BREADTUBE

SERVES
IMPERIALISM
EXAMINING THE
NEW BRAND OF
INTERNET
PSEUDO-SOCIALISM

>
Bread Tube Serves Imperialism
CarLes T. MAurIN

BreadTube Serves
Imperialism
Examining The New Brand of
Internet Pseudo-Socialism
Copyright © 2021 by Caleb Maupin

@ Center for Political Innovation

Dedicated to educating and fostering visions for a future beyond capitalism

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of Caleb Maupin.
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .. .........
... . ... ... 1

Introduction:
The Capitalists Fight With One Another ........ 2

Divisions in the Ruling Class * Lessons from the 1930s

More Dangerous Than Social Democracy

Chapter One:
What & Who is Bread Tube?
The Nature of the Counter-Gang ............. 14

Natalie “Contrapoints” Wynn © Harris “Bomber Guy” Brewis

lan “Vaush” Kochinski * "Socialism Done Left” * Matt
“Thought Slime” * Steven “Destiny” Bonnell ® Caleb
“Faraday Speaks” Cain ¢ Dr. Steve Hassan * Counter-gangs
and the Late Cold War » Conclusion

Chapter Two:
Redefining Capitalism and Socialism .......... 52

The Legacy of Peter Kropotkin * The Marxist Definition of

Capitalism * Imperialism: The Capitalism of Our Time * The
Marxist Definition of Socialism © “Marx Wasn'tA Statist”
* Maintaining Profits in Command * The Myth of the 20th
Century
Chapter Three:
Nazi! Nazi! Nazi! ..........
... ... ... ..... 97

“Insurrection and Autocracy” ® “A counter-revolutionary mass

movement” » The Myth of Fascist Ideology and Aesthetics
Natalie Wynn’s “F@scists” * A Gift to Actual Fascism

Chapter Four:
Understanding Left-Pessimism . .. ........... 125

The De-Growth Delusions * Georges Sorel’s “Birth Strike” *

Sexual Freedom and Left-Pessimism * Orgasmic Politics

Conclusion:
The Conditions Themselves Call Qut . ........ 157

Appendix #1:
4-Point Plan to Rescue the Country — Center for
Political Innovation . . . .. .................. 165

Appendix #2:
Note on the Political Development of the Author 170

Bibliography . ..........
... ... ... o .. 191
 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Arthur Porter for his cover
design, Denise Rampulla for her proof-reading and
Jason Ross for his layout. I also want to thank everyone
who helped contribute to this book with research and
moral support over the past two years as I have been
subject to a widespread personal smear campaign.
Special thanks to Brenton Lengel, Peter Coffin, Daniel
Burke, Dakotah Lily, George Ehrhardt, Ramiro Funez,
Nathan Rich, Peter Cofhin, Justin Simmons, Lily
Goldklang, Joe Gale, Charlotte Forrester, Kiki Dewar,
Garland Nixon, Dr. Wilmer Leon, Paul Shepard and
others who have offered ideological and political
support.
2 CaLEB MAUPIN

Introduction: The Capitalists

Fight With One Another...
The capitalists fight with one another
10 corner the market and divide up the world
Their quest for maximum profit
Is the cause of war and puts us on the dole
Their greed leads them into a crisis
Which they try to resolve with a more fascist state
Our struggle is against the whole capitalist system
So strike ar the fascists as well as the cuts
— Cornelius Cardew, Lords of Labour

The events of January 6, 2021 will go down in

history. The images of supporters of President Donald
Trump and adherents of the QAnon Conspiracy
Theory bursting into the US Capitol building shook
the world. While US media presented it as simply an
example of the criminal and violent nature of Trump
supporters, to any observer with an astute political
understanding, it showed much more than that. The
extent to which FBI informers and other infiltrators
 BreEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 3

were involved in helping the events to happen as they

did has not yet been fully revealed. Such an occurrence
was only allowed to happen because deep divisions
exist within the US power structure. Within the circles
of wealth and power, the intelligence agencies, and the
military, there are serious divisions. The pandemic, the
bumbling government response at local and federal
levels, and the resulting economic fallout has only
exacerbated those differences.
US society is in a deep crisis. The crisis is rooted not
in multiculturalism, a lack of patriotism, or a lack of
virtue signaling and “woke” sentiments, but in the
fundamental problems of capitalism. Capitalism, the
system of production organized for profit, is reaching
a breaking point. A prolonged crisis of overproduction,
spawned by the computer revolution, has made the
longstanding problem of workers’ competition with
machines and poverty resulting from abundance far
more deadly. Workers are suffering, the economy is
stagnating, unrest is rising, and the influence of the
United States around the world is in decline.

Divisions in the Ruling Class

The trend which Karl Marx described in his pamphlet
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon in which one
section of the capitalist class seeks to suppress other
sections in an attempt to stabilize society and liquidate
the crisis, is very much alive. The Obama administration,
4 CALEB MAUPIN

in an alliance with ExxonMobil, the Rockefellers, and

the Silicon Valley tech giants, attempted to carry out
strategies put forward by the Council on Foreign
Relations, and introduce measures to better control the
US economy and strategically roll back the influence of
Russia and China. Trump, aligned with capitalists like
Betsy DeVos, Sheldon Adelson, Mike Lindell, the
fracking corporations and military contractors, took
moves to push back against these moves. The goal was to
maintain a more libertarian economic model, and secure
the profitsof thosewholostout from Obama’s maneuvers.
In the 1980s, the US ruling class seemed to be in a
state of near unity and the US economy was strong,.
Ronald Reagan remarked, “We are all friends after six
o'clock” when speaking of the elected ofhcials in
Washington, DC. The events on January 6th indicate,
pretty clearly, the opposite state of affairs.
The January 6th events reminded many of the events
of August 11th and 12¢h, 2017 in Charlottesville. A
crowd of white nationalistsand conservativesassembled
for a torch lit march, and the following day held a
public demonstration to oppose the removal of a
monument to the Confederacy. At the demonstration
on August 12th, left-wing activists mobilized to
counter the racists. Scuffles took place, and a white
supremacist activist plowed his car into a crowd of
leftists, killing Heather Heyer. A police helicopter also
crashed, killing two state troopers.
 BreapTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 5

In other writings, such as my book Kamala Harris and

the Future of America, I have provided extensive analysis
of the divisions within the US ruling class. I focus on
how these divisions have evolved over the course of the
last decades and what the various factions want. This
text will focus on another aspect of the conflict.
The Marxist composer Cornelius Cardew penned
these lyrics describing the process of capitalist decay:
“The capitalists fight with one another to corner the
markets and divide up the world, their quest for
maximum profits is the cause of war and puts us on the
dole. Their greed leads us into a crisis, which they try
to resolve with a more fascist state, our struggle is
against the capitalist system, so strike at the fascists as
well as the cuts.”
It has long been understood that as the capitalist
crisis emerges, the various factions in the ruling class
form political movements to serve them. These political
movements target one section of the capitalist class on
behalf of the other, while also mobilizing against
revolutionary forces that seek to overthrow the
capitalist system.
British intelligence officer Frank Kitson described
the practice of forming “Counter-Gangs” in Kenya to
fight against the Land and Freedom Army. These were
pseudo-revolutionary groups that collected intelligence
and helped the British empire to defeat the Mau Mau
uprising. Kitson later pioneered the British intelligence
6 CALEB Maurin

strategy of arming Protestant fanatics to target the Irish

Republican Army during the 1980s.
William S. Lind, the Pentagon strategist and military
analyst, has developed the concept of Fourth Generation
Warfare, in which “non-state actors” are utilized by
great powers in their efforts to undermine rivals.
Endless pages have been written about how the
right-wing faction of US capital is utilizing white
nationalists, QAnon, Libertarians, the Tea Party, and
other rightists as a “counter-gang” of “non-state actors”
to fight on their behalf. However, very little has been
written about what is obviously retaliation from the
rival faction. The internet culture of “Social Justice
Warriors” and the emergence of a group of pseudo-
leftist internet voices called “BreadTube” is an attempt
to counter the influence of right-wing voices among
the US population, with the covert backing of the rival
faction of imperialists.
Countering the right-wing is certainly a noble effort
as the racism, destructive economic ideas, and
delusional conspiracy theories coming from the Trump
faction are certainly problematic. However, the
“BreadTube” current are loyal servants of the more
liberal faction among the imperialists, and as such they
have engaged in a second mission. In addition to
countering the right-wing faction, the second task the
BreadTube milieu has engaged in is an effort to purge
left-wing circles of all illiberal, anti-imperialist voices
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 7

and to some extent, all voices that are genuinely anti-

capitalist. In order to transform leftism into nothing
but lockstep servitude of their preferred faction among
the ruling class, they seek to equate Marxist-Leninists
and 21st Century Socialists with the far-right.

Lessons from the 1930s

BreadTube’s efforts are reminiscent of the efforts by
the social democrats following the Russian Revolution.
During the 1920s and up until the mid 1930s, the
various parties that had once made up the Second
International, said “Our main enemy is on the left.” In
the name of opposing Communism, the Social
Democrats, including the Socialist Party of America,
sought to have Communists banned from labor unions,
suppressed by the government, and thrown in prison.
In Weimar Germany, the Social Democratic Party
formed its own militia to suppress the German
Communist Party. In events like the infamous “Bloody
May” (Blutmai) of 1929 in Berlin’s Wedding district,
police officers and others associated with the Social
Democratic Party killed 33 Communists while
suppressing an uprising.
In response, Communists across the world accused
social democrats of being “social fascists.” British
communist theoretician R. Palme Dutt composed an
important book entided Fascism and Social Revolution,
arguing that social-democrats ultimately served the
8 CaLEB MAaUPIN

same purpose as Italian Fascisti, brutally suppressing

communists and stabilizing capitalism.
In 1935, the Soviet Union faced the threat of Nazi
invasion, and global politics had significantly shifted
as a result of Hitler’s seizure of power. The Communists
of the world re-oriented to building a People’s Front.
They aligned with social democrats. In the lead-up to
the Second World War, social-democrats dropped
much of their anti-communist fanaticism and
embraced Communists as anti-fascist allies. The
various “People’s Front” alliances, including the
Roosevelt Coalition in the United States, won many
great victories for working people, and set the stage for
the defeat of fascism.

During the 19205, German Communists fought against social

democrats who raised the slogan “our main enemy is on the left.”
The anti-communist violence of social democrats eventually set
the stage for the Nazi takeover in 1933.
 BreaDTuBE ServVES IMPERIALISM 9

Many observers have noted the historical irony of

Communists and Social-Democrats, who literally killed
each other in Germany, France, Britain and elsewhere,
joining arm in arm shortly afterward. However,
circumstances had changed. The realignment resulted
in a convergence of interests. The Social-Democrats
faced the threat of extermination from fascists who were
aligned with industrial capitalists and militarists.
Communists also faced extermination from fascists and
the Soviet Union realized a Nazi invasion was inevitable.
This common interest in defeating fascism brought the
two trends together during the Popular Front era and
the Second World War.

