by Mark Armstrong
We know that all analogies break down eventually, but this one goes quite a ways, and might have merit. Here goes. We’ve all been kidnapped. We’ve been treated to sensory deprivation. Maybe not blindfolded in a closet, but certainly detained inside for millions of Americans. The media has pushed a narrative day and night, and won’t let up until we espouse their logic as if it’s our own. We’ve not yet joined the narrative, which has a lot in common with the doctrines of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Back in the 1970’s, as the media saw the crime spree that stretched from San Fransisco to Los Angeles, they were aghast that the philosophy espoused by these conscienceless criminals actually called for the overthrow of the nation. It was such an outlandish and ridiculous concept that NOT ONE media reporter made any attempt to plead theirs as a righteous cause. But times have changed. In fact none other than Jeffrey Toobin expressed astonishment that this militant little band of misfits actually believed that they could overthrow the United States and convince the public to join their cause. Nowadays he’s on CNN most every night, astonished that we don’t all recognize what a lying narcissist Trump is, and pushing the narrative that the United States is irredeemably racist.
Many of the reporters, having watched in chagrin as one coup attempt and then an impeachment charade against President Trump went up in smoke, are on the side of the criminals. They’re not robbing banks or shooting up sporting goods outlets, but they are looting businesses by the thousands and burning locations they’ve dubbed “racist.” Legions of “contributors,” many of whom you’ve never heard of, line up to plead the case of systemic racism day and night on most information outlets. But they are “experts” that we’d be crazy not to embrace. After all, they’re a lot smarter than anyone who would disagree with their “experts.” The anchors sneer at patriotic Americans, and mimic the “average” barely literate Trump supporter.
They’re not ashamed to call the president a liar, and claim that the rest of us are products of a “systemically racist culture.” Apparently people of all races are racist, particularly successful and articulate blacks that don’t support the cause of revolution. It’s not all that far off from the strain of “logic” we of a certain age remember all too well.
Patty Hearst was kidnapped from the upstairs apartment she shared with her boyfriend in a Berkley neighborhood. Purportedly knocked unconscious during the abduction, she claimed to have been blindfolded in a locked closet for weeks. She says she was given a flashlight as a way for her to read the printed propaganda and commit it to memory. Eventually she convinced her captors that she had converted to their philosophy and was commissioned as a “soldier” for their cause.
The Symbionese Liberation Army had its own religion of sorts, spelled out in a manifesto that you can go and read. It calls for a, “unity of all left-wing struggles: feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist” and demanded that all races and genders join together in a united front and live together peacefully. Homosexuality wasn’t cool yet, so they left one out that’s smack in the middle of the current version.
“Hearst claimed she was subjected to a series of ordeals while in SLA captivity that her mother would later describe as ‘brainwashing’. The change in Hearst’s politics has been attributed to Stockholm syndrome, a psychological response in which a hostage exhibits apparent loyalty to the abductor.” It apparently worked. Ms. Hearst publicly denounced her parents, accused her mother of all manner of hateful intentions, and CHANGED HER NAME to “Tania” which was the name of an associate of Che Guevara known as “Tania the Guerrilla.”
The radical group murdered the first black school superintendent in Oakland, Marcus Foster, accusing him of being a fascist for his participation in a plan to issue student ID. These revolutionary radicals thought they’d spark a race war that everybody would join. They hated the police and called them pigs. They apparently thought their movement would lead to the overthrow of the United States, destroy capitalism, cut off family ties and lead to an era where everyone would live together in peace and harmony.
The radical group even tried to win over at least a segment of the public by giving away free groceries, courtesy William Randolf Hearst. But that didn’t go so well. Socialism never does.
Now we’ve got antifa, BLM, radical youth movements whose names we’ve not committed to memory, along with the “gay” movement. None of them have a “spokesperson” issuing communiques, so there’s no leader to be hunted down. But the ideology of the violent insurrection of the early ‘70s is strikingly similar to that being preached on every mainstream network around the clock. The radicals don’t need to issue statements of explanation because the network anchors have that covered.
Many in the United States are experiencing a milder form of sensory deprivation than the kidnapped heiress, but nevertheless are “locked down” and subjected to constant brainwashing by the vast majority of media outlets. They’re cut off from normal contact with friends and family. You read at the outset that all analogies break down eventually, and this one is no exception. But there are too many similarities to ignore, and the ideology of revolution is nearly identical. The radicals are apparently waiting for all of us to exhibit symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome and join the cause, which is almost identical to that espoused by Patty Hearst’s kidnappers. It worked on her. They claim to be protecting people from Covid, but it seems like we’ve been kidnapped and they’re trying to infect us all with Stockholm Syndrome.
Stockholm Syndrome comes from an incident in 1973 where bank robbers held hostages who came to feel an affinity for their captors, and refused to testify against them in court. There are four key components that characterize Stockholm Syndrome:
A hostage’s development of positive feelings towards the captor
No previous relationship between hostage and captor
A refusal by hostages to cooperate with police forces and other government authorities
A hostage’s belief in the humanity of the captor
Has it occurred to anybody that the radicals and news anchors may be waiting to see if we all don’t contract the syndrome?
