We are living through turbulent times. The past decade has brought a virus, widespread illegal immigration, and social issues in cities caused by these events. It has impacted both rural areas and downtowns across America. 

As I have mentioned several times, the current period the US is experiencing closely resembles Mao’s Cultural Revolution years. This was a decade-long sociopolitical movement that began in 1966 to strengthen Mao's authority and support communism by removing traditional and capitalist influences from Chinese society. 

Officially called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), it was a tumultuous and violent movement initiated by Mao Zedong to reestablish his control. Millions of students were organized into the Red Guards. The Red Guards publicly persecuted millions of people identified as "class enemies.” These groups targeted and attacked intellectuals, teachers, officials, and anyone linked to "bourgeois" ties.

This was exemplified by the attacks on the "Four Olds": Red Guards were directed to destroy the "Four Olds" — old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. This resulted in widespread destruction of historical sites, artifacts, and literature.

Does any of this sound familiar?

We are under attack not only on our way of life but also on truth itself. This manufactured reality is similar to philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of "regime of truth," a single, uncontested version of events, including the discourses deemed true, the methods for distinguishing truth from falsehood, and the roles of those who speak truth. 

Dr. Drew Pinsky, chief patient officer at The Wellness Company, called it a sign of a dangerous societal shift. "Whenever mass murder has occurred, it's always been in a setting of dehumanization, always." Mobs often begin by scapegoating and stripping rivals of their humanity, which they believe ultimately gives them permission for violence. "One of the things that mobs do is they scapegoat, they first dehumanize," said Pinsky, "And once they’re scapegoating, they go for blood.

What I have learned in watching the political nonsense play out is that if you attack someone, invoking name-calling and categorizations, if you are a “threat to democracy,” you then accuse someone of being a “threat to democracy.” As a real-time exercise, go to Google News and search “Joseph Goebbels big lie.”

Kids … it is happening before your very eyes.

Institutional antisemitic activity, the made-up research validating “facts” in academic research, along with misinformation and personal polarization, have negatively impacted our perception of truth.

Many coastal towns and downtown areas have become exaggerated have-and-have-not scenarios due to the impact of the virus lockdown, disrupting the balance of timely rent payments and the flow of rent money to property owners. A massive influx of illicit drugs created a situation where many displaced people stood on street corners, appearing like drug zombies. Traditional work patterns were disrupted, leading to significant vacancies in office buildings, decreased street foot traffic, and shifts in the retail landscape in downtown areas due to the absence of office workers.

Planning tools like the 15-minute city will eventually aim to prevent movement between wealthy and socioeconomically challenged areas, creating self-sufficient enclaves. Under the guise of climate action, society will become more fragmented, similar to what happened in the split of France after Charlemagne's death, when the regionalization of the feudal lord’s wealth and land overrode the commonality of central authority.

Efforts to discredit our founding fathers came during the Lockdown, starting with the statues of Civil War generals and moving to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The problem now in America is that old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas are working for many people. 

Events of the past month reveal how deeply people embracing religious beliefs, traditional mores and folkways are being dehumanized. Traditional media outlets manipulate the news to support this dehumanization; the same outlets you trusted during the Kennedy assassination and Watergate now appear to be creating a “regime of truth” that is crumbling under the weight of where it's leading us.

We are quickly approaching a point where action is unavoidable. The Bird flu, especially H5N1, first identified in domestic waterfowl in China in 1996, is impacting our food supply. Foreign governments are purchasing our farmland and food infrastructure. Foreign nationals are smuggling mold spores and other microbes that could threaten our food system.

Sources outside the country are funding protests against our system. The pallets of bricks that mysteriously appeared during some ANTIFA riots could easily be turned into pallets of more dangerous weapons. Meanwhile, traditional media support calls to defund the police and push for gun control.

How is this all possible? Because we are America, and freedom is held dear to us, evidently, even if it is used to bring our demise.

Barry Cassidy is a freelance grant and economic development consultant. He can be reached at barrycassidy@comcast.net.