The following is an edited transcript of a Daily Wire interview with Bill Whittle on his new, in-depth docuseries on the rise of the Soviet Union: &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What We Saw: An Empire of Terror</a>.&#8221; 
Daily Wire: Bill, you’ve now produced multiple “What We Saw” documentaries for The Daily Wire: “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apollo 11</a>” and “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Cold War</a>.” Why did you choose the rise of the Soviet Union as your next project?
Bill: Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine I received a call from Jeremy Boreing at The Daily Wire. I just finished covering a fair amount of Russia with &#8220;The Cold War&#8221; series. Given the research for &#8220;The Cold War,&#8221; and my previous readings, I&#8217;ve always been kind of morbidly fascinated with the mechanisms of the Soviet Union — fascinated and disgusted and appalled and intrigued by governments that have to terrorize their people in order to remain in power, antithetical to the American system. And no matter how bad we think things get here, there&#8217;s nothing that&#8217;s happened or is happening now in this country that even approaches this scale.
DW: Why is it important to remember Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution?
Bill: Several years after World War I, Winston Churchill said that the Germans had transmitted a “Bacillus” into Russia in the form of Lenin. I think he got that exactly right. It (Lenin) was a biological weapon. And it was designed to destroy Russia as a great power in World War I. That&#8217;s why the Germans not only allowed Lenin to travel through Germany during the height of the war, but in fact paid his expenses for many, many years afterwards.
This regime is interesting to me for two reasons: the main reason is how intellectual it was — and I have a very low opinion of intellectuals. Intellectualism is for people who think they are intelligent and are so certain of themselves and so certain of what they believe that they feel the right to enforce their theories on other people.
What fascinated me about this horrific system was the theoretical aspect of everything. There was nothing about the system that was practical. There was nothing based on common sense, experience, reason, kindness, decency — nothing. It was all based on the theory of a German philosopher named Karl Marx. His writings appealed to people looking for some sort of justice, but they also appealed to people who had any sort of envy for the people in power but didn&#8217;t want to do any work in order to achieve it.
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The other remarkable quality about all of the Soviet leaders is just how useless they were. Prior to finding themselves in the middle of the system, none of them had jobs. Lenin’s only job was as a failed attorney, very briefly. As a lawyer he lost, I think, 13 out of 14 cases and never really worked a day in his life. Prior to the revolution, he sat around for 16 years, sitting in cafes in safe places like Berlin and Munich and London and Zurich, sipping tea and discussing theory. 
He developed in his massive forehead this idea of how a society should work and there was no real world evidence that would change his mind. If it turned out that there was a difference between the map he had in his head and reality, then the reality had to be well, he would then go about doing whatever he had to do with the lovers of state power to beat reality into line with the theory. And this is why the Soviet state was a terror state. They never had legitimacy. 
The Bolsheviks were a minority every single time they held a so-called “election;” they were a tremendous minority. And you can’t even accuse the Nazis of that.
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DW: In &#8220;An Empire of Terror&#8221; you mention the leader of Russia’s provisional government, Alexander Kerensky. Why wasn’t he able to mount a good defense against the growing Bolshevik threat?
Bill: Someone once wrote that Lenin was “lucky with his enemies.” And that was exactly the case. I have very high regard for Alexander Kerensky’s principles and for what he wanted for the Russian people. But as an actor, Kerensky had two qualities that actors often bring to the world: First, he was spectacularly naive when it came to the real world. And second, he was tremendously vain. These two blind spots led him to believe he was in control when in fact, Lenin was ready to do everything up to and including murder when Kerensky was simply looking out the window at the daisies. He was a good man and history was kind to him but he was no match for Lenin’s ruthlessness. This is the thing about the Soviet state — it&#8217;s designed in such a way that you have to keep the population under control through terror. The people that end up running the machine, by definition, become the most ruthless and terroristic of the bunch.
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DW: What were some of the challenges you faced making this new series?
Bill: All roads lead back to Lenin. When I began to realize the magnitude of the crimes that these people committed, I began to feel a tremendous sense of historical responsibility to the people who disappeared without photographs.
800,000 people were killed in one of the gulags called Kolyma. 800,000 people. That makes it second on the leaderboard from hell: Auschwitz is first, Kolyma is second, and Treblinka is third. So, more than anything, I wanted every single episode to have as many photographs of the faces of individual people. And most importantly, we can never use the same face twice. I just wanted faces because, as Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.”
So my biggest challenge was to find a way to try and personalize this. Make people understand that this could just as easily be you or your family, and then try to give them some idea of what the size of 20 million people looks like.
For example, about 100,000 people attend the Super Bowl every year. Imagine that everybody had to exit the stadium, single file, through one gate and you had to stand there and look at every single face as they left the stadium. When you were finished, hours and hours and hours later, you would have only 199 more Super Bowls to look at before you reached 20 million and saw the face of every person killed by this “idea.” And if it&#8217;s killed that many people, maybe it&#8217;s not such a good idea.
DW: Did you come across any surprises in your research?
Bill: The most astonishing story in &#8220;An Empire of Terror&#8221; is a true story. I&#8217;ve worked exceedingly hard and long to make sure that not only everything I wrote was true, but that I also had the receipts for everything.
But the most astonishing coincidence in the entire series is this: Lenin and Stalin were both known to be extremely paranoid, and very, very private people. They kept a very tight circle and they were constantly on the lookout for assassination and betrayal. So when Lenin finally arrives in Moscow from St. Petersburg, and eventually gets himself a little mansion, he is living with his sisters, his wife, and two secretaries. He also has four bodyguards and a private cook named Comrade Spiridon.
Comrade Spiridon went from being the only person that lived with Lenin, who was not related to him, to becoming the only person who lived with Stalin. And he lived with Stalin for the duration of Stalin&#8217;s reign in the Soviet Union. The only person who shared the insight into the entire thing — from the rise from agrarian peasantry to nuclear superpower. Comrade Spiridon was the only man who was on the inside. He would serve dinner to people who were the heads of the secret police one night and then the next night they were gone. They&#8217;d been killed and replaced. The genuinely remarkable part of this story is that Comrade Spiridon’s last name was Putin. This was Vladimir Putin&#8217;s grandfather.
Vladimir Putin learned about the Soviet Union on his grandfather&#8217;s knee. And so the perspective Vladimir Putin received of the Soviet Union was the most elevated inside perspective that was possible to obtain. No one else in the entire history of the Soviet Union, ever, got that close to both of those men. And to think that it was possible for Vladimir Putin to turn out any other way is insane.
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DW: In light of the upcoming presidential election, do you see elements of communism at play in our politics?
Bill: Well, the first thing I think that stands out about the upcoming election is the lawfare that&#8217;s being conducted against Donald Trump. If these people who are committing these atrocities against him genuinely believed in democracy, if they genuinely believed that their democratic values were better than Republican values, they wouldn&#8217;t be trying to lock up Trump. They&#8217;d be doing everything they could to get him to keep talking. If you feel like your only way to win an election is by having your opponent put in jail, you are well on your way to this kind of totalitarian empire of terror. That&#8217;s number one.
Number two is cancel culture. The Left is using cancel culture as a strong-arm tactic to get people to shut up. And we all know the way it works: “You&#8217;re racist” or “we&#8217;re going to call your boss” or “we&#8217;re going to boycott your product” or whatever. But the point is that the only people who feel they need to shut up the opposition are people who know that their opposition has a better argument. And if they don&#8217;t shut them up, they&#8217;re going to win. One of my favorite sayings is that liberals want conservatives to shut up and conservatives want liberals to keep talking. And that&#8217;s the essence of the difference between these two parties.
I have seen a concerted effort in America over the last several years to silence people. This whole idea of cancel culture is as close as we&#8217;ve come so far to taking people out to the Gulag and shooting them in the back of the head. But there are people who do want other people silenced. And the one thing I did realize is that there comes a tipping point when too many people are too quiet for too long. The social proof is to be quiet. The longer everybody is quiet, the harder it is to speak up. Eventually, it will lead to a situation like the Soviet Union, or the Nazi state. With &#8220;An Empire of Terror,&#8221; I was determined to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

EOT – Key Art – 16×9 (1)