More Dangerous Than Social Democracy

While many lessons can be learned from this period,
it must be noted that much of Bread Tube’s ideology is
fundamentally more dangerous to those who seek to
overturn capitalism than social democracy was during
the 1920s and early 1930s.
While the Social Democrats of the 1920s and 30s
opposed the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties,
they accepted the overall Marxist analysis of capitalism.
Social Democrats worked in labor unions and sought to
increase the living standards of working people. Social
Democrats believed history was moving forward and
that technological progress was a good thing. Social
Democrats sought, through gradual reform, to eventually
10 CaLEB Maurin

establish a society where the means of production

operated according to a rational central plan.
The prevailing voices on BreadTube do not share
these goals with Marxists. The prevailing BreadTube
view is that the living standards of working people in
the United States and throughout the world are too
high, and that consumption must be reduced.
BreadTube voices generally argue that advocating for
living standards to increase or analyzing society in
terms of wage workers and capitalists is an ideological
crime known as “Class Reductionism.” BreadTube
voices generally believe technological progress is an
affront to mother nature, and that societies around
the world that are kept in a state of deindustrialization
and underdevelopment are more “pure” and
“beautiful,” close to some kind of spiritual ideal.
BreadTubers generally reject the need for a centrally
planned economy, but instead favor gradually
transitioning to a profit-centered economy, where
workers receive a share of the profits rather than a set
hourly wage.
While Social Democracy in the 1920s and even
today generally represents a watered down, pro-
imperialist ~ interpretation of Marxism, what
Bread Tubers believe in is fundamentally antithetical to
Marxism. Marxism seeks to advance historical progress
and create a society of vast abundance in which all
inequality and the need for a state itself can fade away.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 1

Contrarily, BreadTube seeks to roll back the wheels of

history, reduce the human population, end growth,
and restore humans to some kind of primitive state of
existence deemed to be moral and sustainable.
While Social Democracy in the 1920s tended to
oppose illegal activities and militant labor activism,
BreadTubehastaken theoppositeextreme. Bread Tubers
tend to favor an escalation of street violence against the
right-wing at a time when these forces are much better
armed and have a much better organized base among
the population. If the eventual escalation that
BreadTubers seem committed to inciting were to
occur, the result would most likely be a huge crackdown
on all political activism by the state, if not an outright
victory for the right-wing.
Furthermore, BreadTube often seems to almost incite
lawless violence and hooliganism against Marxist-
Leninists, 21st Century Socialists and Anti-Imperialists
at the same time, that they call for mob violence against
the right-wing. Bread Tube is actively working to change
the political discourse, labelling anti-war and anti-
imperialist voices as “Red Browns” and “Nazbols,”
equating them with Nazis, and setting the stage of mob
violence and state repression against them.
It may have been incorrect to label the social-
democrats of the 1920s “social fascists” despite the fact
that they advocated and engaged in violent repression
against revolutionary forces. However, a much more
12 CALEB MAUPIN

explicitly fascist streak can be found in the Bread Tube

milieu. BreadTube’s opposition to historical progress
and growth evokes fascist Julius Evola’s references to
“The Demonic Nature of the Economy,” and carries
with it the genocidal legacy of eugenics and
Malthusianism. BreadTube’s fetishization of street
violence and “action” over ideology, pushing left
minded youth toward a premature violent
confrontation, also parallels Mussolini’s political
trajectory as described in his autobiography.
BreadTube’s implied calls for violence and political
repression of anti-imperialist voices certainly brings
forth memories of the Nazi stormtroopers.
Whether or not BreadTube ideology constitutes a
modern variant of fascism is not the focus of this book.
BreadTube, after all, is merely an internet community
engaging in propaganda work. The ties of Bread Tube to
the Antifa street fighters are most likely extensive but
cannot be confirmed. So far, the actual violence against
rival leftist voices has been rare, though cyber-bullying,
intense harassment, and intimidation has not.
The purpose of this book is to debunk and expose
the dangerous pseudo-leftism which BreadTube
espouses. Genuine leftism and Marxism is the only
way out of the crisis. The primitivist, worker-coop,
“non-authoritarian” society BreadTubers advocate is
not really achievable or desirable. The distorted and
confused worldview BreadTubers promote ultimately
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 13

serves the ultra-rich and globalist oriented factions of

the capitalist class. While it has very little to do with
Marxism, it is highly reminiscent of the occultist
worldview of Marilyn Ferguson, a spiritual guru who
was highly influential among American intelligence
operatives. She served as spiritual advisor to Al Gore.
This book will show that the Bread Tube perspective is
a mish-mash of old, deviant, pessimistic trends among
the middle class utilized to combat the socialist
movement.
14 CALEB MAuPrIN

Chapter One: What & Who is BreadTube?

The Nature of the Counter-Gang
As of this writing, the current Wikipedia article on
“BreadTube” opens by defining it this way: “Bread Tube
or LeftTube is a term used to refer to a loose and
informal group of online content creators that provide
editorial opinions and educational lectures from
socialist, communist, anarchist, and other left-wing
perspectives. BreadTube creators generally post videos
on YouTube that are discussed on other platforms,
such as Reddit. BreadTube creators are known to
participate in a form of algorithmic hijacking. They
will choose to focus on the topics discussed by content
creators with far-right politics. This enables their
videos to be recommended to the same audiences
consuming far-right videos, and thereby expose a
wider audience to their perspective.”
This Wikipedia definition of BreadTube seems to
almost confirm the thesis of this book, that Bread Tube
is an entity that is being utilized by the more powerful,
liberal “globalist” wing of the western capitalist power
 BreapTuBEe SERVES IMPERIALISM 15

structure to beat back the emerging right-wing

opposition. It is worth examining a few of the major
players in the Bread Tube universe.

Natalie “Contrapoints” Wynn

Probably the most level-headed and articulate voice
among the BreadTube community is Natalie Wynn,
who uses the moniker Contrapoints. Natalie is a
transgender college graduate from Arlington, Virginia.
She studied at Berkeley College of Music, Georgetown
University, and Northwestern University. Contrapoints
has received advertising from mainstream US capitalist
media, with outlets like the New York Times and The
New Yorker giving their stamp of approval for her
supposedly anti-capitalist rhetoric. The Southern
Poverty Law Center, which equates Black Nationalists
with Nazis and has pushed the narrative that anti-war
leftists are “Red Brown” cryprofascists, has approvingly
cited Natalie Wynn in their reports and praised her
efforts.
Contrapoints has produced a number of high budget
videos intended to refute right-wing ideas and urging
the left to be more coherent in presenting an alternative
message. While her content is certainly of a much
higher quality than other BreadTubers and contains a
level of intellectual depth and engagement most
BreadTubers are incapable of, Contrapoints is not
particularly loved. Contrapoints has been targeted
16 CaLEB MaurIN

viciously by her own BreadTube community, accused

of “empathizing with bigots.” Trying to understand
right-wing views and why people adopt them is deemed
an unforgivable crime by those who argue that only
violence and cancel culture should be the response.
This is a common viewpoint among Bread Tube voices.
Contrapoints, herself transgender, has been critical of
the ideology advocated by much of the Trans
movement, deconstructing some of the prevailing
interpretations of what Transgenderism means. This
has also made her the target of lengthy harassment
campaigns.
Contrapoints generally puts forward the view that
the US government has been infiltrated by a secret
Nazi conspiracy and that the role of leftists is to protect
the establishment by rooting out this conspiracy.
Wynn urged leftists to vote for Joe Biden in a video
where she compared advocating socialist revolution to
suicidal ideation.

Harris “Bomber Guy” Brewis

Harris Michael Brewis, who uses the internet
moniker “Hbomberguy,” much like Contrapoints,
devotes much of his content to debunking the views of
right—wingers, not to promoting Marxism. Brewis is
based in Britain and is a member of the Labour Party
and a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. His videos largely
focus on debunking the claims of pick-up artists, flat
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 17

earth conspiracists, and those who allege that soybeans

reduce testosterone. He also comments on video
games, movies, and other cultural topics.
One of Brewis’ greatest achievements was a
fundraising stream for the British Transgender
advocacy and charity organization known as Mermaids.
On this stream which continued for 57 hours and 48
minutes, Brewis was joined by US Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chelsea Manning, as
well as a number of Hollywood actors such as Colin
Mochrie and Mara Wilson.

Ian “Vaush” Kochinski

A video game playing child of wealth from Beverly
Hills named Ian Kochinski has taken on the moniker
“Vaush.” He has been appointed by YouTube
algorithms as the unofficial spokesperson for Marxist,
Socialist, and Leftist thought. Vaush’s father is Mark
Kochinski, a figure in Hollywood who describes
himself on LinkedIn as “director, visual effects artist,
and supervisor with 20 years of experience in
production.”
Inearlieryears, Vaush used the moniker “IrishLaddie.”
He appeared on the streams of internet video game
enthusiast Steven “Destiny” Bonnell to argue in favor
of his interpretation of anarcho-communism. He
eventually set up his own Twitch and YouTube channel
on which to play video games and urge listeners to vote
18 CALEB MAUPIN

for Joe Biden. On his streams Ian often claims there is

a secret Nazi conspiracy that has infiltrated the US
government, misinterprets key Marxist concepts,
equates critics of US foreign policy i.e. “Tankies” with
Nazis, all while using excessive profanity. In the
aftermath of the January 6th Capitol Riot, Vaush
appeared to call for a mass totalitarian style
“disappearing” of Trump supporters, tweeting out:
“Democracies cannot coexist with these people. They
disappear, or we all do.”
Kochinski seems to have an odd fascination with
pedophilia. In one debate he argued that purchasing a
laptop computer was morally equivalent to purchasing
child pornography. In other instances, he has argued
for ending age of consent laws, though he has since
claimed to have changed his position. The website
Drama Report published an article on September 8,
2020, featuring claims from a former friend of Vaush
who said he had admitted to her that he viewed child
pornography and that she had reported him to the
FBI.
Ian Kochinski has admitted that he did indeed
sexually harass at least one woman while he operated
under the moniker “IrishLaddie,” sending them
inappropriate messages, including statements about
and photos of his genitals, and threatening to dox the
woman if she went public about his behavior. Vaush
has acknowledged and apologized for such actions. A
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 19

large number of unconfirmed rumors about other

sexual misconduct allegedly perpetrated by Vaush can
be found online.
The personality of the 25-year-old indicates signs of
narcissism and sex addiction. Some have speculated
that his blatant rudeness and inability to comprehend
other peoples’ views indicates he may be on the autistic
spectrum. Vaush seems to have a bigoted view of
midwestern and southern Americans, viewing them as
inferior rabble, not as sophisticated as he and his
wealthy neighbors in Beverly Hills. In his perspective,
the calls for economic justice from working people in
the Rustbelt are “class reductionism” and “fascist
populism.”
Kochinski has lied excessively about this author,
claiming he is a “literal Nazi” and that he supports US
billionaire capitalists like Jeff Bezos, statements he
clearly knows to be false. He also baited this author for
allegedly being “anti-American,” which is a very odd
accusation for a supposed Marxist and Anarcho-
Communist to make. In many streams it seems
apparent that Vaush has “handlers” or “advisors” who
are more familiar with Marxism than he is. Often
Vaush will be seen stuttering hisway through explaining
concepts that he does not clearly understand, clearly
quoting someone else, most likely an individual who
learned the concept in an academic, not activist,
setting.
20 CaLEB MaurIN

In one embarrassing stream Vaush read aloud quotes

from Mao Zedong, Lenin, and Marx, which he said
justified support for the Democratic Party of the
United States in the 2020 election. It became clear to
many viewers that the list of quotes had been prepared
by someone else, and that Vaush knows very little
about Russian or Chinese history. However, this has
not stopped this smug video game player from
occupying the position of being the primary “Marxist”
voice on the internet.
Vaush routinely quotes from Radio Free Asia and
other US State Department propaganda outlets
treating them as reliable sources of information, while
deeming all media from anti-imperialist countries or
putting forward an anti-imperialist perspective to be
non-credible.
One of Vaush’s favorite talking points is to accuse all
who question US media allegations against China,
Iran, Russia, and other anti-imperialist states of being
the equivalent of Nazi Holocaust deniers. According
to Vaush, if US media says that Saddam Hussein has
weapons of mass destruction, or that the evil Spaniards
have sunk the U.S.S. Maine, you must believe it. If you
do not, you are the same as a Neo-Nazi and deserve to
be beaten up by Antifa, if not “disappeared” in order to
protect the great American “democracy.”
 BreapTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 21

