, according to some experts, Soviet agent or asset Harry Hopkins. Both men are seated behind the dupe-ish secretary of state Edward Stettinius.

Does Burns inform viewers of the identities of these notorious figures seemingly “boring from within” before the viewer’s eyes? Does he note the existence of scholarship confirming covert agent Hiss’ outspoken role at the conference, and evidence that he may have exerted influence over deliberations on China policy, war reparations including German slave labor, and other vital issues in the USSR’s favor? Is there any mention of the troubling questions about Hopkins’ single-mindedly pro-Soviet stance that caused George C. Marshall to describe “Hopkins’ job with the president” as being “to represent the Russian interests”?

Silence. Or rather, Burnsian chatter about the big secret of Yalta being FDR’s grave health — something obvious to anyone who looked at him. The series’ ultimate mission is accomplished, however. A re-gilded FDR is burnished to a starry sheen, blinding a worshipful audience. Is that what history is for?

September 27, 2014 | 141 Comments »

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50 Comments / 141 Comments

  1. @ yamit82:
    dweller Said:

    Solicitation is often conscious.
    But MORE often, unconscious.

    Yamit82 would you REALLY mind if I solicited you while you were unconscious????????? I’ll whisper.!!

  2. @ yamit82:

    “Please don’t hate me.”

    “No fear of that. He can’t afford to hate you — he OWES you way too much for your SUPPORT.”

    “I told you that your psychobabble was BS…”

    You told me what you could be expected to tell me.

    — (And what else is new?)

    “… and you haven’t been right about a damn thing.”

    I’ve been right that you have found a new word

    — a matter of sheer coincidence of course that it had become a recent favorite of another vain, self-congratulatory crank.

    He adopts yours as well. It’s mutual validation — support.

    “I don’t need support dweller never have…”

    Of course you don’t.

    After all, you told us so.

    “…but in any event I do have support a lot of it…”

    You receive (and ACCEPT) a lot of it, and give a lot of it.

    “… and all unsolicited.”

    Years ago, when I was training my dogs, I used to assume that all commands should be given vocally.

    I noticed, however, that often when I would give a command, one or another of the dogs would start to doing what I was going to order him to do even before the words ever got out of my mouth!

    It took me a while to realize that I was unwittingly doing things with my hands or body language that communicated to them what I intended shortly to SAY — so they were picking up visual cues which, until then, had utterly eluded my awareness.

    You say the support you receive is “unsolicited.”

    Solicitation is often conscious.

    But MORE often, unconscious.

  3. dweller Said:

    “No fear of that. He can’t afford to hate you — he OWES you way too much for your SUPPORT.”

    I told you that your psychobabble was BS and you haven’t been right about a damn thing.

    yamit82 Said:

    I didn’t and thought I couldn’t but I’m having second thoughts.

    “No fear of that. He can’t afford to hate you — he OWES you way too much for your SUPPORT.”

    I don’t need support dweller never have but in any event I do have support a lot of it and all unsolicited.

  4. dweller has not learned that repeating popular historical revisionist spin is no substitute for real scholarship and analysis. He lacks profundity and erudition.

    The only part of he ad-hoc analysis that I agree with is that Communism had a longer run. Nazism was classic fascism based on Mussolini’s philosophical base of elevating the State over everything else including the individual. The model was State Socialism. Remember that the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for “der Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei — in English translation: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party —

    The Nazis preached Racial supremacy the Communists class warfare and Social Justice. Both advocated and implemented wealth distribution, and State control of the means of productionand distribution and everything in between

    It was not the success of superior PR that was the prime reasons for communist success and Nazi failure. A little thing like WWl had a lot to do with the advancement of Communism Europe and North America. The mass slaughter was horrendous and the after shock to Europeans and Americans helped to make the universal utopian message of communism very attractive to wide swaths of the populations especially in Europe.

    Communism preached social permissiveness a break with traditional societal values like sexual liberation and approval of abortion leading ultimately to pornography in the 60’s. The Nazis actually promoted family values because it strengthened the State. Finally the Nazi movement essentially was dealt a death blow with their loss to Russia and the allies. The Communist movement riding the coattails of Russia emerging victorious had superpower state backing and support and the victors always write their versions of the narrative.