‘An Empire Of Terror’: Bill Whittle On The Rise Of The Soviet Union

Bill Whittle

Communism

Documentaries

Josef Stalin

Opinion

Readers Pass

Russia

Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

Here’s how World War III could happen.
To understand how, we should look historically at the closest that the world has gotten to World War III since the end of World War II.
The world came closest to World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Soviet Union attempted to ship nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba and the United States put a blockade around Cuba to prevent that from happening.
The United States and the USSR stood eyeball-to-eyeball and eventually the USSR backed down. But — that was very, very close.
To understand why we came so close to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, you actually have to reverse field for a few years.
The reality is that the USSR started to challenge the United States so strenuously around the world because of roughly a decade of weakness in American foreign policy.
This is how world wars break out — miscalculation. They break out because one side believes that the other side is likely to cave in the face of its aggression.
It&#8217;s particularly true when the United States shows its neck to its enemies. So to really understand what was happening in the lead-up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, you have to return to 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower was president and there was a crisis that emerged in the Middle East.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1930-world-war-iii-china-edition-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
That crisis involved the Suez Canal. Nasser, the nationalist, pan-Arab nationalist leader of Egypt, decided that he was going to unite all the Arab countries by flexing muscle in the face of the West. And so he decided that despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the building of the Suez Canal, he would nationalize the Suez Canal.
The French and the British both had an interest in the Suez Canal. And they said to Nasser, you can&#8217;t do that. The United States stood on the sidelines and vacillated for a couple of reasons: They believed that if they were kind enough to Nasser, then Nasser would not align himself with the Soviet Union and that Nasser might, in fact, become the tip of the spear in some sort of American overture to the Arab world; if they were just kind and nice to Nasser, then everything would work out just fine. They were supposedly afraid that the USSR was going to get directly involved in the Suez Canal crisis.
Meanwhile, the British were no longer an international power of the sort of vintage they had been historically. The British and the French, who had historically not worked particularly well together, decided to work with the Israelis in order to liberate the Suez Canal, which the British had built.
They went to the Israelis, who were worried about the Egyptian militarization of the Sinai Desert, and Israel decided that it would work with the British and the French in order to free the Suez Canal and possibly overthrow Nasser and put in place somebody who was not going to be an enemy of the West.
The Israelis ended up moving into the Sinai desert, which they quickly overran, and then they were on the march to Cairo.
The plan was for the British and the French to intervene, tell the Israelis to stop, and take over the Suez Canal.
And then — Eisenhower stepped in and rapped everyone on the knuckles. The United States actually stepped in on Egypt’s side and said to the British and the French that this was a violation of international law, hoping Nasser would then align himself with the West. The United States was basically saying to the British and the French that they were no longer world powers.
Again, the Egyptian government didn&#8217;t build the Suez Canal. The British government did it. None of that mattered; the bottom line was that the United States decided to play non-aligned. And in playing non-aligned, Nikita Khrushchev, the new premier of the Soviet Union, decided now was the time to move.
The next thing that happened, just a few months later, was that there was an uprising in Hungary, a state in the Soviet sphere of influence. Suddenly there was a Hungarian revolution, an attempt to actually substitute the puppet government that had been installed by the Soviets with a new government, a better government that was going to essentially remain non-aligned.
The Soviets immediately invaded Hungary and crushed everything and killed everyone involved in the Hungarian revolution of 1956. By 1957, Sputnik was launched and the space race was on. By 1958, Nikita Khrushchev, believing that he had the impetus, felt he had the power to challenge the United States globally.
In 1958, he demanded the withdrawal of American troops and Western troops from Berlin, beginning what was known as the Berlin crisis. For three long years, the Soviet Union and the United States stood toe-to-toe over Berlin.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union facilitated a Cuban revolution that ended with Fidel Castro in charge of Cuba. In 1961, Khrushchev stepped in and solved the Berlin crisis by building the Berlin Wall, which lasted until 1989.
All of this led to the Cuban Missile crisis.
There is one rule when it comes to World War: Lack of clarity in your intention, vacillation, failure to make clear to your enemies what exactly your lines are.
Fake bluffs, empty threats. These things lead to war. Very often the open threat of war actually deters war. Very often, the willingness to actually flex muscle leads the other side to believe, “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t actually go and have this firefight with somebody. They&#8217;re ready to have the firefight.”
Miscalculation is the most likely way the great powers end up in war. That&#8217;s precisely what happened during World War I and happened during World War II. The Germans miscalculated because they thought that since the West had caved at Munich and because they&#8217;d been able to occupy the Sudetenland, they would then be able to then occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia. The aftermath of that was that they thought they could then occupy the Danzig corridor.
Failure of willingness to convey your intention, failure to act as an iron wall against the aggression of your enemies, leads to escalation. And then you actually do get dragged into hot wars that involve extraordinary numbers of casualties.
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Today there is a story out of the <a href="https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Express</a> that American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are buzzing the borders of the Taiwan Strait, which is divided between Taiwan and China in terms of offshore control. Chinese jets have been busing the Taiwan Straits. The Chinese are again pursuing hypersonic missile tests.
Now, why would they be doing all of this? The reason they are doing that is because Joe Biden has demonstrated he&#8217;s showing his neck while China has been busily facilitating the creation of an anti-American, anti-Western alliance predominantly staffed by China, Russia and Iran.
Those are countries that are very obviously working together, so much so that the Houthis, an Iranian-backed terror group that is currently attacking shipping in the Red Sea, announced that they would not attack any Chinese or Russian shipping in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
What the Biden administration should be doing is taking the position that it is going to destroy any Houthi attempts to harass shipping in the Red Sea. What the United States should be doing in Ukraine is holding the line; the United States does have an interest in holding the line against Russia. The United States, when it comes to Israel, should be saying that Israel has the full capacity to go in to strike Hamas, which is an Iranian proxy group.
The reason that China is getting aggressive with Taiwan, the reason that a war could possibly break out is because China is thinking, “We just don&#8217;t believe that Joe Biden is going to do anything about that. Not only that, you guys look so divided internally in the United States on foreign policy that if we make a move, we think that probably you will just let it go.&#8221;
The single most effective method of upgrading Chinese military capacity is to take or blockade Taiwan. It&#8217;s not about the money for the Chinese military; it is about the microchips. Taiwan is the largest manufacturer of microchips, sophisticated microchips on the planet.
Those microchips are the single greatest advantage the United States has in terms of military tech, because we design all the software here and then the hardware is then printed off and created in Taiwan, but we&#8217;re not even able to ramp up our microchip facilities in the United States fast enough to make up for Taiwan being lost.
But mostly, this is about will.
After the abandonment of Hong Kong, after the abandonment of Afghanistan, after the internal pressures in the United States over Ukraine and Israel, the Chinese are hoping that Taiwan is going to get the message and elect a government that is friendlier to China and then just give them the microchips. Suddenly their military would go from a very large but second-rate military to a first-class military.
It is a game of perception. How does the world perceive Joe Biden right now? They perceive him as weak. How does the world perceive the United States? They perceive the United States as divided. When you have a weak president and a divided United States, that seems like a really good time to march.
And that&#8217;s precisely why it matters.

Russia Holds 75th Anniversary Victory Parade Over The Nazis In WWII

Here’s How World War III Could Happen

Ben Shapiro

Biden Administration

China

Cuba

Egypt

Joe Biden

As Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine continue to dominate political discourse and presidential agendas this election year, DailyWire+ announced on Wednesday the launch of “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror,” the latest iteration of its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">popular anthology docuseries</a> hosted by renowned storyteller Bill Whittle.
Now in its third season, the show’s newest episodes investigate the class-based genocide perpetrated by communist Soviets in the early 20th century under the reigns of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, unveiling a chilly reality of fear and violence.
The first episode of “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror” is now streaming on DailyWire+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Wednesdays.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/innocent-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH ‘WHAT WE SAW: AN EMPIRE OF TERROR’ ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
Russia’s relationship with the United States has long been a complicated one, and though the countries have been allies at times, relations are again strained following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. To comprehend Putin’s motivations in the modern global landscape, Whittle guides viewers through Lenin and Stalin’s regimes, exploring the historical context that shaped the current Russian president’s behaviors.
“Putin wanted to join the KGB from the time he was a small child, but why? I can’t tell you what goes on in Putin’s head, no one can. I thought the next best thing was to show you the horror of what was in front of his eyes growing up,” Whittle says in episode 8.
Whittle&#8217;s core message of common sense and decency has earned him a devoted following among those who value reasoned thought, civil dialogue, and vigorous laughter. His powers of vivid storytelling, relentless logic, and self-deprecating humor join forces to apply time-tested principles in memorable ways.
“What We Saw” is an exclusive <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=paid&amp;utm_source=googlesearch&amp;utm_content=na_subscriptions&amp;mid=g&amp;cid=dailywire&amp;xid=0&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMe6RmlPijLsp3ZTnuxrm6cvHV_fqd9ibYczyBD8MSDUCoQBzpdNGkhoC7QgQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire+</a> anthology series that presents pivotal historical events as a creative cinematic adventure. Subscribe now to watch the full Apollo 11 and Cold War seasons and catch new episodes of An Empire of Terror weekly on dailywireplus.com.
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Empire of Terror

DailyWire+ Launches ‘An Empire Of Terror,’ Third Installment Of Hit Docuseries ‘What We Saw’ Hosted By Bill Whittle