"Socialism Done Left”

An individual using the name “Socialism Done Left”
on Twitter and YouTube grabbed some widespread
attention when it was revealed that they may not
actually be a leftist at all.
According to an article published by Vice News on
April 27th, 2021: “SocialismDoneLeft is a socialist
YouTuber in the broad, loosely categorized group of
YouTubers that’s been dubbed ‘BreadTube’ by fans...
While SocialismDoneLeft nominally pushes for
progressive policies, the leaked Discord messages,
which include dozens of overtly racist comments about
Black people, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and
Islamophobia, show that the public personas of some
BreadTubers are at odds with what they say behind
the scenes. It also has raised questions about whose
side some of these streamers and YouTube
personalities are really on. The messages, some of
which SocialismDoneLeft has admitted to posting,
apparently come from the YouTuber Destiny’s Discord
channel and were largely made in 2019.”
While “Socialism Done Left” is a much less well
known BreadTube personality, the revelations about
them grabbed attention due to widespread suspicions
about various BreadTube voices, their origins, and
their sincerity. The Vice write-up goes on:
“SocialismDoneleft has since apologized for these
22 CALEB Maurin

messages on a Twitch livestream, saying that some of

these statements were jokes made for ‘shock humor;
and that he does not use this language anymore, three
years later in 2021. He also said that in some cases he
was mimicking the language of racists and emphasized
that he doesn’t find this language acceptable... Despite
SocialismDoneLeft’s apology, leftists on Twitter and
elsewhere don’t seem to be buying it, or at least they
don’t feel obligated to trust or listen to this person any
longer.”
The claim that such statements were intended as
jokes doesn’t seem to hold up when examining their
context. The Vice report quotes one of the whistle-
blowers who said: “Why the fuck are black people,
Jewish people, and trans people always at the butt of
these shitty ‘jokes™?... Who were you parodying here?
Punchline?”
It is worth noting that “Socialism Done Left” echoed
the “Anti-Tankie” narrative equating leftists who do
not echo US foreign policy rhetoric with the far right.
It seems that inciting leftists against China was a
primary focus of “Socialism Done Left” content, much
of which has been removed in the aftermath of the
leaked messages.

Matt “Thought Slime”

A Canadian comedian whose legal first name is
“Matt” is one of the primary voices on the internet
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 23

purporting to be an expert on Marxism and Anarchism.

“Matt” identifies as non-binary, meaning they do not
identify with either the male or female gender, and
prefers to be referred to as “they” rather than “he” or
“she.” Martt uses the YouTube moniker “Thought
Slime” and their video background features a green
snot looking sludge.
Matt is essentially a cyberbully who wraps their
comedy in pseudo-leftist ideology and 90s goth style
edge-lordism. Matt seems to have had a very difficulc
life, something they frequently remind viewers of.
Topics like suicide, depression, child abuse, bullying,
and mental health are frequently discussed. After a
failed comedy career, Matt turned to making movie
reviews for YouTube and somehow seems to have
stumbled into politics.
According to YouTube Wiki fandom, Matt’s mother
is Colleen Esteves, a convicted white collar criminal.
According to a CBC report dated Sept 26, 2013,
“Esteves worked with Human Resources and Skills
Development Canada, as well as Service Canada, and
deposited unauthorized funds into a joint account she
held with her partner. The court was told during an
earlier appearance that approximately $75,000 was
deposited between January, 2007 and August, 2010.
The court also heard that Esteves’ partner had a
gambling problem, and that he would inform
authorities if she stopped taking money. He eventually
24 CALEB MAUPIN

did, when their relationship ended.” The report states

that Colleen Esteves “pleaded guilty to fraud and
breach of trust by a public ofhcial.”
No record exists of Matt ever being involved with
any Anarchist or Communist organization, or any
activism aside from their online comedy screeds. Matt’s
followers tend to target whoever Matt has chosen to
unleash their rage on with absurd personal attacks and
harassment. Matt routinely takes the statements that
people make out of context, distorts opponents
positions, and makes statements that they most likely
realize to be false. For example, Matt has claimed that
this writer’s father was a Wall Street banker and that
this writer has never criticized the right-wing YouTube
channel “PragerU,” among other statements that are
obviously inaccurate and could be debunked by a
simple Google search.
Matt’s videos tend to fixate on things like slime,
feces, genitalia, and other things deemed to be ugly.
Matt’s channel is much like the Netflix show 13 Reasons
Why in that while it appears sympathetic to the
mentally ill, it more or less encourages and enables
people to fixate on their depressed, rageful, and suicidal
feelings, wallowing in self-pity, anger, and hopelessness.
This begs a fair question: How many of Matt’s mostly
teenage and largely transgender audience have actually
committed suicide after stewing with Matt for hours on
their dark feelings? The answer is of course unknown.
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 25

Martis kind enough to often provide a “trigger warning”

in front of their more depressed or grotesque screeds.

Steven “Destiny” Bonnell

In addition to these prominent voices among the
BreadTube universe, there are a couple of other
individuals who are worth mentioning. While they are
not all technically “BreadTubers” by definition, they
are part of the sphere from which this crop of bizarre
pseudo-leftist influencers have originated.
In 2011, a compulsive video game player from
Nebraska quit his job as a carpet cleaner because he
had figured out a method of making money entirely
from playing the video game Starcraft II. Steven
“Destiny” Bonnell had been live-streaming his playing
of the game online, and made enough money from the
advertising revenue that he was able to make a very
sizable income and stop working elsewhere. This
achievement made him quite famous among the
internet video game community. For many gamers,
being able to quit their jobs, give up going outdoors or
making real social connections, and live entirely by
gaming seems like a dream come true.
Alreadyin Japan there hasbeen widespread discussion
of Hikikomori (“acute social withdrawal”), where
technology enables young men to live as modern day
hermits. Destiny is very much a celebrated hero among
those attracted to such a lifestyle.
26 CALEB MAUPIN

Destiny was known to make political comments

during his video game livestreaming sessions. He
generally classified himself as Libertarian. However, in
the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election in 2016,
Destiny shifted toward advocating more social-
democratic policies. He began having debates with
white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and others
deemed to be the more dangerous segment of Trump’s
political base.
Destiny’s sudden shift away from video games and
cynicism with Libertarian individualism mixed in,
toward the vague liberalism of the anti-Trump
movement, was widely heralded in mainstream US
media. An article from Wired published January 15,
2020 was entitled, “Can This Notorious Troll Turn
People Away from Extremism?”
Destiny is not technically considered to be part of
the BreadTube community. While he supported Joe
Biden and advocated some left-wing policies like
national healthcare, he explicitly rejects any form of
Communism, Anarchism, or Marxism. Destiny is also
known for having occasional right-wing turns. During
the upsurge of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020,
Destiny spoke with approval of right-wing activists
and white supremacists who shot and killed protesters.
Amid a rant condemning the property destruction of
Black Lives Matter activists he proclaimed: “If that
means like, white, redneck... militia dudes out there
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 27

mowing down protesters who they can torch buildings

at 10pm, then at this point, they have my blessing.”
The BreadTube community was quick to denounce
him for such comments, and he suffered a significant
financial loss as many former patrons were horrified. It
is a bit of an embarrassment for the BreadTube
community that he has functioned as their Kingmaker.
Ian “Vaush” Kochinski, for example, launched his
career by beinga frequentgueston Destiny’slivestreams.
Most of BreadTube’s big names can be traced back to
some connection with Bonnell.
It should be noted that the author of this book’s
entire introduction to the BreadTube universe came
from an invitation to debate Steven “Destiny” Bonnell.
Bonnell was entirely blown away by this writer’s citing
of actual data in defense of the existing socialist
countries, and the debate resulted in a huge expansion
of his social media following. Bonnell approached the
debate in avery smug manner, assuming that “nowhere”
had socialist central planning ever had economic
successes. Amid the debate, at one point Steven
sputtered out the phrase, “what does life expectancy
prove?” revealing a darker, Malthusian undertone in
his worldview.

Caleb “Faraday Speaks” Cain

Caleb Cain was made temporarily famous by a New
York Times article published on June 8, 2019. The
28 CaLEB MAUuPIN

article is featured on the New York Times website with

an intricate graphic and text that sounds almost like a
movie trailer: “Caleb Cain was a college dropout
looking for direction. He turned to YouTube. Soon he
was pulled intoa far-rightuniverse, watching thousands
of videos filled with conspiracy theories, misogyny,
and racism. ‘I was brainwashed.””
The article seems, on its surface, to be a telling story
of how an impressionable young man can be seduced
by extremism and become a violent radical. The article
opens with an account of him buying his first firearm.
However, the actual details of Cain’s story are quite
disappointing,.
Caleb Cain was a young man in West Virginia who
had grown up in a conservative Christian family but
became more liberal as he matured. According to his
own account, he dropped out of college following
some psychological problems, and began supporting
himself by working at a warehouse. While working at
the warehouse he had lots of time to listen to YouTube
videos, and soon became a regular listener to Stefan
Molyneux. Stefan is the “anarcho-capitalist” internet
guru who is known to flirt with misogynist and racist
ideas amid his overall libertarian perspective. After
listening to Molyneux regularly, he also consumed
content from other racist and far-right commentators.
Cain’s story might be more compelling if from there
he had become a terrorist or committed hate crimes,
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 29

but it stops there. 7he New York Times narration has

one expecting that Cain became a suicide bomber or
mass shooter, or joined armed attempts to overthrow
the government. However, he did none of this. The
extent of Cain’s “brainwashing” was listening regularly
to right-wing voices online.
Cain eventually shifted his political views. A new
girlfriend who had a more compassionate worldview
and his changing life circumstances enabled him to be
“deradicalize” and “unbrainwash” himself. Yet, in
Cain’s interviews he speaks as if he is repenting from
the heaviest of sins. In one interview he says with deep
regret that at one point he considered going to the
Charlottesville protests in 2017, but decided not to.
After the advertising of the New York Times article,
Cain launched his own YouTube channel, “Faraday
Speaks,” celebrating his status as a former extremist
who had been deradicalized. However, the extent of
Cain’s “radicalism” was nothing more than listening to
YouTube videos, becoming more distant with his
family, and at one point considering going to a
demonstration, but deciding not to.
Cain has collaborated with Destiny in efforts to
combat the “extremism” that sucked him in. He has
done interviews about how to “deprogram” ones’
friends and relatives. But what exactly are they being
deprogrammed from? Listening to videos online?
Having political views that change with a new romantic
30 CALEB MAUPIN

relationship? Considering maybe going to a

demonstration? Caleb Cain has made clear in
interviews that he advocates for social media to censor
and remove ideas he considers to be “conspiracy
theories” in order to prevent others from being
“brainwashed” as he was.
Caleb Cain’s emergence as a minor figure in the
BreadTube universe, initiated and promoted by
mainstream media voices much like Destiny and
Contrapoints, is almost comical. The nature of
BreadTube as a poorly executed “deradicalization”
effort by the most powerful factions among the
imperialists is made quite apparent.