    In America what defeated Communism more than anything else was the development of organized Labor which showed the way to elevate the worker his pay and conditions without the need for all out class warfare.

    Utopian comunism was attractive to the Wests intellectual elite, who through positions in Academia, the arts and other influential sectors of society helped to advance some form of the ideology. The fruits of their success today, is evident in all the social and so called liberal and progressive movements in the world.

    Without military conquest the Nazis never had a chance of advancing beyond those areas that were conquered. An ideologybased on racial superiority of a few could never be attractive to the vast majority who were not included in the dominant racial group.

    Both systems were responsible for Mass murder on unheard of levels yet they were quite similar. The Nazis stealing from communist Russia the technical methods of mass murder and State control.

    Hiter was a socialist and Nazi Germany was more socialist than Russia.

    Russia may have kicked the backsides of Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler, but there’s one foe it cannot overcome – the permissive society that they themselves originally promoted.

    All of the Above is a far cry From Equating superior PR/(Compassion?) as reasons for the success of communism.

  5. honeybee Said:

    Do you really believe the above. I rather agreed with dweller.

    Please don’t hate me.

    I didn’t and thought I couldn’t but I’m having second thoughts.

    No I owe him for the insight and instruction he has afforded me.

    If i Have it was freely given. no charge.

    I sure you will correct me compassionately.

    I did…. but it got spammed. Now I could care less it it materializes.

  6. @ honeybee:

    “Please don’t hate me.”

    “No fear of that. He can’t afford to hate you — he OWES you way too much for your SUPPORT.”

    “No I owe him for the insight and instruction he has afforded me.”

    So those who afford you “insight and instruction” get special dispensation to be hateful?

    — THEIR hate is okay???

    “And besides, why is keeping somebody from hating you important? If somebody hates you, that’s THEIR problem — not yours.”

    “It depends on the cause of their anger. Did I ere!”

    Depends on nothing of the sort. (How can you swallow that rot?)

    Maybe you ‘erred’ because those who afforded you “insight and instruction” were incompetent teachers.

    — In any case, though, what does anybody’s hate have to do with the price of carrots? What’s the connection between somebody’s hate & whether you ‘erred’ or not?

    And why should you have to ASK them not to indulge their hate? If they hate you (for ‘erring’ or anything else), then it’s THEY who have a problem — and it’s a much bigger problem than you.

    It’s a problem that they will carry around with them long after you are a distant memory.

    By the same token, if you hate them (even quietly, inwardly) for hating you

    — then you’ve made their problem YOURS (which may just be what they unconsciously wanted all the time).

    “I sure you will correct me compassionately.”

    Why? — are you still that child who WASN’T corrected compassionately?

  7. the phoenix Said:

    So as it turns out,the answer

    When TX and I met in a hurricane shelter I was wearing Wrangler jean with a W on the back pocket. TX said every time I walked away from him, he saw WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!

  8. yamit82 Said:

    How will that effect or threaten you?

    Not at all if I never cross the border, which I never doo m so sad. Breakefast company tomorrow, can’t find my recipe ahhhhhh

  9. @ yamit82:

    I fell tonight and I hope my leg isn’t broken.

    🙁 🙁 🙁
    Refuah shlema u’miyadit!!!
    There is still a case of beer that needs to be opened… 😉

  10. honeybee Said:

    Lovely song, Mexicans are big on passion and small on reliability.

    that’s the difference between me and Mexicans. I am reliable.

    I fell tonight and I hope my leg isn’t broken. I’ve got it all iced down…will see in the morning.

  11. yamit82 Said:

    Venison? Ate it once too gamey

    People make sausage from it.

    yamit82 Said:

    the garden isn’t fenced?

    Someone [who shall go nameless] left the gate open
    yamit82 Said:

    Do you know this?

    Lovely song, Mexicans are big on passion and small on reliability. The Mexicans picked up Chapo Guzman, trouble shall ensue.

  12. honeybee Said:

    The Deer got into the garden,ate the red tomatoes and beet greens.

    the garden isn’t fenced?