DailyWire+

Vladimir Putin

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill
Socialism is a terrific idea in theory. Who would not want everyone in society to have a house with a white picket fence, the job of their dreams, 2.5 kids and a dog? But plain vanilla socialism has failed every single time it has been implemented — the Soviet Union, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Venezuela — and it turned each of those countries (and others) into a totalitarian state.
In a socialist state, success is pushed down, and failure is elevated. This is how equality of outcome is created. In the Soviet Union’s version of plain vanilla socialism, we were taught to hate the wealthy and empathize with the poor. This empathy was easy for us because everyone (with the exception of the tiny ruling-class bureaucrats) was poor.
Capitalism does not offer the sexy, utopian promise of socialism, but it works in practice. Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty; but it is now under threat, ironically, from those who have benefited the most from it — academics. Universities  have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the wealth created by capitalism. 
As Margaret Thatcher once said, “Socialism is a great idea until you run out of other people’s money.”
Universities used to be spartan gyms for our minds, places where opposing ideas collided and gave birth to new ones and where our thinking got challenged through healthy debate. This growth came with healthy pain, the type that accompanies and stimulates intellectual growth.
Today, many universities have been turned into day spas, where, for <a href="https://www.collegeessayadvisors.com/ivy-league-tuition-and-fees-2022-23/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$300,000</a>, a student’s mind will be pampered and coddled. Now they are “safe places” from opposing ideas, which are <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/absurd-uva-microaggressions-case-shows-just-how-badly-schools-can-abuse-professionalism-codes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considered</a> as microaggressions. This is where free speech goes to die, unless it calls for the genocidal extermination of Jews; then you can speak your mind.
It seems today’s college administrations are afraid to upset their spa customers (I mean students). They do not seem to be focused on challenging their thinking and producing the brightest but are instead fixated on making students feel better about themselves.
I was not surprised to learn that socialism is slowly poisoning our universities, but I was surprised by its new avenue — the socialization of grades. Professors at a local law school are required to grade to a B+. When professors submit their grades, if the average is below a B+, the system will reject it. The university is afraid of making students feel bad about a low, albeit deserved grade and wants every student to have a high grade-point average upon graduation.
However, what is inflation for one group is deflation for another. This practice punishes hard working students, as their work may result in a lower grade than they deserve, compared to classmates who are preoccupied with attending “TikTok University” during lectures.
Universities are on a quixotic mission to right a wrong — they are fighting against grade inequality. This is what socializing (equalizing) outcomes looks like. In fact, this seemingly innocent practice of equally high grades has the familiar ring of a Karl Marx slogan that I heard endlessly in the Soviet Union: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Law students need a B+, so they get a B+. 
With each graduating class, our capitalistic (equal-opportunity) society is being slowly diluted by equal-outcome dogma (socialism).
Grade inflation appears to be happening in virtually <a href="https://www.gradeinflation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">every college</a> across the country. Colleges should not receive all the blame for this, however. Unfortunately, it starts in high schools, where super grade inflation is on the rise — grades have gone up while reading and math skills have fallen, with <a href="https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minorities experiencing</a> the largest grade inflation. 
Bad grades are a necessary part of education. How else would you know you had not learned something as well as you thought you had? I failed English as a freshman in college. I had been in the US for two years. My English was objectively horrible. I’m glad I didn’t receive special (woke) treatment for being “fresh off the boat.” I studied a lot harder, retook the class and passed it my senior year. If I had not, my English would not have improved and I would not have written several books or received national awards for writing.
The beauty of the Declaration of Independence is that you are guaranteed the “pursuit of happiness” — you are given an equal chance to pursue it. You are not guaranteed the outcome, just the opportunity. There is enormous value, and yes even happiness and meaning in the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit will often take you down a harder road, but it will result in the best version of you and bring a sense of pride and accomplishment.
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-1-a-small-country-with-a-big-story">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 1: A Small Country With A Big Story</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-2-wokeness-is-destroying-america-one-student-at-a-time">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 2: Wokeness Is Destroying America — One Student at a Time</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-4-one-way-to-save-america-and-israel">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 4: One Way To Save America And Israel</a>
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Vitaliy Katsenelson is CEO of <a href="https://imausa.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://imausa.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw30zrUEAHOucJkCFFh3YMfC">IMA</a> – a value investing firm in Denver. You can read his articles on  <a href="http://contrarianedge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ContrarianEdge.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Ak6ognAG7cu6Z8Bx_j7L8">ContrarianEdge.com</a>. He is the author of <a href="https://soulinthegame.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://soulinthegame.net/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0w8zHUpuqxRre_0scGo3hI">Soul in the Game</a> – The Art of a Meaningful Life (Harriman House, 2022).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