Dr. Steve Hassan

Onefigurewhois definitely not part of the Bread Tube
universe, but certainly lurks in the background of
discussions about “deprogramming” is psychologist
Dr. Steve Hassan. Over the course of many decades,
Hassan has carved out for himself the position as
America’s leading cult expert. His books on what he
calls “Cult Mind Control” are widely circulated and he
appears on CNN, MSNBC, and other TV outlets as
an expert on the topic of brainwashing.
As a 19-year-old Steve Hassan was recruited into the
Unification Church (“Moonies”). This is an anti-
communist religious cult imported to the United
States by the US Central Intelligence Agency to work
 BRrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 31

against the growth of the Communist organizations

on college campuses. In the 1970s many young people
were involved in protesting the Vietnam War and in
support of Black Liberation. College campuses were a
hotbed of recruitment for the Revolutionary Union
(now the Revolutionary Communist Party), Youth
Against War and Fascism (youth wing of Workers
World Party), the Young Workers Liberation League
(now the Young Communist League, youth wing of
the Communist Party USA), and other anti-imperialist
and revolutionary organizations.
The Unification Church, a strange religious sect that
worshipped a Korean pastor named Sun Myung Moon,

The rise of religious cults such as the Unification Church during

the 1970s was intentionally fomented by US intelligence to
counter the influence of Marxist-Leninist groups on college
campuses.
32 CaLEB MauriN

had begun rapidly expanding in the United States

during the 1970s. The group believed Moon was the
new Messiah, sent to earth to unify the Christians of
the world in a global crusade against Communism.
Moon’s cult had started in coordination with Korean
intelligence as a way of “deprogramming” Marxist
political prisoners and student activists. The Moonies
became infamous for their predatory nature. They
financially exploited members, demanding they hand
over all their possessions, and spend each waking hour
as unpaid laborers raising funds for the group.
Steve Hassan admits that the cult he spent roughly 2
years as an active member of was set up by American
intelligence. In his appearance on the podcast of Jordan
Harbinger he said: “Post World War Two, Korean
war... South Korea was very unstable. North Korea is
a version of what it is today... And some people in
military intelligence in the United States decided,
“Well, the North Koreans are brainwashing, we need to
create a program in South Korea to stabilize the
regime.” They taught the South Korean President, “You
need to set up a Korean CIA, we'll help you’ and they
set up a re-education program for dissidents in South
Korea, and they decided to use a front person, so it was
not looking like a government operation, and it was
the Moonies that were chosen to do that... The
Moonies had, nobody knows why or how, the patents
for manufacturing M16 Rifles and other American
 BrREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 33

military hardware. Why? Because America was leaving

Vietnam. Still the height of the Cold War, we have to
stop the Commies. And then somebody said, ‘Let’s
bring the Moonies to the United States and set up
counter communist programs on college campuses’
and that’s where I got recruited.... I was sent to fast for
Nixon during Watergate, because God loves Nixon,
God wants Nixon. The US government has never
acknowledged the existence of these things. They don’t
want to talk about it.”
As a young man rising up the ranks of the Moonies,
Hassan eventually got into a car accident, and in the
hospital his parents were able to lure him away from
the group to their home where he was successtully
“deprogrammed” by other former members. Eventually
Hassan got involved with the Cult Awareness Network,
an organization run by Ted Patrick.
Hassan worked with Patrick’s organization, which
charged lots of money to families for the service of
kidnapping relatives believed to be in Moonies or other
groups labelled as cults. Affiliates of the Cult Awareness
Network are widely accused of having held these young
legal adults against their will and “deprogrammed”
them. Individuals who were “deprogrammed” by Patrick
and his associates testified that the “deprogramming”
sessions involved brutal interrogations, sleep
deprivation, and the very techniques the cults were
accused of using. Hassan has admitted that he was
34 CarLeB Mavurin

involved in “involuntary deprogrammings” but has not

gone into detail about this.
Ted Patrick was convicted of kidnapping and false
imprisonment in 1980 after he and other members of
the Cult Awareness Network (the organization with
which Steve Hassan was affiliated), kidnapped a
26-year-old waitress in Tucson, Arizona. Kidnapping
and False Imprisonment are both very serious crimes,
but Patrick only received a year in prison and a five
thousand dollar fine. Patrick also faced charges in later
years after he kidnapped an Amish woman whose
husband disapproved of her joining a more liberal sect.
These charges were ultimately dropped. The Cult

US media often highlights Steve Hassan as a cult expert, but

rarely mentions his ties to the Cult Awareness Network, and
accusations that he engaged in “involuntary deprogramming”
i.e. kidnapping.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 35

Awareness Network was eventually shut down in 1995

after a jury ruled that Jason Scott had his civil liberties
and religious freedom violated when CAN affiliate
Rick Ross kidnapped him and attempted to deprogram
him. CAN was ordered to pay $1 million to Scott and
ultimately went bankrupt.
Accounts from various individuals describe Hassan
as being directly involved in the kidnappings. An
individual named Arthur Roselle put forward a signed
affidavit describing Hassan’s methods. Roselle said he
was “forcibly kidnapped by several men, imprisoned,
hands and feet bound, with his hands tied behind his
back so tightly they “were badly swollen and... the
color of a bruise.” Deprived of sleep for three days, he
was not allowed to shave or wash and was denied all
privacy, even when using the toilet... Hassan subjected
him to methods the victim later described as
brainwashing and mind control techniques. Hassan
even threatened him with drugs if he did not recant his
religious beliefs.” Roselle described the experience,
saying he felt like “a captured animal in a zoo.” In his
more recent books, Hassan has denounced kidnapping
and forced deprogrammings, but he does not directly
address most of the allegations about what he is alleged
to have done with the Cult Awareness Network.
One would think that Hassan would be discredited
due to his involvement in an organijzation that was
widely reputed to have been involved in criminal
36 CaLes Maurin

activities. Hassan has not only avoided prosecution,

but frequently appears on mainstream US television as
a “cult expert.” Hassan composed a book entitled 7he
Culr of Trump in 2019, declaring that the US President
was much like Reverend Sun Myung Moon and had
“brainwashed” his supporters with hypnotic mind
control methods.
Hassan made headlines in January of 2021 after an
appearance on CNN in the aftermath of the events on
Capitol Hill. Hassan said: “So, in studying all the
thought-reform brainwashing models, I developed a
BITE model of authoritarian control, and it basically
talks about controlling behavior, information,
thoughts and emotions to create a new identity that’s
dependent and obedient. And this is a radical
personality change in the mental health literature. In
the APA DSM-5 its called the dissociative disorder,
questioning of identity. And the bottom line is, all of
America needs deprogramming because we've all been
negatively influenced by Donald Trump.”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez echoed his
calls for “deprogramming.”
Hassan has been a mentor to Caleb Cain, and
according to an unnamed source appears to be advising
other members of the BreadTube community in their
efforts to “deradicalize” Americans on the far right.
Hassan describes Donald Trump as the leader of a
cult, and also refers to the internet conspiracy theory
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 37

QAnon as a cult, despite the fact that they do not fit

his own criteria for what a cult is. Hassan’s “BITE
Model of Authoritarian Control” simply does not hold
up. The behavior of QAnon adherents and Trump
supporters is not restricted, and they are not told what
information they can consume online or in the media;
Trump supporters do not change their names or
undergo hypnosis; the emotions of Trump supporters
and QAnon are not subject to regulation. As bad as he
is, Donald Trump is merely a demagogic politician
with many fanatical supporters. As inaccurate and
delusional as it is, QAnon is an internet conspiracy
theory with all kinds of different interpretations among
adherents. The political movement behind Donald
Trump, or the internet conspiracy theories known as
QAnon, have very little in common with the
Unification Church. However, while media overlooks
his own shady past, Steve Hassan has been given a
platform to declare Trump and QAnon to be “a cult”
and has suggested that mass “deprogramming” might
need to take place.
Some other aspects of Steve Hassan are worth noting.
While Hassan occasionally will admit that the
Unification Church which he joined and feels
horrifically victimized by was facilitated by the US
government, he seems to hold no resentment against
the CIA or the US government. In fact, in his anti-cult
lectures he often makes statements like, “China is the
38 CALEB MAUPIN

biggest political cult in the world.” He seems to have a

particular vendetta against the Russian government,
claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a
political cult.
Hassan attributes much of his success to Robert Jay
Lifton, a US Air Force psychiatrist who conducted
research in Japan and Korea on US soldiers who had
been converted to Communism in POW camps.
Hassan admits that much of his understanding of
“brainwashing” and “cult mind control” comes directly
from Lifton, an individual who is very widely known
to be involved with US military intelligence and its
psychological operations against Communism.
Hassan’s avoidance of prosecution for kidnapping,
his celebration in mainstream media, his working of
US Foreign Policy talking points into his cult lectures,
his hinting at inside knowledge about the Unification
Church’s intelligence connections, and his close
association witha high-ranking US military psychiatrist
all indicate that Hassan is much more than a typical
psychologist or anti-cult lecturer. Hassan appears to
have “friends on the inside” who enable him to do
what he does and see him as useful in carrying out
their political goals. The same can be said for
BreadTube, which appears to be some kind of cyber-
age deprogramming operation aimed at the US
right-wing, but also targeting legitimate Marxist-
Leninists and anti-imperialists.
 BreaDTUBE SerVES IMPERIALISM 39

Counter-gangs and the Late Cold War

Understanding Bread Tube’s emergence as a brand of
establishment-approved socialism while observing the
lingering influence of a “deprogrammer” named Steve
Hassan, forces us to discuss the 20th Century Cold
War and how the Soviet Union and its allies were
defeated. Below is an overview of the facts about how
American intelligence was able to maneuver events
toward the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. This
will lay out the historical precedent for an entity like
BreadTube and the purpose it serves, both domestically
and internationally.
The Cold War between the United States and the
Soviet Union began in 1946 after the Second World
War and ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union was
dissolved. The Cold War can be divided into two
distinct periods.
The first period of the Cold War, beginning in the
mid 40s and ending in the late 60s, involved American
intelligence agencies and geopolitical strategists
operating under the assumption that the enemy was
Communism. The Truman doctrine of “containment”
involved the United States building the NATO
alliance, and seeking to unify the world against China,
the Soviet Union, and other countries in which
Marxist-Leninist parties had taken power. This period
involved two massive US military interventions, one
40 CALEB MaUPIN

on the Korean Peninsula and the other in Vietnam.