    Venison? Ate it once too gamey for me. Anyway I would always picture Bambi or Flicka and lose my appetite. 😉

  13. @ yamit82:

    Bats carry rabies, you’re poor Mom. The Deer got into the garden,ate the red tomatoes and beet greens. Perhaps we will retaliate and eat the Deer.

  14. honeybee Said:

    I brought home a baby Pack Rat once.

    When I was ten My dad in his spare time built our new house. It took him two years. We moved into his brother slum apt offered for free a deal my parents at the time couldn’t refuse. The dam apt had bats. I remember my mom running around the house with a broom and me and my sister cowering under the blankets a really funny sight reflecting back. 🙂

  15. yamit82 Said:

    I guess we all need some structure in our lives?

    Females

    yamit82 Said:

    Cat or other predator probably got to her

    We haven’t had a kill near the house in about four yrs.

    yamit82 Said:

    Mom was supportive and patient.

    I brought home a baby Pack Rat once.

  16. honeybee Said:

    Great way to start the New Year.

    Yeah 🙁

    honeybee Said:

    Estoy bien y tu, esta hambre !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Ok !!! I just finished eating and took Dag out so I can relax for a couple of hours before the next time I need to take her out. She has me on a schedule. I guess we all need some structure in our lives?

    honeybee Said:

    Young Deer and the Doe just walked by my back door. The Doe has scars on her back that look like claw marks.

    Sounds peaceful and pastoral. I envy you that.

    Cat or other predator probably got to her and not necessarily when she was full grown unless the scars look recent.

    Even in Dimona there are too many folks to my liking but That’s what there is. One of my lifes regrets…..

    My favorite movie as a kid was “Home from the Hill” Shmaltz, but I remember I cried like a baby. I was the one who brought home every orphaned critter I found. Mom was supportive and patient.

  17. yamit82 Said:

    2nd post is in moderation????

    Great way to start the New Year.

    yamit82 Said:

    Yo te extraño tanto!!!! How are you??</blockquote

    Estoy bien y tu, esta hambre !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. @ honeybee:

    How are you? Yo te extraño tanto
    Teds spammer is giving me a hard Time. I wrote a very good reply to his tripe and it got wept into the ether 4 different times and configurations. 🙁

    I hope he posts it as I am proud of my response. 😉

  19. continued:@ honeybee:

    dweller has not learned that repeating popular historical revisionist spin is no substitute for real scholarship and analysis. He lacks profundity and erudition.

    There is one person on this planet that I would never never ever think of hurting intentionally besides my immediate family and that’s HB. You Barbs are another cup of merde!

    The only part of he ad-hoc analysis that I agree with is that Communism had a longer run. Nazism was classic fascism based on Mussolini’s philosophical base of elevating the State over everything else including the individual. The model was State Socialism. Remember that the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for “der Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei — in English translation: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party —

    The Nazis preached Racial supremacy the communists class warfare and social justice. Both advocated and implemented wealth distribution, and State control of the means of productionand distribution and everything in between:

    Con’t:

  20. @ dweller:

    dweller has not learned that repeating popular historical revisionist spin is no substitute for real scholarship and analysis. He lacks profundity and erudition.

    There is one person on this planet that I would never never ever think of hurting intentionally besides my immediate family and that’s HB. You Barbs are another cup of merde!

    The only part of he ad-hoc analysis that I agree with is that Communism had a longer run. Nazism was classic fascism based on Mussolini’s philosophical base of elevating the State over everything else including the individual. The model was State Socialism. Remember that the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for “der Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei — in English translation: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party —

    The Nazis preached Racial supremacy the communists class warfare and social justice. Both advocated and implemented wealth distribution, and State control of the means of productionand distribution and everything in between

    continued:

  21. @ d-w-e-l-l-e-r:

    dweller has not learned that repeating popular historical revisionist spin is no substitute for real scholarship and analysis. He lacks profundity and erudition.

    There is one person on this planet that I would never never ever think of hurting intentionally besides my immediate family and that’s HB. You Barbs are another cup of merde!