optical form of an examination with pencil

Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 3: The Socialism Of Grades

College

Education

Socialism

Universities

Woke Culture

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler may be the most infamous villain in world history. He perpetrated the Holocaust, unleashed a reign of totalitarian oppression over most of Europe, and initiated the most destructive conflict the world has ever seen.
Ian Kershaw, a distinguished historian widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Hitler and the Nazi regime, has <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/03/hitler-nemesis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referred</a> to him as &#8220;the embodiment of modern political evil.&#8221; The accuracy of that assessment is showcased by the fact that partisans of all political stripes (though it is especially favored by the Left to refer to anything even remotely Right-of-center) use <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-says-trump-is-a-nazi-thats-not-going-to-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comparisons to Hitler</a> and his ideology as the ultimate slander against their opponents.
In fact, as many have pointed out, the comparison has become <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/facts-ep-3-fascism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">so ubiquitous</a> that in many ways it has lost its effectiveness as a political epithet. Additionally, to rely on a single historical reference to embody evil diminishes public awareness of other psychopathic despots (especially Left-wing ones) who have rampaged through history, even in the last century.
So, here is a non-exhaustive list of tyrants of the 20th Century who we can reference besides Hitler.
<h4>Vladimir Lenin</h4>
Vladimir Lenin orchestrated the first, but by no means last, successful communist revolution and forged what would become the Soviet Union in a tide of violence and repression.
The Bolsheviks <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/october-revolution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> the October Revolution of 1917 to overthrow the Provisional Government of Russia, which had ruled the country since Tsar Nicholas II abdicated during the February Revolution earlier in the year. The communists quickly seized control of Petrograd (today St. Petersburg) and Moscow, but the country soon descended into a bloody and chaotic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Russian-Civil-War" target="_blank" rel="noopener">civil war</a> as anti-communist factions — ranging from moderate socialists to monarchists to anarchists and separatists — resisted the new government.
<div id="attachment_680029" style="width: 791px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-680029" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-680029 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-781x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images" width="781" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-781x576.jpg 781w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-300x221.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-768x567.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-1536x1133.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515384712-2048x1511.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 781px) 100vw, 781px" />Credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images</div>
On the orders of Lenin and other top Bolsheviks, soldiers of the newly formed Red Army seized food, property, and other valuables from peasants in order to support the war effort, creating famine and destitution throughout large swathes of the country.
Lenin oversaw the creation of <a href="https://history.blog.gov.uk/2017/12/20/whats-the-context-20-december-1917-formation-of-the-cheka-the-first-soviet-security-and-intelligence-agency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Cheka</a>, the Soviet Union&#8217;s first secret police, and during the civil war it carried out mass arrests, torture and executions in order to suppress any political opponents of the new regime. The Cheka also founded and ran the USSR&#8217;s infamous prison labor system — the gulags.
Lenin also endorsed the murder of the former tsar, his wife, and their five children in July 1918 as anti-communist forces approached the location where they were being held prisoner by the Bolsheviks.
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The Russian Civil War lasted more than 5 years and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Russian-Civil-War" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caused</a> the deaths of up to 10 million people — five times the number of Russians who died in World War I.
Though his reign over the nascent Soviet Union was relatively short, a little over 6 years, Lenin&#8217;s ruthlessness provided a blueprint for Left-wing dictators who rose to power throughout the century, most infamously his successor.
<h4>Joseph Stalin</h4>
Joseph Stalin&#8217;s rise to power in the aftermath of Lenin&#8217;s death in 1924 foreshadowed his own brutal tenure as the leader of the Soviet Union. He <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin">supplanted</a> and eventually exiled Lenin&#8217;s preferred successor, Leon Trotsky, and had several of his other opponents demoted and replaced by allies.
Once he secured his position as leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin embarked on a program of collectivization, the forced consolidation of individual farms into large, state-controlled collectives. Along with this policy, Stalin <a href="https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1929-2/collectivization/collectivization-texts/stalin-on-the-liquidation-of-the-kulak/">called</a> for the elimination of prosperous peasants known as kulaks &#8220;as a class.&#8221; Though these farmers were rarely much better off than their neighbors, Stalin designated them as class enemies, and the new secret police, the NKVD, carried out mass arrests and deportations of the kulaks, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Soviet collectivization of agriculture under Stalin also caused a massive famine that afflicted Ukraine and southern Russia from 1930 to 1933. Known as <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor">the Holodomor</a> in Ukraine, the Great Soviet Famine killed an <a href="https://www.nber.org/digest/202110/disproportionate-death-ukrainians-soviet-great-famine">estimated</a> 10 million people, of which roughly 4 million were Ukrainians. The legislatures of dozens of countries, including the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-resolution/435">United States</a>, recognize the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Though he had dealt with Trotsky (eventually having him assassinated in Mexico in 1940), Stalin still feared internal opposition to his rule, causing him to instigate <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Purge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Great Purge</a> in 1936.
Stalin once again deployed the NKVD to hunt down and terrorize his enemies, real and imagined. Dozens of high-ranking Soviet officials, including several original Bolsheviks who had helped Lenin seize power in 1917, were found guilty in show trials and executed for supposedly conspiring to overthrow Stalin.
The purge unleashed a wave of paranoia throughout the country, and suspicion soon extended to the military, ethnic minorities, and even the general population. By the time Stalin declared in 1938 that the internal threat to the Soviet Union had been suppressed, at least <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-purge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">700,000 people</a> had died.
<div id="attachment_680033" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-680033" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-680033 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-1024x532.jpg" alt="Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images" width="1024" height="532" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-1024x532.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-300x156.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-768x399.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-1536x797.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-515177218-2048x1063.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images</div>
As a result of the Great Purge, the gulag system founded under Lenin exploded into the infamous &#8220;Gulag Archipelago&#8221; as more and more people were accused of being counter-revolutionaries. Of the estimated 17 million people who <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-b2adacb992004f4aaa4c739ec3f4629a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were sent</a> to the gulags between 1930 and 1953, between 1.2 and 1.7 million <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag" target="_blank" rel="noopener">died</a> in the camps.
The Soviet Union invaded Poland along with Nazi Germany in September 1939 as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which facilitated the partition of Eastern Europe between the two countries and their cooperation until the German invasion of Russia in 1941. Stalin <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> the mass execution of Polish prisoners-of-war who had been captured during the invasion, and NKVD agents killed over 20,000 Poles during the Katyn Massacre in April and May 1940.
Stalin continued his totalitarian policies during World War II, in which anyone accused of questioning his leadership was severely punished and collaborators with the Nazis were killed or sent to the gulags. Arrests of political dissidents, carried out by a succession of increasingly monstrous NKVD directors, continued right up to Stalin&#8217;s death.
After he rose to power in the wake of Stalin&#8217;s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/khrushchevs-secret-speech-cult-personality-and-its-consequences-delivered-twentieth-party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denounced</a> Stalin&#8217;s barbarity and embarked on a campaign of de-Stalinization to dismantle his policies. Estimates on exactly how many people during the Stalin era vary greatly, with most historians placing the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/joseph-stalin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">death toll</a> between 6 million and 20 million.
<h4>Mao Zedong</h4>
In 1949, the Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong — after a decades-long civil war — forced the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek to retreat to Taiwan, cementing communist control over the Chinese mainland.
After a period of relative openness designed to bait opponents of the regime into publicly criticizing the CCP, Mao <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-silence-that-preceded-chinas-great-leap-into-famine-51898077/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957 to root out anyone who opposed communist rule or collectivization. Between half a million and 2 million people were arrested during the campaign, and hundreds of thousands died due to starvation or ill-treatment during captivity.
Mao&#8217;s most destructive program was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/topic/Great-Leap-Forward" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Great Leap Forward</a>, which was intended to transform China from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial powerhouse that could compete with the Soviet Union and the West. The central government set unattainable production quotas for both industry and agriculture, causing lower-level bureaucrats overseeing the programs to take more food from peasants and overwork factory laborers. Out of fear of being labeled anti-communist or, more importantly, anti-Mao, many officials refused to report failures and fabricated data to meet the quotas.
Anyone who opposed the Great Leap Forward could be arrested, tortured, conscripted into forced labor battalions, or summarily executed by the communist overseers. The program was a complete economic disaster, plunging tens of millions of Chinese into grinding poverty.
Because the cadres didn&#8217;t report food shortages and took more food from peasants to fill the outlandish quotas, famine broke out across China. The Great Chinese Famine lasted from 1959 to 1961 and is widely considered one of the worst famines in human history. Scholars continue to debate the exact death toll, but <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127087/#:~:text=Extent%20of%20famine&amp;text=More%20detailed%20later%20studies%20came,totals%20closer%20to%2040%20million." target="_blank" rel="noopener">most estimates</a> fall between 15 and 55 million deaths from the famine alone.
It wasn&#8217;t until 1981, 5 years after Mao&#8217;s death, that the CCP officially <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/resolution-certain-questions-history-our-party-founding-peoples-republic-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> that the famine had been primarily caused by policies implemented during the Great Leap Forward.
Much like Stalin, Mao eventually became paranoid about the threat of internal threats to his absolute power. He insisted that capitalists and conservatives had infiltrated Chinese society and called on young people to purge the country of any elements that might threaten communism, launching the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Cultural-Revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cultural Revolution</a>. Units of Red Guards, usually comprised of university students, targeted local government officials, teachers, community elders, and even parents who were accused of not being sufficiently dedicated to Chairman Mao.
<div id="attachment_680035" style="width: 784px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-680035" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-680035 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-774x576.jpg" alt="Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images" width="774" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-774x576.jpg 774w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-300x223.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-768x571.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-1536x1143.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-517262776-2048x1524.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 774px) 100vw, 774px" />Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images</div>
Though struggle sessions, in which someone accused of disloyalty to communism was forced to admit their crimes and subjected to public ridicule and abuse, had been a tactic used by the CCP to force ideological conformity for decades, the practice became infamous during the Cultural Revolution. Heretofore committed Chinese communists were suddenly accused of not being ideologically pure enough or being secret capitalists, hauled out into a public space, and harangued by their neighbors. They were most often imprisoned afterward, but in many instances they were executed by the government or killed on the spot by the mob.
Massacres of suspected traitors took place across China, and in the southern province of Guangxi hundreds of instances of cannibalism were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/06/world/a-tale-of-red-guards-and-cannibals.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Millions were imprisoned or persecuted by the Red Guards, driving thousands to suicide. Overall, between 500,000 and 2 million people died as a result of the Cultural Revolution.
Much like Stalin&#8217;s Great Purge, the Cultural Revolution served to cement Mao&#8217;s position as the undisputed leader of the country.
By the time Mao died in 1976, an <a href="https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/the-legacy-mao-zedong-mass-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> 65 million people had died as a result of his regime of terror and subjugation.
Lenin, Stalin, and Mao are all synonymous with communist brutality in the 20th century. Each of them displayed just as much cruelty, ruthlessness, and disregard for human life as Hitler did during his vicious domination of Europe. Though references to Stalin and Mao are made in political discourse, they pale in comparison to those accusing someone or an idea of being Hitler-esque. And the crimes of these men deserve just as much scrutiny and public awareness as those of Hitler and the Nazis. More frequent references to these despots not only phases out the tired Hitler trope, but it can also help point out the horrendous atrocities carried out in the name of communist utopia.

Portraits de théoriciens et de dirigeants communistes

Tired Of Comparing Your Political Enemies To Hitler? Here Are Some Other Evil Despots Worth Mentioning – Part I

Tired Of Comparing Your Political Enemies To Hitler? Here Are Some Other Evil Despots Worth Mentioning - Part I

