I just read a biography of Mao, by Jung Chang, and it turned out to be rather timely.  The similarities between our government's response to COVID-19, and the crazy stuff Mao did, are startling. 

The lockdown isn't about protecting us from COVID-19; it's a Maoist shakedown, a communist power-grab.

On the one hand, what Mao did in China couldn't happen here, because firstly, there are too many non-sheep Americans, and secondly, we have guns.  As Chang explained, "[c]ontrol of guns was watertight" under Mao.

But on the other hand, the tactics used today by American government are similar to stuff Mao did.  Here are four ways this is true.

1. Destroy Domestic Enemies

Mao did not operate for the well-being of China.  He cared only about gaining power and destroyed any Chinese person in his way.

China's Nationalists never seemed to come to grips with this issue.  Their naïveté left them exposed and led to their eventual destruction and exile.

In the 1930s, China was at war with Japan.  China, however, was not unified under a single government.  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) existed alongside a more powerful Nationalist-controlled area.  The Nationalists had a choice.  They could focus on wiping out the CCP or work with the CCP to defend China versus Japan.  They chose the latter.
The Nationalists fought Japan, but the CCP never did.  Chang explains that Mao "told the top men that the Generalissimo was their ultimate enemy[.] ... The Red Army must strike Nationalist troops who stood in the way of its expansion."

Republicans are having a similarly hard time coming to grips with Democrat strategy.  Republicans are still trying to unify with Democrats to fight threats that concern us all.  It's morally correct but tactically catastrophic.  Democrat politicians are happy to burn America to the ground if it means they gain total power.  This is seen in the lockdown.  It's bad for America, but they will do it because it hurts MAGA people disproportionately — the middle class, local business-owners — while the Democrats on welfare and elite corporations get bailed out and will be just fine.

2. Mantras

Mao used certain political phrases to control Chinese thinking patterns. 

For instance, Chang writes: "Eulogies of Mao increasingly dominated school texts, publications, the media and every sphere that affected people's minds, so that wherever anyone's eye fell there were slogans hailing him and whenever a song was heard it was in the vein of the one called 'Father is close, Mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao.'"

The COVID-19 lockdown is introducing certain ideas along these lines.  Today we have the phrases "flatten the curve" and "social distance."  When I turn on the radio here in Massachusetts, I hear them at the end of every other ad.

This is brainwashing.  The phrases have become meaningless.

The idea behind "flatten the curve" was to stop hospitals from being overwhelmed, never to somehow LARP as if we could "stop" viruses.  But hospitals are not overwhelmed in America.  Not even close.  Thus, the goal of flattening the curve has lost all sense.  And the total bankruptcy of "social distancing" can be seen with the out-of-control riots.  It's not about social distancing.

So these popular phrases, repeated everywhere, are totally meaningless.  Yet they are repeated ad nauseam.  It is an exercise in disciplining the mind to be controlled and act out nonsensical policy.

Mao attacked whoever was not enthusiastically behind him with a host of phrases — "rightists," "counter-revolutionaries," and "capitalist-roaders" — and demanded "self-criticism sessions" for "deviationists."

Well, today, you had better put that mask on; otherwise, you can expect to be called "irresponsible" or even accused of "killing Grandma."  If you get doxxed, then the pressure is on for an apology.  Even as lockdown goes away (very slowly), this remains in issue in certain contexts and especially in blue states.

3. Evil is welcomed

Mao came to power, apparently with the support, assistance, and enthusiasm of large swaths of China.

This is how Chang describes it: "The crowd of over 100,000 cried 'Long live Chairman Mao!'  Mao appeared excited, waving as he walked from one end of the magnificent Gate to the other, and occasionally shouting into the microphone: 'Long live the people!'  He had that day established himself as the absolute ruler of some 550 million people."

Evil and tyranny are not always apparent to everyone at the time it presents itself.  It doesn't announce itself as such.  It's always dressed up as a cause for the common good.

Just as the CCP rose to power championing the poor of China, the communists rise in America on the backs of the sick.  They dress up the lockdown as for protection of the elderly.  Note how the basic issue is real, just as the poverty of Chinese was real, but it is hijacked by dangerous people.

It's the same old scam — and welcomed enthusiastically by many.

4. Destroy culture

The CCP had a vigorous program to wipe out traditional Chinese culture. 

Chang explains, "Frightened citizens burned their own books or sold them as scrap paper, and destroyed their own art objects[.] ... A large number of historical monuments, the most visible manifestations of the nation's civilization ... [were] demolished."

The lockdown is achieving the same ends.  Everything that healthy humans enjoy doing has been banned.  No baseball, no gym, no library, no concerts, no fun on the playground.

How did the cultural shutdown go in China?  Well, it led to the Cultural Revolution, when hordes of frustrated young people went berserk unleashing terror:

[T]he country was seething with frustrated activists who had been denied the normal outlets available in most societies, even to sit around and argue issues.  Now, suddenly, there seemed to be a chance to get involved[.] ... To make sure that students were fully available to carry out his wishes, Mao ordered schooling suspended[.] ... Violence broke out within days.

That is where we are today in America.  We had the lockdown.  Ended culture.  Locked people inside.  Now the Red Guards are rioting throughout the country.

America is facing a Maoist shakedown.