The First Step Is To Label It; Syncretism In America
Final 10
When the Berlin Wall crumbled in 1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Americans cheered the triumph of liberty over tyranny. The Cold War, that decades-long standoff between capitalism and communism, ended with the Stars and Stripes waving high. We’d won—or so we thought. As a liberty-loving, rugged individualist with a healthy distrust of centralized power, I’ve watched a quieter, more insidious battle unfold since then. Communism didn’t die; it morphed, slipped through the cracks, and started blending into American culture through a sneaky process called syncretism. This isn’t about tanks or missiles—it’s about ideas, and they’ve been more effective than any Red Army could’ve hoped.
The Victory Hangover and the Open Door
After the Cold War, we got complacent. The Soviet bogeyman was gone, and with it, the urgency to guard our principles. Capitalism had proven its economic chops, and the American experiment seemed unassailable. But nature abhors a vacuum, and so does ideology. While we were popping champagne, the remnants of communist thought—class struggle, collectivism, the disdain for individual merit—didn’t just vanish. They found new hosts. The process kicked off with contact: decades of Cold War rivalry had already exposed us to Marxist ideas, even if only to mock them. Hollywood, universities, and activist circles had flirted with socialism since the 1930s, and that flirtation didn’t stop when the USSR folded.
Syncretism starts when you spot similarities between two systems. Marxism’s obsession with equality sounded a little like America’s promise of “liberty and justice for all”—if you squinted hard enough. Never mind that one’s about individual freedom and the other’s about state-enforced leveling. The overlap was enough for the blending to begin. American progressives, always on the lookout for a moral crusade, saw a chance to adapt these ideas, dressing them up in red, white, and blue. It wasn’t “communism” anymore—it was “social justice,” “equity,” or “community welfare.” Same game, new branding.
The Cultural Stew Simmers
Adaptation is where syncretism gets slick. Post-Cold War, the raw Marxist call for revolution wouldn’t fly in a nation of homeowners and entrepreneurs. So, the ideology got a makeover. Instead of seizing factories, it targeted culture. Universities churned out theories like Critical Race Theory and postmodernism, which borrowed Marxism’s oppressor-oppressed framework but swapped class for race, gender, or whatever else could stir division. The collectivist spirit of communism didn’t demand loyalty to a Politburo—it asked for allegiance to identity groups, all clamoring for state protection and handouts. Individualism, the bedrock of American liberty, got painted as selfish or oppressive.
Power dynamics shifted too. The Soviet collapse didn’t kill Marxism’s appeal; it freed it from Moscow’s baggage. American intellectuals, unburdened by the gulags’ stink, could cherry-pick the bits they liked—centralized control, wealth redistribution—and ignore the body count. The 1990s and 2000s saw this creep into policy debates: healthcare as a “right,” student loan forgiveness, endless welfare expansions. Each step nudged us closer to a system where the state, not the citizen, calls the shots. It’s not Lenin’s manifesto, but it’s his spirit, diluted just enough to swallow.
Repetition Makes It Real
Over time, repetition turns syncretism into reality. By the 2010s, terms like “systemic inequality” were gospel in schools, newsrooms, and corporate boardrooms. The idea that America’s success stemmed from exploitation—not innovation—echoed Marx’s critique of capitalism, but now it was taught as history, not theory. Pop culture piled on: movies, music, and memes glorified “the struggle” against phantom overlords, while self-reliance got mocked as some quaint cowboy fantasy. The Founding Fathers’ vision of limited government morphed into a punching bag for activists demanding more control, more redistribution, more everything—except freedom.
This wasn’t forced by a conquering army. It was organic, generational. Kids raised on participation trophies and grievance culture didn’t blink when politicians promised to “fix” their lives with other people’s money. The American Dream—work hard, keep what you earn—started sounding like a relic. Communism’s core tenet, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” snuck in under the guise of fairness. And we let it happen, too busy binge-watching Netflix to notice.
The Patriot’s Pushback
As any decent American would, I say enough. Syncretism only wins if we let it stew unchecked. The Cold War’s end didn’t mean the fight was over—it just moved to our backyard. We beat communism once with clarity: free markets outproduced command economies, and individual liberty outshone collectivist chains. That hasn’t changed. The answer isn’t censorship or purges—commies love that stuff—but fierce, unapologetic defense of what makes America work: personal responsibility, property rights, and a government that stays in its lane.
Call it out when you see it. When some bureaucrat or professor pushes “equity” over merit, remind them that equality of outcome is a Marxist pipe dream, not an American promise. Support entrepreneurs, not entitlements. Teach your kids the difference between earning and taking. The syncretic blend of communism and American culture isn’t inevitable—it’s reversible. But it starts with us, the stubborn patriots who still believe a man’s worth lies in his actions, not his handouts. The Wall fell, but the war of ideas didn’t. Time to fight smart, and fight hard.
In the summer of 2022 I set out to write 1,000 articles on Substack because the Great American Spirit I know and love is underrepresented in online rhetoric. I’m closing in to complete that goal by March, 2025, so if you like what you see here please leave a comment.
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Very well stated analysis of what has happened. Hopefully we are in a turn around.