The college camps that have sprung up across the United States in recent weeks share common themes with Black Lives Matter and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China.
“These protesters are culturally indoctrinated by Marxist professors.” Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez told Fox News Digital.
The comments came as anti-Israel demonstrators have taken over some of America’s most prominent university campuses, sparking violence that has resulted in more than 2,400 arrests in just a few weeks.
The demonstrations, which typically feature large student encampments staked out in prominent locations on campus, have drawn comparisons to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, but Gonzalez said the current movement believes it has more in common with Black Lives Matter and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
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Anti-Israel demonstrators rally in front of the New York University campus on May 3, 2024 in New York. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
“To me, this is more like Ferguson,” Gonzalez said, referring to the riots sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Ferguson shootings and riots brought renewed national attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, but they followed other high-profile deaths, including the 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Similar protests occurred.
Gonzalez argued that unlike Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and the current anti-Israel protests across the United States have a “coherent set of demands.”
“It was totally anti-Western, anti-capitalist,” Gonzalez said of the Occupy movement. “This group is also anti-Western, anti-capitalist – protesters – but they have demands.”
“They want to wipe out American culture, because if we have systemic racism and racism is structural, the only logical conclusion is that all It means we need to get rid of the system and all the structures.”
Gonzalez, who wrote a book about the Black Lives Matter movement, “Realizing a New Marxist Revolution,” said most of these demands can be traced back to the cultural Marxism of the 1960s and 1970s, and that the current demonstrations “I’m hiding in the background,” he claimed. “Current events in Gaza as a means of promoting Marxist policies.
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“They want to dismantle American society,” Gonzalez said.
For Gonzalez, both Black Lives Matter and the current campus movement are closely tied to Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. This is a Chinese socio-political movement led by Mao Zedong from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s that sought to strip China of its traditional society.
A protester holds a placard during a march on the Columbia University campus in support of a protest camp supporting Palestinians. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado)
“The Cultural Revolution did the same thing, trying to eliminate everything traditional,” Gonzalez said. “They were very persistent in getting rid of all the Chinese traditions and norms and everything from the past.”
Gonzalez claimed that a similar movement is occurring in the United States, led by groups he believes are attempting “cultural genocide.”
“They want to wipe out American culture, because if there is systemic racism and racism is structural, the only logical conclusion is that all systems and all That means the structure has to be removed,” Gonzalez said.
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González argued that the foundations of these movements are firmly rooted in Marxist teachings.
“If you look at the Communist Manifesto…on the first page Marx says that all of history can be boiled down to this epic struggle between oppressors and oppressed,” Gonzalez said. “This is the oppressor-versus-oppressor paradigm that these kids run through everything.”
Although camp supporters tout the camp as largely peaceful in nature, demonstrations have at times become so destructive that law enforcement has to intervene. ing.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the current demonstrations could lead to more violence.
“This is the first time in a long time that I can remember that we have demonstrators directly supporting a terrorist group,” von Spakovsky said. “With words and crimes, they express support for Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization for 30 years.”
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Like Gonzalez, von Spakovsky compared today’s campus movements to Black Lives Matter, noting that many of the protests associated with that movement have turned violent or destructive.
“The Black Lives Matter movement and its protests have led to violence, including arson, destruction of buildings, and vandalism,” von Spakovsky said.
Von Spakovsky believes the current encampment could have a similar or even worse outcome.
“Violence from the demonstrators is expected given the fact that they support terrorist organizations and express support for the massacre that took place on October 7,” von Spakovsky said. said.
He also noted that while the demonstrations showed widespread anti-Semitism, the tactics used by participants were reminiscent of the days of the Ku Klux Klan.
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“I don’t see any difference between these protesters and people who were members of the Ku Klux Klan, especially when you look at the fact that there is a federal law that makes it against the law to wear a mask in public.” ‘We cannot deny the rights of other Americans on highways and on private property,” von Spakovsky said. “So what are we seeing on these college campuses? Hamas supporters hiding their faces and making them unrecognizable, just like the Ku Klux Klan did? I don’t see any difference between the two.”
Students demonstrate against war in Gaza. (Jay Janner/American Politician)
Given the potential for violence, von Spakovsky believes more should be done to break up current encampments and demonstrations.
“It is shocking and alarming that no steps are being taken to stop this immediately,” von Spakovsky said. “For example, the students participating in these protests should have their visas revoked immediately because they are supporting terrorist groups and they are not U.S. citizens. And they should be expelled from the country.… I won’t.’ There’s no other way. ”
Gonzalez expressed similar sentiments, arguing that the potential for violence should be enough for the FBI to investigate groups on campus.
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“Will we ever have another summer like 2020?” Gonzalez asked, referring to the riots after the death of George Floyd. “Well…this is why I think the FBI should be involved and Congress should be involved.”