    The only part of he ad-hoc analysis that I agree with is that Communism had a longer run. Nazism was classic fascism based on Mussolini’s philosophical base of elevating the State over everything else including the individual. The model was State Socialism. Remember that the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for “der Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei — in English translation: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party —

    The Nazis preached Racial supremacy the communists class warfare and social justice. Both advocated and implemented wealth distribution, and State control of the means of productionand distribution and everything in between

    It was not the success of superior PR that was the prime reasons for communist success and Nazi failure. A little thing like WWl had a lot to do with the advancement of Communism Europe and North America. The mass slaughter was horrendous and the after shock to Europeans and Americans helped to make the universal utopian message of communism very attractive to wide swaths of the populations especially in Europe. Communism preached social permissiveness a break with traditional societal values like sexual liberation and approval of abortion leading ultimately to pornography in the 60’s. The Nazis actually promoted family values because it strengthened the State. Finally the Nazi movement essentially was dealt a death blow with their loss to Russia and the allies. The Communist movement riding the coattails of Russia emerging victorious and the victors always write their versions of the narrative.

    In America what defeated Communism more than anything else was the development of organized Labor which showed the way to elevate the worker his pay and conditions without the need for all out class warfare.

    Utopian comunism was attractive to the Wests intellectual elite, who through positions in Academia, the arts and other influential sectors of society helped to advance some form of the ideology. Their offspring today is evident in all the social and so called liberal and progressive movements in the world. Without military conquest the Nazis never had a chance of advancing beyond those areas that were conquered.

    Both systems were responsible for Mass murder on unheard of levels yet they were quite similar The Nazis stealing from communist Russia the technical methods of mass murder and State control.

    Hiter was a socialist and Nazi Germany was more socialist than Russia.

    Russia may have kicked the backsides of Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler, but there’s one foe it cannot overcome – the permissive society that they themselves originally promoted.

    “There’s no crying in baseball.”

  22. @ dweller:

    dweller has not learned that repeating popular historical revisionist spin is no substitute for real scholarship and analysis. He lacks profundity and erudition.

    There is one person on this planet that I would never never ever think of hurting intentionally besides my immediate family and that’s HB. You Barbs are another cup of merde!

    The only part of he ad-hoc analysis that I agree with is that Communism had a longer run. Nazism was classic fascism based on Mussolini’s philosophical base of elevating the State over everything else including the individual. The model was State Socialism. Remember that the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for “der Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiters Partei — in English translation: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party —

    The Nazis preached Racial supremacy the communists class warfare and social justice. Both advocated and implemented wealth distribution, and State control of the means of productionand distribution and everything in between

    It was not the success of superior PR that was the prime reasons for communist success and Nazi failure. A little thing like WWl had a lot to do with the advancement of Communism Europe and North America. The mass slaughter was horrendous and the after shock to Europeans and Americans helped to make the universal utopian message of communism very attractive to wide swaths of the populations especially in Europe. Communism preached social permissiveness a break with traditional societal values like sexual liberation and approval of abortion leading ultimately to pornography in the 60’s. The Nazis actually promoted family values because it strengthened the State. Finally the Nazi movement essentially was dealt a death blow with their loss to Russia and the allies. The Communist movement riding the coattails of Russia emerging victorious and the victors always write their versions of the narrative.

    In America what defeated Communism more than anything else was the development of organized Labor which showed the way to elevate the worker his pay and conditions without the need for all out class warfare.

    Utopian comunism was attractive to the Wests intellectual elite, who through positions in Academia, the arts and other influential sectors of society helped to advance some form of the ideology. Their offspring today is evident in all the social and so called liberal and progressive movements in the world. Without military conquest the Nazis never had a chance of advancing beyond those areas that were conquered.

    Both systems were responsible for Mass murder on unheard of levels yet they were quite similar The Nazis stealing from communist Russia the technical methods of mass murder and State control.

    Hiter was a socialist and Nazi Germany was more socialist than Russia.

    Russia may have kicked the backsides of Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler, but there’s one foe it cannot overcome – the permissive society that they themselves originally promoted.

    “There’s no crying in baseball.”

  23. dweller Said:

    — he owes you way too much for your support.

    No I owe him for the insight and instruction he has afforded me.

    dweller Said:

    If somebody hates you, that’s THEIR problem — not yours.

