US ‘Woke’ Movement Mirrors Chinese Cultural Revolution: Victor Davis Hanson

The “woke” movement that is currently engulfing America mirrors China’s Cultural Revolution under communist leader Mao Zedong, according to classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson. The Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976. Mao Zedong declared class war, bringing chaos and violence to the country. During the 10-year period, schools were closed, historical relics and artifacts were destroyed, and cultural and religious sites were ransacked. The economy stagnated, millions were persecuted for their political beliefs, and an estimated 1.5 million people died. “They went after people with eyeglasses; they went after people [who] had any foreign accent or had a degree,” Hanson told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program on Feb. 14. “It was sort of like this ‘woke’ revolution that is permeating every part [of our country]. It’s not just political. It’s cultural. It’s social; it’s racial. And it’s trying to change the way we think about our country. And that’s what’s scary,” he added. The term “woke” is used by both liberals and conservatives to describe a number of more radical progressive ideologies, including critical race theory, social justice, and gender theory. Unlike the protests of the 1960s, the current woke revolution “was staged from the top,” Hanson says. “The Left was not marching on the Pentagon. The Left was not marching on the campus administrator. The Left was not marching on Anaconda Copper or ITT as they had been. They were inside the boardroom. They were inside the president’s office. They were inside the FBI. They were inside the CIA. They were inside the Pentagon.” An Orwellian Plan Hanson discussed the 1619 Project championed by New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, which argues that the United States was racist in its founding, with the Revolutionary War fought to preserve slavery. Further, it argues the Constitution was written to codify systematic oppression against people of color. A curriculum based on the project and developed by the Pulitzer Center has made its way into public school districts across the nation, including Chicago, Buffalo, Newark, and Washington DC. “If you’ve got control of the institutions,” such as universities and the media, Hanson said, “you can convince people that 1776 was not the founding of the country. It was 1619 when the first slave was landed by the British.” According to this Orwellian re-writing of history, Hansen continued, “your revolution was not for what you think. It was to fight the British because they wanted to free slaves and you wanted to keep them. And you can make that false narrative, you can institutionalize it. Then, in the future, you can justify everything from reparations to reparatory admissions and hiring.” Undermining US Credibility As the author of a number of best-selling books, including most recently “The Dying Citizen,” Hanson said that China could use the recent spy balloon incident to undermine the credibility of the United States in international politics. According to the Pentagon, the balloon entered the United States on Jan. 28, made a brief incursion over Canada’s airspace, reentered the United States, and traveled over multiple sensitive military sites before an F-22 fighter jet shot it down off the South Carolina coast a week later. China could take note of how the Biden administration handled the balloon incident, and spread the rhetoric to U.S. allies such as the Philippines, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea: “Do you really want to be under these people’s nuclear umbrella? Do you really think they’re going to help you? Do you really think if you’re in our neighborhood, and we tell you to jump, they’re going to say ‘you don’t have to’? We just sent a balloon across the continental United States and they could not even shoot it down.” The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House, the FBI, the CIA, and the Pentagon for comment.