Adolf Hitler

World

The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s tour stop in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Aoy08tjHlg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wheatland, California</a>. In this segment, he draws on previous philosophers’ writings to form thoughts on why we should not aim for happiness and what should be pursued instead.
Start time: 00:00 
The philosopher Kierkegaard wrote 150 years ago, and he was one of the first psychological philosophers who really wrote about anxiety. He regarded himself rather useless, all things considered. He wrote a section in one of his books about all the industrialists who were operating in Europe at that time, trying in every possible way to make life easier and more efficient and productive for everyone, which was definitely happening during the Victorian period; Europe was rapidly transforming into an industrial powerhouse. He said someone as useless as him with an orientation toward being a student who liked to sit and contemplate ideas, talk in cafes, and smoke cigars and drink could never make anything easier for anyone than everyone was already trying to make. So he thought his task would be to make things more difficult for people because there would come a time when what people wanted was not more ease but more challenge and difficulty. That is really smart — and it is witty and it is true.
Dostoevsky knew this too. He wrote about this in “Notes from Underground.” It is a great book — a very short, absolutely brilliant, compelling, dark read. It is the confession of a miserable, resentful, murderously genocidal bureaucrat who evaluates his own soul and confesses his sins. It is also a critique of the idea of utopia oriented toward security. Dostoevsky was dealing with the set of ideas that are really tearing us apart culturally right now — this idea of an eventual utopia, based on something like security and safety. Dostoevsky really objected to that back around 1860, a long time ago. He said the thing about people that you do not really understand is that fundamentally, we are ungrateful and we can curse; that is what distinguishes us from the animals — which I thought was pretty damn comical. But he said something very interesting: If you set up a utopia so that all people had to do was eat cakes and busy themselves with the continuation of the species, after a surfeit of that, which would happen quite quickly, people would go mad, just to break things so something unexpected and remarkable could happen. We are not built for security and safety but for, let’s call it, adventure.
That is good to know because you do not want to suffer unduly; that seems reasonable. You might think because of that, what you really want is happiness. But Solzhenitsyn, for example, wrote about what happened under Stalin in “The Gulag Archipelago” and said, if your goal is happiness, what are you going to do when the jackboots hammer down your door at two in the morning and haul you off to the prison camp? Because you are not going to be happy there.
Happiness is a boat that is easily capsized and the waves are always there. So if your philosophy is one of impulsive happiness — the same sort of thing Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard were pointing out — then you are not prepared when all hell breaks loose. And all hell will absolutely 100% break through at some point in your life, and you are lucky if it will not be decades. It will certainly be some of it and it might be a lot of it, and for some of you, it is going to be damn near the whole thing. So, if what floats your boat is happiness, you are going to be capsized by the first decent wave. You might ask yourself what you have instead of happiness that might be even more reliable, and I do think that adventure is more reliable than happiness.
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In the Old Testament story of Abraham, founder of the Abrahamic faiths and obviously a crucial figure in the development of world culture, Abraham is presented as a late bloomer, to say the least. He is about 83 (people lived longer back then, at least, so the story goes), and he had a very rich father by nomadic standards. He could just sit around in the tent all day with a doting mother and a rich father, eating peeled grapes and busying himself with the continuation of the species. But God appears to him and tells him to get out of his security, get out of his comfort, leave his family, leave his community, leave his nation, and go out into the world. It is very interesting to contemplate the story both from a psychological and religious perspective because what God is presented as in that book, which is a crucial book for world culture, is the manifestation of the spirit that calls even the too-secure and pampered to adventure.
Abraham is a pretty rough guy when he goes out and has his adventure. It is not all skittles and roses from then on, quite the contrary. Right away, he runs into a conspiracy of elites to steal his wife, he runs into tyranny, he runs into starvation, and he encounters war. He goes out in the world and has the whole tragedy of his life, on both the social and political front and individually. But the promise and the implication of adventure is that if you have a sufficient adventure, then that cannot so much protect you from suffering — because perhaps that is impossible — but to justify it. You know this from your own life. When you look at your life, you might look back at travails that you have undertaken.
End-of-life surveys that ask people what they regret have shown they do not regret what they did that did not work; they regret what they did not do that could have worked. They regret the chances they did not take. Even if you do an evaluation of your biography, one of the things you want to be able to say to yourself — maybe there is nothing better you can say to yourself — is: that was extraordinarily difficult but it was worth it. It is not like you can have one of those without the other because you cannot imagine that you could. Have some confidence in what you have managed to accomplish, the kind of confidence that would instill you with a genuine sense of self despite your fundamental inadequacy. To have that fundamental sense of self-regard that is grounded in something real, it has to be based in a narrative that approximates: That was extremely difficult, but it was worth it. You have to have both of those.
You see the suffering in the world: the suffering of children, the suffering of maybe your children, or you are suffering. One of the questions we always ask ourselves (which is technically a theodicy question) is: How could reality be constituted so I can have faith in its essence when there is so much suffering. One answer to that is: How much suffering do you want? You might think, none. But I do not think that is right — at least, you want something approximating optimized challenge. At least, you want to be pushed to your limit, and maybe you find the most exciting times in your life. In fact, you will pay to have this experience, to be pushed to your limit — maybe even a bit beyond it but maybe not so far beyond it that you crumble and break and things fall apart. But could you be pushed to your limit if there was not the possibility of falling apart and breaking? That is an open question. How are you ever going to take something seriously if the consequences are not actually serious? There is something delightful about dancing on the edge. That is why Hawaiians believe surfing was sacred; it is because to surf, you have to be on the edge. The waves can come and take you out at any moment, but without the possibility of the waves rising to take you out, you cannot dance on the edge — and maybe that is exactly what you want to do.
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There is good evidence from the neuroscience literature that consciousness itself is something akin to dancing on the edge. So technically when you are conscious (when you are awake), your brain is occupying a position between something like chaos and order. If your brain is maximally ordered, you are just bored and nothing is changing. If you are chaotic, then it is anxiety and catastrophe. You want to be positioned right between those two, and that is when your consciousness is optimized. When your consciousness is optimized, then you are deeply engaged in life and everything seems alive and meaningful. Maybe that is the solution, in some profound sense, to the problem of suffering. It is that you optimize your interaction with chaos rather than being protected all the time from everything that can hurt you.
To continue, listen or watch more content with Dr. Jordan Peterson on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch">DailyWire+</a>. 
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules For Life, and Beyond Order. You can now<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast"> listen to</a> or<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson"> watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

5JP_FOR_DW_GDWOODMAN057 (3) copy

A More Reliable And Meaningful Aim Than Happiness 

Bible

Hawaii

Jordan Peterson

Psychology

Surfing

Over the years, the United States has produced many remarkable generals and admirals, but only a few have stood out as world-class strategists and leaders of troops. As Veterans Day approaches on November 11, let’s remember and celebrate them. Here is my list of America’s finest 11 commanders.
<h2>Matthew B. Ridgway, 1895-1993 (WWII and Korea)</h2>
Few generals have done more to completely reverse a catastrophic strategic situation — proverbially pulling victory from the jaws of defeat — in so little time, as did the infectiously driven Ridgway during the Korean War. West Point Class of 1917, this was a man who parachuted with the 82nd Airborne into Europe during World War II at age 49. His standard accoutrements of a grenade hanging on one breast pocket and a first aid kit on the other projected the image of a bona fide field general, which he was, endearing him to the men.
<div id="attachment_646321" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-646321" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-646321" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515488010-461x576.jpg" alt="(Original Caption) Portrait of General Matthew B. Ridgway, Chief of Staff, United States Army." width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515488010-461x576.jpg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515488010-240x300.jpg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515488010-768x959.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515488010.jpg 820w" sizes="(max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" />(Original Caption) Portrait of General Matthew B. Ridgway, Chief of Staff, United States Army. Getty Images.</div>
Such a tough, no-nonsense commander was needed in Korea in the winter of 1950-51, when Ridgway’s superior, Douglas MacArthur, found himself in headlong retreat following the massive Chinese counterattack which negated his stunning victory at Inchon in the fall and subsequent advance through North Korea to the Yalu River on China’s border. The heady days of MacArthur’s optimistically named “Home By Christmas” offensive were long gone. By January 1951, the South Korean capital Seoul was back in communist hands, and the seemingly invincible Chinese People’s Liberation Army looked ready to push the withdrawing UN forces off the peninsula entirely.
The U.S. was fortunate to have Ridgway, who had never served in Asia before he got the call to fly to Korea and take over the Eighth Army after a jeep accident killed its previous commander, Gen. Walton Walker. In fact, as he took stock of the seemingly desperate situation on the peninsula, he soon realized he’d seen this scenario before, and Ridgway was well-suited to halt Mao’s winter offensive.
<div id="attachment_646323" style="width: 727px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-646323" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-646323" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-640478517-717x576.jpg" alt="(Original Caption) : (Douglas MacArthur at the front lines above Suwon, Korea, accompained by Courtney J. Whitney, Matthew B. Ridgway, William B. Kean, and others.) Photoprint by USASC 28 Jan. 1951(no. SC 356736) lot 8755 (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)" width="717" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-640478517-717x576.jpg 717w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-640478517-300x241.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-640478517-768x617.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-640478517.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px" />(Original Caption) : (Douglas MacArthur at the front lines above Suwon, Korea, accompanied by Courtney J. Whitney, Matthew B. Ridgway, William B. Kean, and others.) Photoprint by USASC 28 Jan. 1951(no. SC 356736) lot 8755 (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)</div>
During the Second World War, Ridgway had been instrumental in blunting the German winter attack of 1944-45 through the Ardennes, popularly called The Battle Of The Bulge. He restored order and discipline to his panicked troops, a circumstance eerily similar to the UN “bug-out” before him. While some saw the Red Chinese as supermen, Ridgway had no such fearful delusions. In fact, he understood that by the time the communists had retaken Seoul, they were over-extended and suffering from exposure to the elements as well as malnourishment due to severely taxed logistics. This was not unlike the position Von Rundstedt’s Panzer groups found themselves in by January 1945. While some generals and civilian authorities alike were declaring Korea lost and planning for evacuation, Ridgway saw an opportunity to destroy Mao’s exhausted, starving, frost-bitten legions.
Stern, ramrod straight, in excellent physical health, one gets the feeling that were we to look up “U.S. General” in the dictionary, Ridgway’s resolute face would glare back at us. And his determination to win prompted him to get the word out that the plague of defeatism was over. The U.S. would go on the offensive and end this “bug out” nonsense. In fact, he forbade even the use of that defeatist term. Ridgway officially took command of the Eighth Army on December 26, 1950, and by January 15 the U.S. and Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) divisions were holding firm. There would be no evacuation of the peninsula.
<div id="attachment_646333" style="width: 467px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-646333" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-646333" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-613478342-457x576.jpg" alt="" width="457" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-613478342-457x576.jpg 457w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-613478342-238x300.jpg 238w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-613478342-768x967.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-613478342.jpg 813w" sizes="(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px" />(Original Caption) Commander Of The 8th Army Goes To The Front, Korean Battle Continues. Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgeway, commanding General 8th Army talks with James H. Lee, Dallas, Texas, during the former&#8217;s inspection of the front line positions in Korea. The General is on the right. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)</div>
In preparation for his counteroffensive, Ridgway led by example; his first order of business was to move the Eighth Army Headquarters from 115 miles south right up to the front lines. Then he constantly roamed and overflew the lines, getting a feel for the men’s needs and concerns. Having stabilized the front (a Ridgway hallmark) he then instilled in his men a sense of a righteous mission to save the world from communist enslavers.
Beyond ideological verve, Ridgway made sure that his troops had the full support of their commanders who would provide them with good winter clothes, plenty of food and ammo, reliable weaponry, and a sense that, as badly worn as they were, the Chinese were much worse off. Indeed, with severe winter laying waste to the poorly equipped, drained enemy, he viewed the bitter cold as an ally. A point he made sure was driven home to the men as well.
With this renewed confidence, Ridgway’s command opened up its February 1951 counteroffensive; he set about using his overwhelming advantage in artillery and air power to systematically destroy the malnourished and exhausted Chinese. As a clue to his mindset as a no-nonsense warrior, Ridgway dubbed his offensive operations pugnacious names like “Killer,” “Ripper,” and “Rugged.”  This was typical Ridgway bravado, designed to inculcate in his men a ruthlessness that gushed down from their commanding general to the lowliest private.
<div id="attachment_646337" style="width: 633px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-646337" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-646337" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-104715082-1-623x576.jpg" alt="Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway (1895-1993), CG of the United States Eighth Army, standing in front of his USAF B-17 plane 'Hi Penny' during the Korean War, Korea, 30 January 1951. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)" width="623" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-104715082-1-623x576.jpg 623w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-104715082-1-300x277.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-104715082-1-768x710.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-104715082-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px" />Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway (1895-1993), CG of the United States Eighth Army, standing in front of his USAF B-17 plane &#8216;Hi Penny&#8217; during the Korean War, Korea, 30 January 1951. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)</div>
Soon the U.S. and R.O.K. columns were advancing northwards again, retaking Seoul in March 1951. So successful was Ridgway’s 100-day turn-around of UN fortunes, that President Truman felt he had political clout to fire the outspokenly recalcitrant MacArthur and put Ridgway in overall theater command. It is no exaggeration to say that Ridgway saved the war, and with it Truman’s presidency and the United States’ credibility.
As with certain iconoclastic figures, Ridgway could rub his peers in the military and those in the political arena the wrong way with his strong views on how wars and policy should be conducted. Yet, unlike MacArthur – whom he publicly praised while privately vowing not to repeat his mistake racing to the Yalu – he understood and respected his subordinate role. He was a firm believer in military subservience to civilian control. Married three times, the maverick general who lived to 98, managed throughout his career to speak his mind, unconcerned for his career path. In particular, he clashed with Eisenhower over mission creep in Southeast Asia and U.S. hegemony. In turn, Eisenhower despised Ridgway so much that in his memoirs he never even mentions him, falsely showering credit for retaking Seoul onto Ridgway’s Eighth Army command successor Gen. Van Fleet.
<div id="attachment_646335" style="width: 735px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-646335" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-646335" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515363988-725x576.jpg" alt="(Original Caption) General Matthew B. Ridgway (right) is greeted by President Truman as he arrives, May 19, at the White House with General Omar Bradley (left), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ridgway is enroute to Europe where he will replace Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as NATO commander. While in Washington, Ridgway will be called before the Senate Armed Services Committee, May 21, to be questioned on the Koje Island prison capture of an American General." width="725" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515363988-725x576.jpg 725w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515363988-300x238.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515363988-768x611.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-515363988.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 725px) 100vw, 725px" />(Original Caption) General Matthew B. Ridgway (right) is greeted by President Truman as he arrives, May 19, at the White House with General Omar Bradley (left), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ridgway is enroute to Europe where he will replace Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as NATO commander. While in Washington, Ridgway will be called before the Senate Armed Services Committee, May 21, to be questioned on the Koje Island prison capture of an American General.</div>
Ridgway’s vision for a modern military went beyond strategy. He was a champion of integration of all armed forces, while opposing women in combat. Seen by the Left as too merciless and the Right as too isolationist, nevertheless, it was Matthew Ridgway, along with Truman and MacArthur, who was most responsible for saving South Korea, and with it, the millions of citizens who were spared the hellish existence of living under their northern antagonists — enemies whom this underappreciated American general knew how to fight so well.
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America&#8217;s Top 11 Generals
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americas-top-11-generals-11-curtis-e-lemay">Related: #11 Curtis E. LeMay</a>
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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, columnist, and author of two acclaimed novels. His newest book, the fact-based <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Pits-Rough-Tumble-Exchange/dp/B0CKPNCMQW/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1331509151681009&amp;hvadid=83219665089301&amp;hvbmt=bp&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=97755&amp;hvnetw=o&amp;hvqmt=p&amp;hvtargid=kwd-83219680392082%3Aloc-190&amp;hydadcr=18892_13467888&amp;keywords=brad+schaeffer&amp;qid=1698162015&amp;sr=8-1">LIFE IN THE PITS: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors</a> will be published in December and is currently available for pre-order. You can also find more of Brad&#8217;s articles on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/">Substack</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Portrait of General Matthew B. Ridgway