Both of these operations came at heavy cost to the
United States in terms of human life, domestic morale,
and international credibility.
During the Korean War, the world was shaken by the
use of massive bombing of civilian targets by the US
military. European allies and other international
observers looked on in horror as US Army General
Douglas MacArthur threatened to drop atomic bombs
on China, without even the permission of the elected
US President. Domestic opposition to the Korean War
was limited due to McCarthyism and post-WW?2
patriotism at home. However, among the soldiers on
the battlefield it was a different story. Many American
LA

Z 2 : i i i » &

At first only Communists like the WE.B. Dubois Clubs and

Youth Against War and Fascism protested the Vietnam War.
However, by 1968, mass anti-war sentiments and a domestic
political crisis bad unfolded.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 41

soldiers were disgusted by their orders to bomb

civilians. Roughly 4,000 captured US soldiers signed
confessions to war crimes and declared themselves to
be Communist sympathizers in POW camps. This
launched a wave of fascination with “brainwashing” in
American media and among American intelligence
researchers. At the war’s conclusion, Korea remained
divided and the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, which the USA had sought to eliminate,
remained intact with a highly loyal population.
The setbacks experienced by the United States during
the Korean War came back with an even greater
vengeance during the Vietnam War. Protests against the
war took place all across the world, with the Vietnamese
people celebrated as peasant anti-imperialist heroes
resisting the foreign occupiers. At home, protests against
the wat, combined with the rising unrest of the African-
American community, resulted in a widespread episode
of domestic unrest. In 1968, almost every major US city
went up in flames following the murder of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jt., and campus anti-war protests became
very popular. The communist factions of Students for a
Democratic Society and the Black Panther Party
emerged as explicitdy Marxist-Leninist organizations
seeking to overthrow US capitalism in alliance with
Vietnam, China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Among
the US army, defections, insubordination, and
“fragging” of officers became widespread.
42 CarLeB Mavurin

The United States was ultimately defeated in

Vietnam, and as a result a new strategy for dealing with
the Soviet Union and international communism
emerged. This brought on the second stage of the Cold
War, referred to as the “Late Cold War.” Zbigniew
Brzezinski, a Polish American academic, joined with
strategist Henry Kissinger to establish the Trilateral
Commission. The Trilateral Commission was a think
tank funded by the Rockefeller family to reorient US
foreign and domestic policy in light of the defeat of US
forces in Vietnam and the widespread state of upheaval
in the country at the time.

Zbiegnew Brzezinski was key in working with the Trilateral

Commission to reorient US strategy in the aftermath of defeat in
Vietnam. He focused on soft-power and manipulating
Communists against each other.
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 43

Brzezinskis strategy for working against the

Communists involved scaling back the use of massive
bombing and long term military engagements, but
instead utilizing proxy forces and exploiting the
divisions that already existed among Communists.
Frank Kitson, the British intelligence officer who
oversaw operations to defeat the Kenyan Land and
Freedom Army, boasted of his use of “Counter Gangs”
to defeat the Kenyan resistance to the British empire
during the 1950s. Kitson directed the British Army to
form groups of Black Africans and deploy them
throughout Kenya. These “counter gangs” pretended
to be Mau Mau liberation fighters, but were actually
allies of the British. These forces collected intelligence,
committed atrocities that could be blamed on the Mau
Mau, sowed division among the Kenyan population,
and ultimately enabled the British to defeat the
insurgency.
Frank Kitson later went on to oversee British Military
operations against the Irish Republican Army. In his
work, he engineered a policy of arming Protestant
extremists and enabling them to kill IRA members. A
2015 lawsuit was brought by Mary Heenan. Her
husband wasassassinated by Ulster Defence Association
members in 1973. Her lawsuit alleged that Kitson was
responsible for “the use of loyalist paramilitary gangs
to contain the republican-nationalist threat through
terror, manipulation of the rule of law, infiltration and
44 CaLEB MAUPIN

subversion all core to the Kitson military doctrine

endorsed by the British army and the British
government at the time.”
Brzezinski directed the United States to take a page
from Kitson and begin setting up “counter gangs”
around the world to fight Soviet aligned Communists,
while the United States seemed apparently uninvolved.
The first obvious use of the Kitson “counter-gang”
strategy in the aftermath of the US defeat in Vietnam
came in 1978 as the Kampuchea War. The Communist
Party of Cambodia was overrun by a fanatical leader
named Pol Pot and his followers. Pol Pot rejected
industrialization and argued Cambodia could achieve

i : e Pt «

In order to defeat the “Mau Mau” Land and Freedom Army in

Kenya, the British military developed the tactic of building
‘counter gangs.”
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIATISM 45

full communism on the basis of the agrarian economy.

Pol Pot attacked Vietnam, resulting in the Kampuchea
War. China, arguing that the Vietnamese were acting
as agents of “Soviet Social Imperialism,” sent its forces
to invade Vietnam in support of Cambodia.
It has later been revealed that Pol Pot, the crazed
ultra-leftist who rejected basic principles of Marxism-
Leninism and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of
Cambodian and Vietnamese Communists, was in fact
a covert puppet of the United States. Pol Pot had been
educated in France, and the US government was
providing him with guns and weapons in his fight
against the pro-Soviet Communists in his homeland
and against Vietnam.
Pol Pot and his allies represented a “counter-gang”
much like those engineered by Frank Kitson in Kenya.
The use of “counter-gangs” became a key staple of US
strategic policy in the late Cold War.
Brzezinski bragged that he set up the “Afghan Trap”
for the Soviet Union, creatingasituation in Afghanistan
where the Soviet Union would feel obligated to send in
their military, and then arranging for Osama Bin
Laden to build a global army of Wahhabi extremists
from across the planet to fight them in the name of
Islam.
In Angola, the United States armed a group called
UNITA led by Jonas Savimbi, a literal cannibal and
mass murderer, who claimed tobea Maoist Communist.
46 CaLes MaurIN

Savimbi’s forces fought against the pro-Soviet ruling

party of Angola, murdering civilians as well as Cuban
and Angolan soldiers in a lengthy civil war. In Ethiopia,
the United States armed Eritrean separatists to fight
against the pro-Soviet Derg government.
In the Middle East, twoanti-imperialist governments,
the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Baath-Socialist
Arab Republic of Iraq, were played against each other.
The US government first supported Saddam Hussein
in his invasion of Iran, and later the US government
supported Iran in its fight against Iraq. There were
mass deaths on both sides, among both fighters and
civilians.
During this time many pro-Marxist college professors
and writers in Europe received covert support from the
US Central Intelligence Agency. They were carefully
being nudged to push a more anti-Soviet brand of
Marxism, focused on cultural issues rather than class
struggle. The CIA boasts about the Congress for
Cultural Freedom program, in which magazines like
Partisan Review, Encounter, and Der Monat, were
covertly funded to reorient Marxist thought among
European intellectuals. In 1978 the Italian, French,
and Spanish Communist Parties cut ties with the
Soviet Union, and Brzezinski labelled them
“EuroCommunists.”
Counterculture-oriented religious groups like Rev.
Moon’s Unification Church (of which Steve Hassan
 BreaDTuBt SErVES IMPERIALISM 47

was an ex-member), Transcendental Meditation,

Tibetan Buddhism, and the Hare Krishna Movement,
were deemed to be very useful by American intelligence
in rolling back the influence of Communists among
intellectuals and dissidents at home.
All of this covert manipulation of armed communist
groups, socialist countries and leftist intellectuals
culminated in overthrowing the Soviet Union in 1991.
Many of the confused students who marched to
overthrow the Marxist-Leninist governments in
Eastern Europe did not think they were helping to
bring in neoliberalism and the economic demolition
of their homelands. They believed it was just to make a
more “democratic” form of Socialism or “Socialism
with a human face.”
Decades later, in conditions where information
travels much faster in theage of the internet, Bread Tube
appears to be yet another counter-gang. Like the
Khmer Rouge, UNITA, the Congress for Cultural
Freedom, or the various counterculture religious cults,
it speaks in the name of left-wing sounding ideals. In
reality, it is most likely serving one section of the
American ruling elite and the intelligence agencies.
Covert support is most likely being provided in order
to enable the “algorithmic hacking” that has allowed
BreadTube to flourish as the primary left-wing voice
online, while waging a relentless campaign against
others.
48 CaLEB MAuPIN

The important thing to remember about counter-

gangs in the late Cold War is that they are generally not
conscious deceivers. Some will read the above contents
and believe that African Maoists, UNITA, Left-Wing
Intellectuals, or the Bread Tubers of 2021, are all “secret
CIA agents” or some other crude interpretation.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is no doubt that the fighters of UNITA, the
Wahhabis who fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in
Afghanistan, the intellectuals who pushed
EuroCommunism, or even the BreadTubers of our
time, legitimately believed in what they said and did.
While they may be naive about the support they
receive, what makes them useful proxies is their
sincerity. Selecting certain ignorant and confused
young people to be the voice of the movement and
perhaps carefully nudging them to frame their rhetoric
in a certain way is key. By rewarding them with patrons
and clicks, the narrative can be carefully reinforced. A
new “socialism” that is not anti-imperialist, not even
genuinelyanti-capitalist, butisvery usefulin containing
and beating back the right-wing can be cultivated to
serve imperialism.

Conclusion
An overview of the personalities, histories, and
connections of various BreadTubers and afhliated
personalities highlights certain similarities. None of
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 49

them have any direct ties to any existing Communist,

Anarchist, or Socialist activist groups, aside from
perhaps Democratic Socialists of America. No record
of actual activism as Marxists can be found when
looking over their public history. Much like Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, they seem to have appeared out of
nowhere to suddenly become representatives of left-
wing politics.
While they do not have ties to Marxist-Leninist or
Anarchist activist groups, they do have apparent ties to
the US power structure. Their work is celebrated in
mainstream US media outlets. They are presented as a
“safe” kind of leftism, and a needed counterbalance to
the rise of Donald Trump.
Some of them have odd skeletons in their closets.
Natalie Wynn’s sudden rise to prominence; Vaush’s
shadyhistoryinrelation to topicslikechild pornography
and lack of charisma; the criminal conviction of Matt
“Thought Slime’s” mother and his fixation on topics
like suicide and self-harm; Destiny’s shift from
Libertarian to Social Democrat, followed by his
celebration of right-wing attacks on protesters;
mysterious social media history of “Socialism Done
Left”; Caleb Cain’s celebrated status as an ex-right-
wing extremist despite any real history of right-wing
activism — all of these indicate that BreadTube has
powerful allies who are using them to serve a purpose
other than communist revolution.
50 CaLeB Maurin

Divisions within the capitalist ruling class are the

natural outgrowth of an economic and social crisis
such as the western world is currently experiencing.
Thealt-rightand white supremacist groups put forward
a toxic ideology that leads to hate crimes, mass
shootings, and a justification for political repression.
The existence of Bread Tube as an entity pushed forward
by elements within the deep state to defend the liberal
order from right wing opposition is not really in itself
a scandalous revelation. It is to be expected in times
such as these.
However, in addition to demonizing the Trump
movement and the various online currents aligned
with it, Bread Tube has another target. One thing that
all these figures agree on is that China and Russia, and
to some extent, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Vietnam, and
Nicaragua are somehow toxic, totalitarian societies
and it is the duty of western leftists to undermine and
destabilize these countries. Vaush has been the most
explicit in equating pro-Chinese Communists with
Nazis, while celebrating the Hong Kong protesters
who unfurl Pepe the Frog signs and Trump banners,
but these sentiments are more or less prevalent
throughout the entire BreadTube sphere. The
narrative that somehow Trump supporters and
QAnon are an extension of the illiberalism of the
anti-imperialist bloc is also implied in much of
BreadTube’s material.
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 51

The main problem with BreadTube is not that it

dissects the ideas of the far-right. This is largely a noble
task, though it is sometimes very poorly executed due
to the ideological limitations of those who avoid
offending the liberal order. The main problem with
BreadTube is that it is blatantly miseducating people
and misrepresenting key concepts of Marxism,
Socialism, and Communism.
BreadTube does not seek to make those exploring
these concepts in a time of economic crisis into
revolutionaries and anti-imperialists. Rather, they seek
to make them into something much like they are, foot
soldiers of the liberal order. They embolden the most
powerful capitalists in their efforts to maintain power,
beat back anti-imperialist states, and suppress unrest
and rebellion at home.
Deconstructing the various misinterpretations and
delusions presented by Bread Tube in order to achieve
this goal will be the purpose of the remaining pages of
this book.
52 CALEB MauPIN

Chapter Two: Redefining

Capitalism and Socialism
The name “BreadTube” is derived from a book
published in 1892 by Anarchist Russian activist Peter
Kropotkin. The book, entitled 7he Conquest of Bread
and nicknamed “The Bread Book” is considered a
primary text of “Anarcho-Communism.” In the book,
Kropotkin critiques both feudalism and capitalism,
proposing a decentralized voluntarist collective society
as the alternative.
Peter Kropotkin’s ideas were fundamentally opposed
to those of the Bolsheviks, who ultimately toppled the
Czarist autocracy and later established the Soviet
government in October of 1917. However, to discount
Kropotkin and his ideas would be mistaken.

