"Useful idiot" is a pejorative term for a person who propagandizes for a cause without fully understanding (due to naïveté, stupidity, or on purpose) the cause's goals, who is cynically used by the cause's founders.  It is used to describe otherwise sensible people who become, due to misrepresentations or outright lies, susceptible to Marxist/communist/socialist propaganda and manipulation.

Why is this important?  Because this is what Black Lives Matter is doing: using useful idiots to advance its cause.  One of BLM's founders is Alicia Garza, a trained Marxist.  Why is that significant?  Because it explains BLM's agenda.  Marxism's (and BLM's) ultimate goal is to ignite class warfare to provide an opportunity for the seizure of political power.  But the U.S. was created as a classless society with no royalty, no nobility, no caste system.  Everyone is equal under the law.  How, then, do Marxists ignite class warfare?  By creating false classes, then propagandizing them into existence.  This is where useful idiots come into play.  Once people believe that these false classes exist, class warfare can begin.

The actions of three useful idiots illustrate how they foster class warfare.  They use what Teddy Roosevelt called the "bully pulpit" to propagandize.  There's the Democrat party.  Then there are two useful idiots of note, one whose name AT readers will recognize and a name most AT readers will not recognize: Barack Obama and Lewis Hamilton.

About Democrats, J.D. Rucker wrote:

The party that once focused on workers and Big Labor detached their wagons from those horses around the time Barack Obama became president, opting instead to latch onto identity politics[.] ... This served them well for years, but now that identity politics has been taken over by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, among others, Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are no longer in control.  It's the radicals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar who are the party's new ideological leaders, but even they are simply higher-ranking pawns [of Marxists].

Rucker continued:

The plans of the Cultural Marxists at the top come down to three big lies.  First, they have the lie of authority in which they turn people against the leaders.  They say all police and the justice system in general is corrupt.  They say President Trump and the GOP are the problem despite unprecedented prosperity across the board in America.  They need to lie to get their foot soldiers fired up.

The second lie is the lie of action.  They tell their group that to achieve their goals, they need to riot, loot, tear down monuments, form autonomous zones, and act out in ways that lead towards governments at every level promoting further authoritarianism.  They don't tell their foot soldiers that they're supposed to be quashed[.] ...

The last lie is the lie of results.  The people in their movement are told this is all going to lead to revolution.  They're not told that they're going to get put down by authoritarian measures, and that these measures are the true goal of the Cultural Marxists who need that precedent in order to allow for the real end goal of authoritarian communism, which is very different from the anarcho-communism the foot soldiers believe they're producing.

Marxists create useful idiots.

Obama, an idiot before he became useful, said of Trayvon Martin, the BLM poster child: "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."  "Defending the Black Lives Matter movement, President Barack Obama said Thursday [October 23, 2015] the protests are giving voice to a problem happening only in African-American communities, adding, 'We, as a society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously.'"  Obama provided usefulness by giving a Marxist organization credibility and support.   

Now to Lewis Hamilton, Formula One racecar driver.  Why?  He is one of the most visible black athletes today.  He began his "useful idiot" tour at a BLM rally in London in June.  Ben Morse of CNN wrote: "Since George Floyd's death last month, Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has been one of sport's most outspoken athletes in showing his support for the Black Lives Matter movement."  Morse quoted Hamilton: "I was proud to be out there acknowledging and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and my Black heritage."

He then doubled down by bringing Breonna Taylor into his idiocy, obviously without doing any research.  On September 13, at the Tuscan Grand Prix, he wore a tee-shirt with the message "Arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor."  He wrote before the race: "It's been 6 months since Breonna Taylor was murdered by policemen, in her own home.  Still no justice has been served.  We won't stay silent.  #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor."  Following the race, Hamilton said, "I've been wanting to bring awareness to the fact there are people being killed on the street.  And someone was killed in her own house and they were in the wrong house and those guys are still walking free."  That's non-factual propaganda.

Then, after the Russian Grand Prix on September 24, he said: "People talk about sport not being a place for politics but ultimately it is a human rights issue and that is something we should be pushing towards.  We have a huge, amazing group of people that watch our sport from different backgrounds and cultures and we should be pushing positive messages towards them, especially for equality" (emphasis mine).  Again, non-factual propaganda.  Hamilton is, without a doubt, a useful idiot.

This occurred in an ironic atmosphere.  Speaking of Hamilton on July 12, motorsport legend Mario Andretti told Chilean newspaper El Mercurio: "I think the whole point of this is pretentious.  And it's creating a problem that doesn't exist."  Hamilton's response: "Andretti should educate himself."  Hamilton didn't bother to look up facts, just spewed propaganda.

Here is another example of an international useful idiot: Mercedes-Benz.  Until this year, its F1 racecars were known as Silver Arrows.  But no longer — they caved to their useful idiot and painted their cars black. 

What now?  First, know that useful idiots are everywhere.  The vast majority of the MSM are useful idiots as well.  They refuse to be educated.  So, second, educate yourself.  Larry Elder at Epoch Times, Dennis Prager at Prager University, and Thomas Lifson at AT are but three of hundreds of internet sources providing the complete truth.  Third, reach out to those who can be educated.  Fourth, patronize sponsors of conservative websites.

Image: Johnny Silvercloud via Flickr (cropped), CC BY-SA 2.0.