America’s Top 11 Generals: #10 Matthew Ridgway

America's Top 11 Generals: #10 Matthew Ridgway

American General

Korean War

North Korea

South Korea

World War II

Everyone has the fundamental human right to live and speak the truth, and when repression hits, these are often the first liberties under attack. The right to freely speak one’s mind exposes repressive regimes for what they are, driving dictatorships to clamp down on free speech and the free exercise of religion. The crisis of human rights happening in Nicaragua today highlights this age-old trend in action. All who dare to speak out against the Ortega regime risk brutal silencing and punishing at the hands of the state, and one leader in particular, <a href="https://adfinternational.org/bishop-rolando-alvarez/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bishop Rolando Álvarez</a>, has garnered international attention for his steadfast fidelity to the truth. 
<div id="attachment_630017" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-630017" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-630017" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1240793695-864x576.jpg" alt="Nicaraguan Catholic bishop Rolando Alvarez prays at the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas church in Managua, on May 20, 2022. - Alvarez, a strong critic of Daniel Ortega's government, started on Thursday a hunger strike in protest against what he considers a persecution and police siege against him. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1240793695-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1240793695-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1240793695-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1240793695.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />STR/AFP via Getty Images</div>
Nicaraguans are experiencing significant oppression under the Ortega regime. A majority Catholic country, the government has targeted the Catholic Church in its efforts to dismantle any remaining opposition to its consolidation of power. The country has been in a state of turmoil since April 2018 with the eruption of massive protests against the government. Although the Church initially was approached to moderate tensions between the people and the government, the regime has since done an about-face, setting its sights on religious orders, places of worship, institutions, and media.
Bishop Álvarez, responding to his sense of duty as a Catholic pastor, became a peaceful, but insistent, witness against these attacks, delivering words of hope to the people in his church sermons. The bishop caught the world’s attention when he refused an offer of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-caribbean-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-c7930c6340472867148ca7e79e09f1eb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exile</a> from the Nicaraguan government, choosing to remain with his people.
<div id="attachment_630015" style="width: 880px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-630015" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-630015" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242311907-870x576.jpg" alt="Police officers and riot police patrol outside Matagalpa's Archbishop Curia preventing Monsignor Rolando Alvarez from leaving, in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on August 4, 2022. - Riot police on Thursday prevented Nicaraguan Bishop, Rolando Alvarez, from leaving the church building to preside at a mass as part of a &quot;prayer crusade&quot; being carried out by the church, following the closure of several Catholic media outlets and allegations of harassment. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)" width="870" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242311907-870x576.jpg 870w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242311907-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242311907-768x509.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242311907.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 870px) 100vw, 870px" />STR/AFP via Getty Images</div>
For sharing a message of faith with the people of Nicaragua, the bishop was held under house arrest and subsequently charged and convicted as a criminal — a violation of his human rights in blatant contravention of international law. First arrested in August of 2022, in February of this year, Bishop Álvarez was stripped of his citizenship rights and sentenced to 26 years in prison in a sham trial he did not know was happening. He was convicted as a traitor for “undermining national integrity” and “propagation of false news.” Further, the bishop was denied his lawyer of choice, and his lawyer was later prevented from obtaining essential information about his case. A request for an appeal of his conviction was summarily denied, reflective of the state of affairs of the justice system in Nicaragua.
Absent any effective avenues for justice in a country overrun by oppressive forces, the bishop’s only recourse is international action. On September 12, ADF International <a href="https://adfinternational.org/bishop-alvarez-case-filed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a petition for urgent intervention at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the body charged with the protection of human rights in Latin America. Currently on the 7th month of his prison sentence, the bishop’s current health and wellbeing are unknown, prompting international <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/is-nicaragua-s-bishop-alvarez-still-alive-a-u-s-congressman-demands-proof" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concern</a>. It is imperative that the Commission act now to demand his release and an end to the human rights abuses besieging the people of Nicaragua.
<div id="attachment_630061" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-630061" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-630061" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242596017-864x576.jpg" alt="People pray during a mass at the Matagalpa Cathedral in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on August 19, 2022. - Nicaraguan police on August 19, 2022 forcefully removed Catholic bishop and government critic Rolando Alvarez from his official residence after two weeks under siege, said Church and rights groups who had no news on his whereabouts. (Photo by OSWALDO RIVAS / AFP) (Photo by OSWALDO RIVAS/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242596017-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242596017-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242596017-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/GettyImages-1242596017.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />OSWALDO RIVAS/AFP via Getty Images</div>
On September 11, another Nicaraguan priest was arrested for the “crime” of praying for Bishop Álvarez. The regime is sending clear signals — dissent will not be tolerated. In times of repression, people look to their leaders, and the Ortega regime’s hostility toward Álvarez and others broadcasts to all of society that religious expression is not allowed.
No one should suffer persecution at the hands of the state because of their faith. All concerned with the protection of human rights should be outraged by the Nicaraguan crisis, speaking out in defense of Bishop Álvarez and the people of Nicaragua.
Elyssa Koren serves as director of legal communications for ADF International, which has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the case of Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