The Legacy of Peter Kropotkin

Kropotkin was born in the Russian aristocracy but
from his youth, he became dedicated to the liberation of
the Russian peasantry, who were brutally repressed.
Kropotkin joined the International Workingmen’s
 BreapTuBe SErvES IMPERIALISM 53

Association (The First International), and worked

alongside some of the most important revolutionary
thinkers of the age. He spent years in prison for his
beliefs, and took great risks. When the Russian
Revolution occurred in 1917, Kropotkin embraced it as
a positive development despite his criticisms and
ideological differences. When Kropotkin died in 1921,
Lenin personally approved a funeral procession of
thousands of people to march in his honor. In 1957, the
Soviet government named a subway station in his honor.
Kropotkin’s influence spread well beyond Russia.
Many Anarchists and leftist intellectuals across the
world found his work and writings to be inspiring.
Among those who were influenced by Kropotkin’s
work was a young man named Mao Zedong. Before
joining the Chinese Communist Party at its founding
congress in 1921, Mao Zedong was the leader of a
Kropotkinist organization called the New People’s
Study Society, and many see the influence of Kropotkin
popping up throughout Mao’s life as a revolutionary
and statesman.
The primary difference that Kropotkin had with the
Bolsheviks was about who in Russian society should be
the focus of the revolutionary movement. Kropotkin’s
focus was on the peasantry as the backbone of a
potential revolution, while the Bolsheviks, as Marxists,
viewed industrial workers as the sector of society where
revolutionary work should be focused.
54 CaLEs MaurIN

Kropotkin rejected some of Marx’s economic ideas,

arguing that the concept of surplus value was mistaken.
As an anarchist, Kropotkin argued that a post-capitalist
society could only be built voluntarily and that
attempts to reform or seize political power were a waste
of time. Kropotkins vision was for the Russian
peasantry to seize control of land themselves and begin
growing crops cooperatively, much like German
peasants had done during the event of 1524-1525.
Kropotkin was an agrarian socialist rather than an
industrial one.
Chapters 4-12 of his magnum opus for which the
Bread Tube community has taken its name are dedicated
to laying an intricate vision of his ideal society of a
decentralized, voluntary socialism with vastabundance.
Kropotkin writes: “Citizens will be obliged to become
agriculturists. Not in the same manner as peasants who
wear themselves out, plowing for a wage that barely
provides them with sufficient food for the year but by
following the principles of market-gardeners’ intensive
agriculture, applied on a large scale by means of the
best machinery that man has invented or can invent...
They will reorganize cultivation, not in ten years’ time,
but at once, during the revolutionary struggles, from
fear of being worsted by the enemy. Agriculture will
have to be carried on by intelligent beings; availing
themselves of their knowledge, organizing themselves
in joyous gangs for pleasant work. .. when man invents
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 55

and improves his tools and is conscious of being a

useful member of the community.”
Kropotkin’s writing has an almost religious faith in
the good intentions of human beings and their
willingness to cooperate without coercion, combined
with a gentle pacifism that fears the cruelty of
authoritarian structures. He writes: “We shall see then
what a variety of trades, mutually cooperating on a
spot of the globe and animated by the social revolution,

BreadTube draws its name from an admirable Russian Anarchist

named Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin’s organizing tactics among
peasants were an influence on Chinese revolutionary Mao
Zedong who organized the New Peoples Study Society before
joining the Communist Party in 1921.
56 CaLEB MAuPIN

can do to feed, clothe, house, and supply with all

manner of luxuries millions of intelligent men. We
need write no fiction to prove this. What we are sure
of, what has already been experimented upon, and
recognized as practical, would suffice to carry it into
effect, if the attempt were fertilized, vivified by the
daring inspiration of the Revolution and the
spontaneous impulse of the masses.”
However, despite holding a vision of a voluntary
society where all cooperate with each other in the
absence of coercion, Kropotkin was not opposed to
using force and violence to achieve his goals. The
Anarchist organizations and networks he associated
with throughout Europe advocated “Propaganda of
the Deed,” the use of bombings and assassinations in
the hopes of sparking a rebellion among the wider
population. How much Kropotkin was directly
involved in such activities remains unclear, but it is
clear that many people who were inspired by
Kropotkin’s teachings and worked with his
organizations engaged in Left Adventurist Terrorism.
In 1916, most anarchists and revolutionary socialists
were protesting and opposing the war between
imperialist powers. Kropotkin published his
“Manifesto of The Sixteen” that announced support
for British and American imperialism in their war
against Germany, Austria, and Turkey. This earned
Kropotkin a large amount of scorn and was seen as a
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 57

slap in the face and betrayal of the many socialists like

Rosa Luxemburg and Eugene Debs, who went to
prison for opposing the war.
Peter Kropotkin is a figure that is worthy of respect
despite criticisms of his political line and actions. He
was willing to make great sacrifices and take great risks
on behalf of oppressed peasants and factory workers,
and he did a great deal to put forward a vision of post-
capitalist society that would resolve the injustices of
the world. Marxists of course reject Left Adventurism
and Terrorism along with idealistic fairy tales. They
favor instead to build a mass movement of workers to
seize control of the state, and create a rational, centrally
planned economy to eliminate all scarcity, marching
toward the ultimate goal of a stateless, classless world.
The fact that the Bread Tube internet universe claims
Kropotkins legacy and presents itself as the main
representative of not just Kropotkin’s ideas, but all anti-
capitalism in 2Ist Century America is deeply
problematic. The intellectual laziness and shallow
analysis presented by various Bread Tube voices is a total
disservice to his legacy, however complex it may be.

The Marxist Definition of Capitalism

The teachings of Karl Marx understand socialism to
be a result of the innate human drive for progress and
the expansion of productive forces. For most of
humanity’s existence, we lived as hunter gatherers in
58 CALEB MAUPIN

tribes. The first social revolution came with the

domestication of animals and the growing of crops.
The dawn of agriculture brought forth a new mode of
production and a new set of social relations to
correspond to it. Soon society was divided between
landowners and slaves.
Eventually feudalism, a more efhicient mode of
production, replaced slavery. In the 1700s capitalism
emerged in Europe as the mercantile classes replaced
the kings and nobles, and industrial production
replaced subsistence farming.
Capitalism resulted in the creation of two social
classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The
bourgeoisie are those who own the banks, factories,
land, means of transportation and other centers of
economic power, and operate them in order to make
profits. The rest of society makes up another class, the
proletariat, a class Marx described as: “the modern
working class, developed — a class of laborers, who
live only so long as they find work, and who find work
only so long as their labor increases capital. These
laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a
commodity, like every other article of commerce, and
are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of
competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.”
The interests of the capitalists who own the means of
production and the workers who sell their labor power
to capitalists are diametrically opposed. Capitalists
 BreapTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 59

seek to drive wages down and maximize their profits.

As a result, workers form unions and organize strikes
in the hopes of increasing their pay and bettering their
conditions.
Capitalism is defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels as a system in which the means of production
are privately owned and operated to make profits for
those who own them. Marx described capitalism as
“the anarchy of production.” Engels explained “For in
capitalistic society, the means of production can only
function when they have undergone a preliminary
transformation into capital.” Mao Zedong, the leader
of the Chinese Communist Party, said that capitalism
was a system of “Profits in command.” The capitalist
system is defined as a system of production for
profit.
The capitalist is always looking to make production
more efficient in order to increase his profits. As Marx
explained, “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without
constantly revolutionizing the instruments of
production, and thereby the relations of production.”
The capitalist seeks to hire the least amount of workers,
replace human labor with machines, de-skill jobs, and
make human labor more easily replaceable, all in order
to churn out more and more products for lower and
lower cost. The capitalist seeks to increase his profit
margin so those profits can be reinvested and his
operations can expand only to make more profits,
60 CALEB MAUPIN

which can then be reinvested again. This is what Marx

referred to as “The General Law of Capitalist
Accumulation.”
Driving down labor costs, however, hasan unplanned
side-effect. The purchasing power of workers is derived
from the wages they are paid. In the drive to efficiently
produce goods and maximize profits, the capitalist
system is prone to cyclical crises of overproduction.
The workers cannot afford to buy back the products
they produce. The market becomes glutted with
products that cannot be sold. As a result, prices drop,
companies go out of business, and workers lose their
jobs, because too much has been created.
Marx wrote in his text 7he Poverty of Philosophy:
“From day to day it has becomes clearer that the
production relations in which the bourgeoisie moves
have not a simple, uniform character, but a dual
character; that in the selfsame relations in which wealth
is produced, poverty is also produced; that in the
selfsame relations in which there is a development of
the productive forces, there is also a force producing
repression; that these relations produce bourgeois
wealth; i.e., the wealth of the bourgeois class — only
by continually annihilating the wealth of the individual
members of this class and by producing an ever-
growing proletariat.”
This problem of abundance creating poverty is
uniquely capitalist. In previous systems, people starved
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 61

because not enough food had been created, but in

capitalism, starvation can occur because too much
food has been produced. In previous systems,
homelessness resulted from a lack of housing, but in
the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis when “the
housing bubble burst,” many Americans lost their
homes or became homeless because too much housing
had been constructed.
Marxists often will cite a parable dialogue between a
coal miner and his son.
Son: Father, I am very cold, why can’t we light the
stove?
Father: We cannot light the stove because we don’t
have any coal.
Son: Why don’t we have any coal?
Father: Because I lost my job at the coal mine and
we do not have any money to purchase coal.
Son: Why did you lose your job at the coal mine?
Father: Because there is too much coal.
Friedrich Engels explained why cyclical economic
crises result from the built-in problem of production
organized for profit in his text Socialism: Utopian and
Scientific, writing: “The whole mechanism of the
capitalist mode of production breaks down under the
pressure of the productive forces, its own creations. It
is no longer able to turn all this mass of means of
production into capital. They lie fallow, and for that
very reason the industrial reserve army must also lie
62 CALEB MAUPIN

fallow. Means of production, means of subsistence,

available laborers, all the elements of production and
of general wealth, are present in abundance.”