    It depends on the cause of their anger. Did I ere!!!!!!!!!
    dweller Said:

    Because if not, then WHAT? — the Galveston Flood will return on Halloween nite?

    dweller Said:

    Don’t live anywhere near Galveston.

    You’ll forget the recipe for chiles rellenos

    Don’t make chiles rellenos, I like to out for them and my favorite Mexican restaurant, Sweetie

  24. @ honeybee:

    “[Communism] was hardier than Nazism because it understood PR better than the Nasties ever did. The dirty little secret of the left generally — and Communism in particular — is that while (in contrast to Nazism) Communism talked the talk of ‘compassion’

    — it walked the walk of POWER, just as surely as the Nasties themselves.”

    “Not true,very superficial, shallow explanation and historically inaccurate if not outright revisionist.”

    “Do you really believe the above[?]

    I rather agreed with dweller.”

    Ah, the kiss of death.

    “Please don’t hate me.”

    No fear of that. He can’t afford to hate you

    — he owes you way too much for your support.

    And besides, why is keeping somebody from hating you important?

    If somebody hates you, that’s THEIR problem — not yours.

    Your problem is your OWN hate.

    “I sure you will correct me compassionately.”

    Because if not, then WHAT? — the Galveston Flood will return on Halloween nite?

    Chicken Little will say, ‘I told you so’?

    You’ll forget the recipe for chiles rellenos?

  25. @ yamit82:
    yamit82 Said:

    Not true,very superficial, shallow explanation and historically inaccurate if not outright revisionist.

    Do you really believe the above. I rather agreed with dweller. Please don’t hate me. I sure you will correct me compassionately.

  26. “Unlike Nazism, communism has never been judged guilty or even held responsible for the carnage and suffering it has caused. “

    This is because, of the two species of totalitarianism, Communism was the hardier. So it had an easier time of getting a real foothold in cultures & societies than did Nazism — and had a longer period during which to become thus entrenched.

    It was hardier than Nazism because it understood PR better than the Nasties ever did.

    The dirty little secret of the left generally — and Communism in particular — is that while (in contrast to Nazism) Communism talked the talk of ‘compassion’

    — it walked the walk of POWER, just as surely as the Nasties themselves.

  27. What the liberal academia does not want anybody to talk about: 40 Mil died under Stalin and near 80 Mil under Mao. Vive “la Gauche” & “the Communists”. Both are fundamentally totalitarian. Their leaders and the elite are very rich. The left is full of new-communist revenchards.
    yamit82 Said:

    Moderate (civilized) Muslims

    They represent an infinite minority. The majority has their brain reduced in ashes as the result of genocidal brainwashing.

  28. yamit82 Said:

    If Moderate (civilized) Muslims existed, by definition they would have already spoken out.

    Here in the “outback” nobody believes the govt, especially when the Muslims are chopping off the heads of Okies.

  29. For logic-minded Americans still genuinely puzzled as to how it could be that our presidents and secretaries of state and generals and pundits keep hammering home the big lie that Islam has nothing to do with jihad, that the religion of conquest is a “religion of peace,” I have a special warning. Such widespread, politics- and mass-media-driven brainwashing is nothing new.

    Just as today’s opinion-makers seek to divorce Islam from its impact — for example, brutal conquest, forced conversion, religiously sanctioned sex slavery, beheadings — past opinion-makers worked equally hard to divorce communism from its impact — for example, brutal conquest, forced collectivization, concentration camps (Gulags), mass murder.

    The answer seems to be “Liberalism” which is a psychological disorder.

    Like lycanthropy.

    Being a werewolf.

    But much worse.

    Because werewolves only go apeshit during a full moon.

  30. Watching FN daily I keep hearing the question “When will the so called Moderate (civilized) Muslims speak out against these radicals.”

    It is a definitional matter.

    If Moderate (civilized) Muslims existed, by definition they would have already spoken out.

  31. Is Islamic terrorism threatening our freedom, our countries and our civilization?

    No.

    Islamic terrorism is presenting a challenge to our freedom, our countries and our civilization.

    Western cowardice is threatening our freedom, our countries and our civilization.