NICARAGUA-RELIGION-BISHOP-HUNGER STRIKE

Nicaraguan Bishop Slapped With 26-Year Sentence In Kangaroo Court

Catholic

Catholic Church

Nicaragua

Prison

This excerpt is taken from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Catholic-History-Updated-Expanded/dp/1684514924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church</a> by H. W. Crocker III. (Regnery History, 2023)
<h4>The Era Of Pope John Paul II</h4>
In October 1978, the College of Cardinals chose a remarkable man. The newly elevated Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years. He was a Pole who had lived through World War II, witnessing both Nazi terror and Communist persecution. He was a scholar, philosopher, and linguist, but also a poet, playwright, and actor, as well as an athlete. Before becoming a priest he had had a girlfriend, considered a secular career, and worked as a manual laborer. It is to the great benefit of the Church that he felt called to a priestly vocation and pursued it — as was necessary — like a secret agent, studying surreptitiously and eluding Nazi death squads that marked every young Pole of military age for death. He served a suffering Church in Soviet-occupied Poland. When he was elevated to the papacy, Soviet KGB chief, and later head of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov immediately recognized a threat to the Soviet regime.
But the new pope was also a symbol to the West. Young, vibrant, brimming with élan vital, self-evident goodness, philosophical clarity, and strength, he could appeal to the media-drenched Western mind and its demand for charisma. He could also speak to it in terms of authority. When the pope issued challenges to respect human dignity even the commercialized West had to pay attention to this man who spoke having personally stood witness to the greatest Hell-bent ideologies of the twentieth century, a man who had come through that inferno not only with the wisdom that comes from suffering and the confrontation with evil, but with a love of life and the joy of Christ manifest in his face and spirit.
He was the first pope to actually turn the Second Vatican Council to good use. The Council’s documents became a means to sharpen St. Peter’s sword against the Communists who occupied his country. He had participated in every one of the Council’s sessions and had been keenly involved in the Council’s declaration of religious freedom as a fundamental right. He saw that the old altar-and-throne model of Catholicism had died with the Habsburg Empire after World War I, though the Church had never conceded this. What was needed now was a new banner of religious freedom to challenge the primary threat to the faith — Communist totalitarianism. When the Council decided to put the liturgy into the vernacular, the future pope, who understood the primacy of culture, saw springs of popular renewal. When the Council called for greater lay participation, it was apparent that what John Paul II envisioned were movements like Opus Dei — which he ardently supported — a Catholic “personal prelature” that seeks to sanctify work and everyday life. Opus Dei adopts the medieval idea that to work is to pray. It is an idea that also motivated the Polish labor union Solidarity, which, with the Church, was the vanguard of Polish resistance to the Communists. Pope John Paul II’s greatest triumph was in seeing the totalitarian menace collapse, seeing his fellow Poles chanting, “We want God!,” seeing the red tide of Communism ebbing away, evaporating, a nightmare struck by daylight.
He was committed to being an active pope and was, indeed, the greatest globe-trotter in the papacy’s 2,000-year history. He also proved a prolific writer of encyclicals and other papal documents applying the deposit of faith to issues of the contemporary world. As a priest, he had taken a particular interest in advising married couples, and he strongly supported Humanae vitae, which had drawn on his own book Love and Responsibility. He reaffirmed Humanae vitae in his own Veritatis splendor in 1993, and two years later condemned abortion in Evangelium vitae, as one of the most terrible manifestations of a “culture of death” that kept the world in its talons.
In 1994, he ruled out further discussion of the priestly ordination of women, saying that such consideration was denied to the Church on the basis of Christ’s clear example. That would seem an inarguable proposition, but this, too, proved controversial because it denied two great modern heresies: that sex is a form of class struggle, and that all principles and facts are soluble to modern ideas of equality, self-fulfillment, and human wishes.
Another, somewhat similar, heresy that the pope dispensed with was liberation theology, which viewed Third World Communist revolutions on behalf of the poor as the logical working out of the “social gospel.” In Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II stood on the runway and admonished Father Ernesto Cardenal, who served the Communist Sandinista regime, “Regularize your position with the Church.” The picture snapped of the event gave the clear impression, from the pope’s gestures, that he was delivering a papal rebuke to a wayward priest. In any event, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, these revolutionary regimes lost their patron, and liberation theology became a footnote in Church history.
The pope did not, however, neglect the Church’s mission to the poor. His writings on economics underscored the Church’s hostility, not only to Communism, but to economic liberalism if it considers man as a mere cog in a machine, or if it does not recognize the need to pay a man a living wage so that he can support his family, or if the rich neglect their obligation to help the poor. Equally condemned, in wealthy Western nations, is materialism that degrades the human mind and spirit—that can, in fact, in an age of mass marketing and communications, actually subvert the human mind and spirit.
At the level of ecumenism, the pope’s greatest wish was to heal the rift with the Eastern Orthodox churches. Their departure, he said, had left the universal Church, in his words, breathing “through only one lung.” But his hopes were disappointed, if not crushed, by the East’s lack of enthusiasm. With the Anglicans, the ordination of women widened the schism and also sent a small platoon of Anglican priests and worshippers into the Catholic Church. There were overtures to the Lutherans and cooperation with Evangelicals, who share the Church’s opposition to abortion, but there seemed little real hope that the separated Christian churches would restore themselves to Catholic unity.
The pope was interested in non-Christian religions, especially Judaism. It was under his pontificate that the Holy See finally extended formal recognition to the state of Israel; and as a Pole, he felt a special kinship with the sufferings of Jews in the Holocaust, though this did not shield him from occasional verbal attacks when he marked the graves of Catholic martyrs of the Second World War. He was the first pope to pray in a mosque. And if his repeated apologies for any conceivable Catholic historical offense grated on those of us who wish the Sack of Byzantium to be a feast day of the Church, it would seem churlish to deny the benign intent that motivated them — or the strength that lay behind the apologetic words, for the pope’s billion-strong Church does not suffer from what Freud called “the narcissism of small differences” that afflicts the Eastern Orthodox or the hydra-headed schisms of the Protestants.
All the globe-trotting, all the encyclicals and papal letters, all the political activity should not for a moment obscure the deeply powerful personal faith of Pope John Paul II, a faith that made him not a modern man — though his charm could make him seem that way to the news media — but a man whose faith was as old as St. Peter and linked to eternity. When he was struck by an assassin’s bullet, he credited his recovery to the Blessed Virgin Mother and prayed at her shrine in Fatima to express his devotion and gratitude. He promoted the Rosary, proclaiming a “Year of the Rosary” (October 2002 to October 2003), and adding five, optional, “luminous mysteries” to the prayer, building on a decades-long popular addition, covering Jesus’s ministry, to be said on Thursdays.
His hours of prayer were intense. His Catholic belief defined his every thought, utterance, and action, and he clearly sought to follow the apostolic path of being a missionary for the faith. He did as much as any pope could possibly do. He recognized, as with the early Apostles, that there remained a world to be won, and he reminded the world of where salvation, purpose, and meaning lay, with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, an extraordinary summary document, accessible to all, published in 1992.
For a man who ascended to the papacy as physically vigorous as any, his end was marked by a sad physical decline. A survivor of two assassination attempts that wounded him, and the inevitable erosions and calamities of age, his final years could sometimes be painful to observe, though his endurance in the midst of physical suffering was its own testament to his faith. That visible frailty had, however, perhaps a different message for the man who would succeed him to the throne of St. Peter.
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Harry W. Crocker III is vice president and executive editor of Regnery Publishing and former speech writer for Governor Pete Wilson of California. A former editorial writer for the San Diego Union, he has written for many outlets, including National Review, the American Spectator, the Washington Times, and the National Catholic Register, and is the author of half a dozen books, including the Custer of the West series, bestselling Robert E. Lee on Leadership and The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, as well as the award-winning novel The Old Limey.
This excerpt is taken from<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Catholic-History-Updated-Expanded/dp/1684514924/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church,</a> by H. W. Crocker III. Copyright 2001/2023 by H. W. Crocker III. Reprinted by permission from Regnery History, an imprint of Regnery Publishing. (A division of Salem Media Group)
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Pope John Paul II Celebrates Easter