Imperialism: The Capitalism of Our Time

Much of BreadTube’s discussion of capitalism
centers around the inequity of relations between
employers and employees. This is certainly a very big
aspect of Marxian analysis of capitalism. Marx
described the alienating environment of the worker,
the way workers are reduced to “appendages of
machines” who sell their labor power to the employer
like any other commodity. Marx described how the
worker is not paid the full value of his labor, with the
surplus value being stolen from in order to become the
profits of the capiralist.
However, the bulk of Marx’s analysis was focused on
the problems that flow from production being
organized for profits, as shown above. The irrational
profit motive leads to capital centralizing into fewer
and fewer hands, gluts overproduction, poverty amidst
plenty, and all kinds of social chaos.
In the aftermath of Marx’s death, Vladimir Lenin
analyzed the further development of capitalism. Lenin
showed that increasingly the industries became
dominated by financial institutions, and that the
banks who supply credit become the central
institutions in western countries. In the 1890s,
 BreaDTUBE SErVES IMPERIALISM 63

capitalism in the United States, Britain, France,

Germany and other western countries became
dominated by huge conglomerates. Banks and
industries tied together in huge trusts as multinational
corporations spread their tentacles across the globe.
The western monopolies worked to stop economic
development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and
maintain their dominance in global trade. Excess
commodities were dumped onto the developing world
that served as a captive market. This higher stage of
capitalism was called “Imperialism.”
Lenin described the five stages of imperialism: “We
have to begin with as precise and full a definition of
imperialism as possible. Imperialism is a specific
historical stage of capitalism. Its specific character is
threefold: imperialism is monopoly capitalism;
parasitic, or decaying capitalism; moribund capitalism.
The supplanting of free competition by monopoly is
the fundamental economic feature, the quintessence
of imperialism. Monopoly manifests itself in five
principal forms: (1) cartels, syndicates and trusts—the
concentration of production has reached a degree
which gives rise to these monopolistic associations of
capitalists; (2) the monopolistic position of the big
banks—three, four or five giant banks manipulate the
whole economic life of America, France, Germany; (3)
seizure of the sources of raw material by the trusts and
the financial oligarchy (finance capiral is monopoly
64 CALEB MaurIN

industrial capital merged with bank capital); (4) the

(economic) partition of the world by the international
cartels has begun. There are already over one hundred
such international cartels, which command the entire
world market and divide it “amicably” among
themselves—until war redivides it. The export of
capital, as distinct from the export of commodities
under non-monopoly capitalism, is a highly
characteristic phenomenon and is closely linked with
the economic and territorial-political partition of the
world; (5) the territorial partition of the world
(colonies) is completed.”

. i
Viadimir Lenin composed his important book ‘“Imperialism:
The Highest Stage of Capitalism” in 1916, showing that
capitalism had entered a stage of monopolistic domination of the
world by banks and cartels based in western countries. The book
reoriented Marxism to support national liberation struggles in
the colonized world.
 BreEaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 65

It is because of this global setup called imperialism

that Nigeria can be the top oil producing country in
Africa, exporting more of this valued commodity than
any other country on the continent. Yet they still have
only 62% literacy, along with a very low life expectancy
and a high infant mortality rate, according to the CIA
World Factbook.
It is because of imperialism that Honduras and
Guatemala are drug and gang infested countries where
much of the population lacks access to education and
running water. In comparison, Nicaragua, which has
broken out of imperialism, has been able to roll back
poverty and raise living standards. The Central
American countries that have economies and
governments dominated by the United States
are kept poor, subject to foreign domination and
impoverishment.
When the British colonized India and Bangladesh,
they burned the looms and forced people that had
been weaving for thousands of years to import their
cloth from British textile mills. In more recent times,
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
devastated the agricultural sectors of Mexico, Haiti,
and other countries. Writing for the New York Times
on November 24th, 2013, Laura Carlsen explained:
“As heavily subsidized U.S. corn and other staples
poured into Mexico, producer prices dropped and
small farmers found themselves unable to make a
66 CALEB MAaUPIN

living. Some two million have been forced to leave

their farms since NAFTA. At the same time, consumer
food prices rose, notably the cost of the omnipresent
tortilla. As a result, 20 million Mexicans live in ‘food
poverty'. Twenty-five percent of the population does
not have access to basic food and one-fifth of Mexican
children suffer from malnutrition. Transnational
industrial corridors in rural areas have contaminated
rivers and sickened the population and typically,
women bear the heaviest impact.”
Much of the developing world is very rich in terms
of natural resources and human labor. In order to
maintain a2 monopoly, the western multinational
corporations, with full support of the government
apparatus and international institutions like the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and
the World Trade Organization, force countries into
unnatural poverty duetoforeign economicdomination.
The mechanism for enforcing the rule of western
monopolies is war. If countries break out of the grip of
western capitalism and begin to develop their
economies, they become subject to attack. If one looks
at the economies of Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran,
Cuba, Syria, or any other country the imperialists
target for regime change, one will see a level of
independence and striving toward development that
the international monopolies cannot permit. Often
this independence is directly related to the most
 BReEaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 67

valuable commodity in our outmoded fossil fuel

economy, petroleum.
Vincent Copeland’s text, Expanding Empire,
describes in clear terms the nature of imperialist
economics: “The expansion into foreign countries
resulted from a new stage in the expansion of business:
The export of capital. Business had been exporting
ordinary commodities of trade for centuries. The
export of capital was something new—especially for
the United States. And it couldnt be done without
foreign wars. The reason for this isn’t very complicated.
The export of capital goods—that is, machinery,
mining equipment, railroad engines, earth-moving
tools, etc., is intended not to make just a quick “small”
profit, but a constantly repeating profit that can go on
forever, if the exploiter can hold onto the “investment.”
The investment of capital in a foreign country should
be regarded somewhat like sending a huge suction
pump. The pump pulls out the metals from the ground,
the products from the soil and the fruits from the
trees—with the help, of course, of the labor of the
“native” people working on this suction pump. It is as
if the pump were connected to pipes that run back to
the “home” country, via the banks and big corporations.
All the rich products are showered from the pipes into
the treasuries of these institutions, in the form of
profits... Whole nations are drained by these great
suction pumps—or “investments.” And the profits are
68 CALEB MAUPIN

so great that rival groups of big business, led by small

cliques of big banks, go to war with each other over the
exploitation of these nations.”
BreadTube voices tend to talk of capitalism in merely
the simple factory floor analogies rather than
understanding the concentration of global economic
power in the hands of monopolistic associations.
BreadTubers talk of “pencil factories” where workers
produce the pencils, but a capitalist gets the profits.
These analogies are certainly relevant in understanding
the nature of capitalist production, but BreadTube
voices obscure the big picture for a microcosm that
obscures analysis of global events.
Furthermore, BreadTube voices tend to argue that
anything resembling Lenin’s analysis of capitalism in
its imperialist stage is somehow anti-semitic.
Bread Tubers will often claim that references to bankers,
international bankers, or globalism is merely a coded
repackaging of Nazi conspiracy theories about Jewish
global domination. This allegation is absurd, and
would render not just all adherents of Marxism-
Leninism, but also many liberal critics of globalization
such as Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, and Naomi
Klein to be Nazi propagandists.
The world is not dominated by low level businessmen
who own individual factories, but by an elite of ultra-
rich, globally oriented capitalists. These capitalists do
not focus their business efforts on a single national
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 69

market. The ruling class of Wall Street and London are

“globalists,” and they dominate the world economy
with gigantic financial institutions, “international
banks.” To analyze a world of gigantic multinational
corporations that beat down entire nations simply in
terms of the inequity between the owners of an
allegorical pencil factory and his employees is simply
inadequate. By declaring analysis of gigantic
corporations or finance capitalists dominating the
world to be “fascist” or “Trump-like” Bread Tube is, in
essence, blocking out and “cancelling” essential
contemporary Marxist analysis.
Lenin’s understanding of imperialism enabled him
to reorient much of the Marxist movement. Marx
argued that all nationalism was a barrier to workers
solidarity, though in his later life he became somewhat
sympathetic to the Irish freedom struggle. Marx argued
that European colonialism was bringing development
and progress to places like India. Lenin’s understanding
of how capitalism developed in the late 19th century
laid the basis for revolutionaries embracing the national
liberation struggles of colonized people. As the Chinese
Communist Party’s document Long Live Leninism,
published April 16, 1960, summarizes: “Lenin pointed
out that the oligarchy of finance capital in a small
number of capitalist powers, that is, the imperialists,
not only exploit the masses of people in their own
countries, but oppress and plunder the whole world,
70 CALEB MAUPIN

turning most countries into their colonies and

dependencies. Imperialist war is a continuation of
imperialist politics.”
Lenin understood that an aristocracy of labor, a
strata of well paid workers enabled European social-
democratic parties to become reformist and eventually
support the First World War. Lenin saw that the
revolutionary energy was coming from the east and the
colonized world: “In the light of the law of the uneven
economic and political development of capitalism,
Lenin came to the conclusion that, because capitalism
developed extremely unevenly in different countries,
socialism would achieve victory first in one or several
countries but could not achieve victory simultaneously
in all countries.”
Lenin argued that socialism in the developing world
would come about with the working class leading the
struggle to liberate entire nations from the yoke of
imperialist domination. Because of the stratification of
the working class within the imperialist homelands
and the rise of social reformism and the aristocracy of
labor, Communists in western countries had a special
task: “The liberation movements of the proletariat in
the capitalist countries should ally themselves with the
national liberation movements in the colonies and
dependent countries; this alliance can smash the
alliance of the imperialists with the feudal and
comprador reactionary forces in the colonies all
 BreADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 71

dependent countries, and will therefore inevitably put

a final end to the imperialist system throughout
the world.”
Imperialism, the rule of the world by western
monopolies who keep the world poor in order to make
themselves rich, is the capitalism of our time. Opposing
capitalism in our time means opposing imperialism,
and this understanding is essential, especially for those
living in the imperialist world centers. The lack of any
analysis of imperialism and anti-imperialism, and the
constant allegation that those who do analyze such
things are covert anti-semites reveals a very big flaw in
the Bread Tube sphere and its viewpoint.

The Marxist Definition of Socialism

Marxism views Socialism as resolving the inherent
contradictions of capitalism, a system of production
organized to make profits. Socialism is when the means
of production become public property, and are forced
by the state to serve society overall, not the profits of
private owners. Marx distinguished between the
“higher stage of Communism,” the ultimate ideal of a
stateless, classless world, and the lower stage of
communism; i.e., socialism.
Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other scientific socialists
specifically defined socialism, the lower stage of
Communism. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx
wrote: “The proletariat will use its political supremacy
72 CALEB MAUPIN

to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to

centralize all instruments of production in the hands
of the State; i.e., of the proletariat organized as the
ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces
as rapidly as possible. Of course, in the beginning, this
cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads
on the rights of property, and on the conditions of
bourgeois production; by meansof measures, therefore,
which appear economically insufhcient and untenable,
but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip
themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old
social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely
revolutionizing the mode of production. These
measures will, of course, be different in different
countries.”
Marx went on to list in The Communist Manifesto 10
measures that the proletariat might adopt upon taking
power in order to enact the transition to socialism.
This list is commonly misrepresented by Libertarians
and rightists, who point to planks such as “income tax”
and “public education” as proof the USA is already a
Communist country. Social-Democrats and reformists
will also sometimes misrepresent this list.
In his pamphlet Socialism: Utopian and Scientific,
Friedrich Engels also defined socialism. He wrote:
“The proletariat seizes the public power, and by means
of this transforms the socialized means of production,
slipping from the hands of the bourgeoisie, into public
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 73

property. By this act, the proletariat frees the means of

production from the character of capital they have
thus far borne, and gives their socialized character
complete freedom to work itself out. Socialized
production upon a predetermined plan becomes
henceforth possible.”
Using different words, Engels explained: “Whilst the
capitalist mode of production more and more
completely transforms the great majority of the
population into proletarians, it creates the power
which, under penalty of its own destruction, is forced
to accomplish this revolution. Whilst it forces on more
and more of the transformation of the vast means of
production, already socialized, into State property, it
shows itself the way to accomplishing this revolution.
The proletariat seizes political power and turns the
means of production into State property.”
He also wrote: “This point is now reached. Their
political and intellectual bankruptcy is scarcely any
longer a secret to the bourgeoisie themselves. Their
economic bankruptcy recurs regularly every 10 years.
In every crisis, society is suffocated beneath the weight
of its own productive forces and products, which it
cannot use, and stands helpless, face-to-face with the
absurd contradiction that the producers have nothing
to consume, because consumers are wanting. The
expansive force of the means of production bursts the
bonds that the capitalist mode of production had
74 CaLEB MAUPIN

