In 1966, as Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution unleashed a decade of chaos on China, a six-year-old Xi Van Fleet watched her world unravel, books burned, intellectuals humiliated, families torn by state dogma. Fast-forward to 2023, and in her searing book Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning, she sees eerie echoes in the Land of the Free: Cancel culture torching dissent, youth weaponised as ideological enforcers, and education twisted into indoctrination.Mao's 1942 essay "Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?" preached that truth flows only from the Party's barrel, a blueprint for authoritarianism now mirrored in America's political correctness, an iron-fisted "believe or be shot" ethos cloaked in moral posturing. Xi's lens, forged in the crucible of Mao's tyranny, reveals a creeping communist cultural revolution in the West.

Xi Van Fleet's childhood was a front-row seat to Mao's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a campaign to purge "capitalist" and traditional elements for a socialist utopia. Her memories are vivid: Struggle sessions shamed dissenters; Red Guards, zealous youth, smashed relics and history; schools churned out Maoist drones, not thinkers. The "Four Olds" (customs, culture, habits, ideas) were razed to build a new world order. Families bowed to the state; religion was swapped for Party worship. Mao's 1942 essay set the stage: "Correct ideas" arise from class struggle and Party doctrine, not debate or reason, dissenters were enemies, not interlocutors. The result? A nation silenced, with 2 million dead and millions more scarred by "re-education."

Xi's thesis: America's on a parallel track. Cancel culture apes the Four Olds' destruction, statues toppled, schools renamed, history rewritten. Social justice warriors, like Red Guards, wield youth's fervour to enforce orthodoxy, from campus shout-downs to online dogpiles. Education, she warns, is a Marxist beachhead: Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its ilk recast history as oppression's ledger, not a shared heritage. Political correctness, like Mao's "correct ideas," demands fealty to a singular narrative, punishing deviation with social or professional death.

Mao's 1942 tract argued that truth is class-bound, validated only by the Party's lens, science, reason, or debate be damned. Political correctness in America mirrors this, swapping the Party for a progressive elite. Consider: In 2021, 66% of Americans polled by Cato felt the political climate silenced their views. X bristles with examples, professors sacked for questioning CRT, comedians hounded for "wrong" jokes, doctors deplatformed for COVID dissent. The"believe or I shoot you" quip captures the stakes: Not bullets, but bans, firings, and ostracism. As Xi notes, CRT's intersectionality, dividing by race, gender, sexuality, mimics Mao's class warfare, pitting groups against each other to destabilise.

The mechanics? Subtle yet brutal. Universities, per a 2025 FIRE report, saw 20% of faculty self-censor on "controversial" topics like race or gender, fearing backlash. Corporate DEI mandates, $7.5B spent in 2024, enforce speech codes, echoing Mao's struggle sessions where dissenters grovelled. Social media's the new Red Guard plaza: X posts lament "woke mobs" cancelling authors like J.K. Rowling for defying gender orthodoxy. The Biden-era YouTube purge, admitted in 2025, targeted lawful COVID scepticism under White House pressure, shades of Mao's "correct ideas" decree.

Xi's book outlines nine parallels, each a brick in the authoritarian wall:

1.Personal Tyranny: Her childhood of indoctrination and family splits mirrors America's polarised homes, where 30% of Gen Z cut ties over politics.

2.Cultural Revolution Redux: Cancel culture's statue-toppling and history erasure mimics Mao's Four Olds purge, e.g., 130+ Confederate monuments removed since 2020.

3.Divide and Conquer: CRT's racial lens, adopted in 35 states' curricula by 2023, echoes Mao's class warfare.

4.Youth as Tools: Social justice warriors, like Red Guards, are young, zealous, and disposable; think campus protests shutting down 50+ conservative talks in 2024.

5.Cancel Culture: From Mao's book burnings to America's deplatforming (e.g., CHD's YouTube ban), it's about erasing the old.

6.Family Assault: Progressive policies, like California's 2025 school gender secrecy laws, weaken parental bonds, akin to Mao's state loyalty push.

7.Religion's Fall: Secularism's rise (30% of Americans unaffiliated by 2024) swaps faith for ideology, as Mao banned churches.

8.Education as Indoctrination: K-12 CRT mandates in 18 states by 2025 shape minds, not free them, per Xi's Maoist school tales.

9.Freedom's Fragility: Xi's call to defend liberty resonates as 62% of Americans in 2025 fear losing free speech.

Her lens isn't conspiracy, it's pattern recognition. Mao's essay demanded one truth; today's PC enforcers, academia, tech, media, demand one narrative. X users rage: "Same collectivism, new skin."

Xi's warning isn't fatalism; it's a battle cry. With Trump's 2025 return, the window's open to counter cultural Marxism's creep. Here's the playbook, grounded in her call and today's pulse, relevant to much of the West too:

1.Reclaim Education: Ban ideological curricula like CRT in public schools, Florida's 2022 Stop WOKE Act cut its adoption by 40%. Fund parental choice: Vouchers surged 20% in red states by 2025.

2.Defend Free Speech: Pass federal laws shielding lawful expression from tech bans, model on Texas's 2021 social media law, upheld in 2024. Subpoena Biden-era tech pressure docs, per Jordan's probe.

3.Break Tech Monopolies: Antitrust suits against Google, Meta, DOJ's 2025 TNI case is a start. Promote decentralised platforms: Rumble's user base grew 50% in 2025.

4.Strengthen Families: Roll back policies undermining parents, e.g., repeal California's AB 1955 (gender secrecy). Tax credits for family units, not state wards.

5.Protect Faith: Guard religious liberty, SCOTUS's 2025 Carson v. Makin expansion shields faith-based schools.

6.Cultural Counteroffensive: Fund counter-narratives, think tanks, media, art. PragerU's 2025 K-12 push reached 10M students.

Xi Van Fleet's Mao's America isn't just a memoir; it's a mirror. Political correctness, like Mao's "correct ideas," isn't debate, it's diktat. The "believe or I shoot you" mantra captures the stakes: Conform or be cancelled. Yet Xi's optimism shines: America's constitutional DNA, free speech, faith, family, can resist if we act. The 2025 landscape, Trump's DOJ, GOP Congress, X's raw pulse, offers leverage. The rot's deep, but not terminal. Defund the dogma, amplify the dissenters, rebuild the culture.

https://sobrief.com/books/maos-america

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/at-one-time-many-mocked-the-idea