The Enduring Legacy Of Pope John Paul II

Books

Pope John Paul II

The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ySceWGcOc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life tour</a>. In this part, he takes a question from the audience about whether he is hopeful about the future.
I would say I am hopeful and desperate about the future. I think that is actually the right attitude to have at the moment. For example, between 2000 and 2012, the number of people who were in absolute economic privation in the world plummeted faster than it ever had in history. Part of that was a delayed consequence of the fall of the Soviet Empire; fewer countries around the world were pursuing counterproductive economic visions. As the population radically increased, everyone around the world got much richer. Now, there are still a large number of people who are absolutely poor, and there is an even larger number of people who are relatively poor. But all things considered, we were cruising there for a good while. I see no reason why we could not eradicate absolute poverty pretty much everywhere. I see no reason other than voluntarily willful blindness, stupidity, and malevolence that would necessarily interfere with the eradication of absolute poverty by 2035. We could do that. It is quite obvious.
There is enough food for everyone (though there are distribution problems). It is possible to provide educational resources to everyone. YouTube alone can do that to a huge degree. You might be cynical about that, but TV made people smarter, not stupider. It might have made really smart people somewhat stupider, but it made children who would otherwise have been abandoned alone in their cribs watching absolutely nothing for hours at a time much smarter than they would have been otherwise. This provision of universal information and electronic platforms allow us to disseminate information — almost all information — at almost no cost. So I think things could be radically better if we got our aim right. Part of that is a consequence of our elevated technological and computational power which is becoming cheaper and more powerful at an extraordinarily rapid rate. The vision of a future of plenty on the material and spiritual front beckons like it never has before.
But along with that increased power comes the requirement for increased responsibility and wisdom. We could easily break things apart and produce a hell that would make what happened in the 20th century look like a trial run. I would say that is up to each of us in the most fundamental way. I concluded 40 years ago that the trajectory we walk toward heaven or hell is fundamentally dependent on individual choice. I do not really understand how the universe can be constructed so that that is true, but I believe it is true. Solzhenitsyn said, for example, one man who stops lying can bring down a tyranny, and he did that so he knew. He was not the only person who did that. We each bear ultimate responsibility, in some sense, for the direction of our mutual striving forward. I think that is the core doctrine of the West — that each individual is sovereign and of divine and ultimate worth. There is a commensurate responsibility with that.
I thought when I realized that — partly from reading Solzhenitsyn, Jung, Dostoevsky, Frankl, Nietzsche to some degree, many people were pointing in that direction — it was necessary for us to become aware of that and to take that responsibility on our own shoulders. So I have been talking to people as individuals ever since being at McGill, at Harvard, at the University of Toronto, and then more broadly, publicly, inviting people to the adventure of their life — the moral adventure of their life — driven by my conviction that it actually matters whether you get your act together. It matters eternally in some sense. It matters in a heaven or hell manner. In a totalitarian state, people are locked into tyranny because every individual lies — every single one. That is the grip of the totalitarian state, and to the degree that you are living in deceit, you are contributing to tyranny and the hell that accompanies it — and not in some little way. Not only are you not saying what you should say when you should say it, but you are also not doing what needs to be done when you need to do it. You are turning a blind eye and allowing it to happen. But you are also not bringing into the world what you could bring into the world if you brought everything you could into the world. That lack on your part of bringing into the world what could be there if you would reveal your light is cataclysmic, and that is a painful realization. It goes along with being a locus of divine worth. I believe that.
I believe that if you fail to say what you know to be true, you corrupt the world. You corrupt being. If you lie, you corrupt being. Corrupted being is hell, and if we all lie enough, then we have hell. Whether we all lie enough to bring about hell is actually dependent in much larger part than you might desire to admit. It is dependent on your choice. One of the reasons we [Tammy and I] love doing what we are doing is because we come to these events with thousands of people, and everybody at the event is trying to aim up — and often doing so, especially in contrast with their previous efforts. That is unbelievably motivating and wonderful to see, but also necessary.
We are very powerful now, all of us, with our incredible technological gadgets, our computational power, and that is going to become way more; we are going to get way more powerful than that really fast so you better get your act together because children cannot wield  that kind of power without all hell breaking loose. So I am very optimistic because things could be even better than what we could imagine. But if we want to, we could sure make them worse. So we all have to decide: Are we aiming up with all we have or are we aiming down? I hope that whatever we are doing tonight is a contribution to the consensus that we should each do what we can in the confines of our own life in the unlimited expanse of the opportunity of our own lives to aim up. If we all do that carefully enough, then up we will go. If we do not, then we can have the alternative. So, on that happy note, we will say goodnight.
To continue, listen or watch more content with Dr. Jordan Peterson on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch">DailyWire+</a>.
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules For Life, and Beyond Order. You can now<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> listen to</a> or<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

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Is There Reason To Be Hopeful About The Future?

Tesla CEO and X owner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> says in a forthcoming biography that a far-left school that his son attended in Los Angeles turned him against the tech mogul.
The comments are contained in &#8220;Elon Musk,&#8221; from Walter Isaacson. The Wall Street Journal featured an excerpt from the book on Thursday.
The excerpt was about what was behind Musk&#8217;s drive to purchase Twitter, which is now X.
&#8220;Musk’s swelling concern with the dangers of what he called the &#8216;woke mind virus&#8217; that he believed was infecting America&#8221; was a crucial factor behind Musk&#8217;s desire to acquire the company, the excerpt said.
&#8220;Unless the woke mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit, and anti-human in general, is stopped, civilization will never become multiplanetary,” Musk told Isaacson.
Isaacson then <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-twitter-x-takeover-walter-isaacson-5f553fa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> about Musk&#8217;s child who became transgender:
<blockquote>Musk’s anti-woke sentiments were partly triggered by the decision of his oldest child, Xavier, then 16, to transition. “Hey, I’m transgender, and my name is now Jenna,” she texted the wife of Elon’s brother. “Don’t tell my dad.” When Musk found out, he was generally sanguine, but then Jenna became a fervent Marxist and broke off all relations with him. “She went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil,” he says. The rift pained him more than anything in his life since the infant death of his firstborn child Nevada. “I’ve made many overtures,” he says, “but she doesn’t want to spend time with me.”
He blamed it partly on the ideology he felt that Jenna imbibed at Crossroads, the progressive school she attended in Los Angeles. Twitter, he felt, had become infected by a similar mindset that suppressed right-wing and anti-establishment voices.</blockquote>
Musk has previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-blames-marxists-for-turning-his-transgender-child-against-him" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slammed</a> the political Left for turning his son against him.
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“It’s full-on communism . . . and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil,” says Musk. “It [the relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all the others [children]. Can’t win them all.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/every-parent-should-watch-this-elon-musk-retweets-what-is-a-woman-to-his-140m-followers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘Every Parent Should Watch This’: Elon Musk Retweets ‘What Is A Woman?’ To His 140M Followers</a>

Elon Musk Visits Germany

Elon Musk Blasts School Turning His Son Trans And Into ‘A Full Communist’

Elon Musk Blasts School Turning His Son Trans And Into 'A Full Communist'

Big Tech

Elon Musk

Transgender

U.S.

Democrats in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/colorado">Colorado</a> chose a Marxist teacher who has called for a “FORCEFUL Cultural revolution” to fill an open seat in the state’s House of Representatives. 
Tim Hernández was selected by a committee of Democrats Saturday to represent the Denver area after state Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez was elected to the Denver city council, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/marxist-who-called-for-forceful-cultural-revolution-lands-seat-on-state-legislature" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The teacher, who worked at Aurora West Preparatory Academy last year, openly advocated for Marxism while calling for “White systems” to be dismantled. 
&#8220;Your [communist] theory will not save you. The revolution… will happen in the hood. It will not be led by who understand Lenin best, it will not be led by the deepest Marxists,” Hernández said while speaking at a union protest. “The revolution will be led by the people…. And I say all of this because I&#8217;m a teacher.&#8221; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
To the oppressed, never our oppressors. On we press. La lucha sigue. 🌱🌹✊🏽 <a href="https://t.co/hT6uKMYAku">pic.twitter.com/hT6uKMYAku</a>
&mdash; TIM HERNÁNDEZ (@_timhernandez) <a href="https://twitter.com/_timhernandez/status/1695990239096172768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hernández joined the staff at Aurora West Preparatory Academy after he said he was fired from another Denver public school for being “aggressive, divisive, and attacking,” according to an administrator. The teacher’s contract was not renewed by Denver Public Schools following the spring semester, sparking a walkout from students demanding his reinstatement, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/former-denver-teacher-tim-hernandez-colorado-house-representatives/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. 
&#8220;The people of Denver&#8217;s Northside and Westside deserve a representative who has lived experiences with our community&#8217;s struggles. I am happy to say today that the people of HD4 elected a teacher, a Chicano and a Northsider,&#8221; said Hernández after being chosen to fill the seat. &#8220;I am hopeful and excited that we will work to dismantle oppressive policies in Colorado and in the communities I have the privilege of representing.&#8221; 
The teacher’s social media revealed that he regularly shared communist talking points and displayed flags supporting leftist causes in his classroom, such as Black Lives Matter and Palestine. 
&#8220;Am I denying the freedom to uphold White supremacy? If so, I am in favor of that denial. And, White supremacy is CURRENTLY upheld by force. So yes, I&#8217;m advocating a FORCEFUL cultural revolution wherein we assert the dignity of life for all at the expense of White supremacy,” Hernández wrote on Twitter in 2021. 
&#8220;We&#8217;re talking about Whiteness and White supremacy. And I&#8217;m willing to advocate for any form of disruption to it and every manifestation it has,&#8221; he added. 
The communist teacher also wants young children to be exposed to Marxist thought by showing them the movie “A Bug’s Life” and then teaching them about the “proletariat revolution,” Fox News reported. 
&#8220;A lot of people call me a &#8216;unicorn.&#8217; I am not an anomaly,” Hernández said, according to notes for a rally in Memphis in 2021. “I am a testament to the work we still have to do; this is sacred; this is powerful; this is necessary. I tell my students the truth.”
Both the Colorado House of Representatives and the state Senate are controlled by Democrats. In 2022, the party’s majority increased by eight seats in the state <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_House_of_Representatives">House</a> and four seats in the state <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_State_Senate">Senate</a>.

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