imposed upon them. Their deliverance from these

bonds is the one precondition for an unbroken,
constantly-accelerated development of the productive
forces, and therewith for a practically unlimited
increase of production itself. Nor is this all. The
socialized appropriation of the means of production
does away, not only with the present artificial
restrictions upon production, but also with the positive
waste and devastation of productive forces and
products that are at the present time the inevitable
concomitants of production, and that reach their
height in the crises. Further, it sets free for the
community at large a mass of means of production and
of products, by doing away with the senseless
extravagance of the ruling classes of today, and their
political representatives. The possibility of securing for
every member of society, by means of socialized
production, an existence not only fully sufficient
materially, and becoming day-by-day more full, but an
existence guaranteeing to all the free development and
exercise of their physical and mental faculties — this
possibility is now, for the first time, here, but it is here.
With the seizing of the means of production by society,
production of commodities is done away with, and,
simultaneously, the mastery of the product over the
producer. Anarchy in social production is replaced by
systematic, definite organization. The struggle for
individual existence disappears. Then, for the first
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 75

time, man, in a certain sense, is finally marked off from

the rest of the animal kingdom, and emerges from
mere animal conditions of existence into really
human ones.”
In his book 7he State and Revolution Lenin defined
socialism, the lower stage of Communism, in the
following passages: “It is this communist society, which
has just emerged into the light of day out of the womb
of capitalism and which is in every respect stamped
with the birthmarks of the old society, that Marx terms
the “first”, or lower, phase of communist society. The
means of production are no longer the private property
of individuals. The means of production belong to the
whole of society. Every member of society, performing
a certain part of the socially-necessary work, receives a
certificate from society to the effect that he has done a
certain amount of work. And with this certificate he
receives from the public store of consumer goods a
corresponding quantity of products. After a deduction
is made of the amount of labor which goes to the public
fund, every worker, therefore, receives from society as
much as he has given to it.”
Lenin also clarifies: “The first phase of communism,
therefore, cannot yet provide justice and equality;
differences, and unjust differences, in wealth will still
persist.” He then goes on to make clear: “And so, in the
first phase of communist society (usually called
socialism) “bourgeois law” is not abolished in its
76 CALEB Maurin

entirety, but only in part, only in proportion to the

economic revolution so far attained; i.e., only in respect
of the means of production. “Bourgeois law” recognizes
them as the private property of individuals. Socialism
converts them into common property. To that extent—
and to that extent alone—"bourgeois law” disappears.”

“Marx Wasn’t A Statist”

Probably the most blatant distortion of Marxism
that is spread in the BreadTube universe is the belief
that somehow Marx did not believe in creating a
centrally planned economy, or having the means of
production become public property. As the previous
quotations make clear, this is the very definitive act of
the social revolution that overturns capitalism and
creates socialism.
Yet, with smug arrogance and childish desperation,
the BreadTube voices insist this cannot be the case.
After all, they have been told by US media and
educational institutions that each and every society
where this transformation has taken place, it has
resulted in a brutal human rights violating dictatorship
and utter economic failure. Lacking the courage to
question these narratives, like a Biblical creationist
confronted by thefossil record, they seek to “reinterpret”
Marx so both he and mainstream US media can be
correct. They wish to uphold Marx, but discount and
dismiss all who have put his ideas into practice in order
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 77

to maintain respectability within (and funding from)

the very institutions and society Marxism seeks
to overturn.
Mart “Thought Slime” insists that Marx and Engels
never called for a centrally planned economy. In a
video released on February 5, 2021 entitled “Prager
University Does Not Understand Democracy” the
content creator simply bluffs, pretending that the
quotations above do not exist and assuming that their
audience will never bother to fact check assertions.
Furthermore, Matt goes on to claim Lenin personally
invented the idea of a centrally planned economy,
calling his newly invented concept “Democratic
Centralism.”
A simple Google search for the term “Democratic
Centralism” shows how laughingly inaccurate and
ignorant this social-media appointed expert is.
Democratic Centralism was the model for decision-
making in Lenin’s “party of new type.” Democratic
Centralism was a process through which the Bolshevik
Party made decisions and obligated all members to
carry them out. It distinguished the vanguard party
model from the looser social-democratic organizing
methods of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor
Party; i.e., the Mensheviks. It has nothing to do with
economic planning in a socialist state. It is a method of
political organizing by Marxists under capitalism in
order to take power. Such a gaffe should be embarrassing
78 CALEB Maurin

and discrediting, but Matt “Thought Slime” has not

been discredited for spreading such blatant
misinformation. Over 200,000 people have watched
this mis-informative video about socialism, most of
them probably believing its contents to be accurate.
Ian “Vaush” Kochinski, also speaking with the
authority of the algorithms, frequently claims “Marx
wasn't a statist.” To justify this he utilizes a quotation
from Marx’s Civil War in France. Matt “Thought Slime’
also invokes this quotation, where Marx proclaims:
“the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-
made state machinery, and wield it for its own
purposes.”
The misuse of this quotation seethes with ignorance,
if notblatant intentional deception. The passage comes
from Marx’s presentation Civil War in France in which
he discusses the Paris Commune of 1871. This briefly
existing regime that took power in Paris after the
capitalist government had already surrendered to the
Prussian invaders is considered by Marx to be the first
historical example of his concept of “Dictatorship of
the proletariat.” Marx points to the Commune, not as
an example of why states are not necessary, but rather
for the lessons it taught about what post-capitalist
states will look like.
The particular quote refers to the fact that the existing
French state had been created to serve capitalism, and
the Paris Communards who led the workers uprisings
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 79

were forced to create new state institutions, not simply

seize control of the previously existing ones created by
capitalism. Marx spends the following paragraphs
describing in detail the nature of the new proletarian
forms of state power the Communards created and
praising them. To claim this quote means Marx
opposed states existing at all is laughable.
Here is the entire passage from Marx: “But the
working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-
made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.
The centralized state power, with its ubiquitous organs
of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and
judicature — organs wrought after the plan of a

CRN
W
= ALY

Karl Mars pointed to the Paris Commune of 1871 as the first

historical example of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. His
address “Civil War in France” describes in detail the new,
working class government the communards created.
80 CaLEB Maurin

systematicand hierarchic division of labor— originates

from the days of absolute monarchy, serving nascent
middle class society as a mighty weapon in its struggle
against feudalism. Still, its development remained
clogged by all manner of medieval rubbish, seignorial
rights, local privileges, municipaland guild monopolies,
and provincial constitutions. The gigantic broom of
the French Revolution of the 18th century swept away
all these relics of bygone times, thus clearing
simultaneously the social soil of its last hinderances to
the superstructure of the modern state edifice raised
under the First Empire, itself the offspring of the
coalition wars of old semi-feudal Europe against
modern France... The direct antithesis to the empire
was the Commune. The cry of “social republic,” with
which the February Revolution was ushered in by the
Paris proletariat, did but express a vague aspiration
after a republic that was not only to supersede the
monarchical form of class rule, but class rule itself. The
Commune was the positive form of that republic...
The first decree of the Commune, therefore, was the
suppression of the standing army, and the substitution
for it of the armed people. The Commune was formed
of the municipal councilors, chosen by universal
suffrage in the various wards of the town, responsible
and revocable at short terms. The majority of its
members were naturally working men, or
acknowledged representatives of the working class.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 81

The Commune was to be a working, not a

parliamentary body, executive and legislative at the
same time. Instead of continuing to be the agent of
the Central Government, the police was at once
stripped of its political attributes, and turned into the
responsible, and at all times revocable, agent of the
Commune... Public functions ceased to be the
private property of the tools of the Central
Government. Not only municipal administration,
but the whole initiative hitherto exercised by the
state was laid into the hands of the Commune...
The judicial functionaries were to be divested of that
sham independence which had but served to mask
their abject subservience to all succeeding governments
to which, in turn, they had taken, and broken, the
oaths of allegiance. .. The unity of the nation was not
to be broken, but, on the contrary, to be organized
by Communal Constitution, and to become a reality
by the destruction of the state power which claimed
to be the embodiment of that unity independent of,
and superior to, the nation itself, from which it was
but a parasitic excrescence.”
What Vaush claims about his cherry-picked
quotation is nothing but blatant distortion. Either
Kochinski was handed this quote by someone else and
never bothered tolookat the context, orheintentionally
misrepresented its meaning with deceptive intent. To
claim Marx was arguing that no central authority or
82 CaLEB MaurIN

state power should exist is simply inaccurate. On the

contrary, Marx was emphasizing how new forms of
state power must be created to correspond with the
new class in power and its interests.

Maintaining Profits in Command

Armed with his misrepresentative quotes from Marx,
Ian “Vaush” Kochinski has repeatedly said that
socialism in the United States would mean “everything
would be exactly the same except every corporation
would be a worker cooperative.” While worker
ownership and cooperatives are not a bad thing, the
problem with this definition of socialism is that it does
not eliminate capitalism. Capitalism is a system where,
as Engels put it, “the means of production only
function as preliminary transformation into capital,”
or as Mao Zedong put it, “profits are in command.”
Simply instituting worker ownership does not
eliminate what Marx called “The Anarchy of
Production.’
Employee stock ownership programs, co-
determination, co-partnership, or profit sharing are
not at all foreign to capitalism. Furthermore, those
putting forth these ideas have generally not been
socialists, but theoreticians and academics assigned
with the task of making capitalist corporations more
productive and efficient.
While Bread Tube adherents fetishize the Mondragon
 BreapTuBe ServES IMPERIALISM 83

Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives

located in the Basque Region of Spain, the examples of
such schemes within the capitalist system are much
more widespread.
The Oxford University Act of 1854 in Britain
required thatthe faculty of the Universitybe represented
on the board of directors. The Port of London Act of
1908 passed such a requirement for representation of
dock workers on the board governing London’s port.
The Weimar Republic in Germany passed the
Supervisory Board Act of 1922, requiring labor unions
to have representation on the board of directors of
corporations. Many western European countries
maintain such laws up to today.
In the United States, the retirement plans offered to
many corporate employees are described as “profit
sharing plans” where the pension paid to retirees is
related to the performance of the corporation. Many
employees across the USA and the world have “stock
options,” incentive pay, and other mechanisms that
theoretically make them co-owners of the corporation
in which they work. Many different stock ownership,
employee representation and co-ownership programs
exist, and they vary in their degree of success.
During the 1920s and 30s, industrial unions often
fought hard against “piece wages.” Often factory
employers would attempt to maximize their profits by
paying employees only for each item produced, rather
84 CALER MAUPIN

than a set hourly wage. In 1938, the Labor Movement

celebrated the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act
which required all employees receive a minimum
hourly wage on top of whatever incentives or
productivity linked wages they received. These reforms

The passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was a key
victory for the labor movement. It outlawed the paying of ‘piece
wages” and required that all employees be given a minimum
hourly wage.
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 85

brought a new level of economic security to industrial

workers, because they knew how much money they
would receive, rather than having their incomes subject
to the unpredictable fluctuations of the market and
however many products the capitalist assigned them to
produce on a given workday.
BreadTube adherents will generally dismiss the many
examples of their ideas being put into practice within
capitalism. They will insist that piece wages, employee
stock ownership programs, worker representation,
co-partnership, and profit sharing are not enough.
They will say they advocate 100% worker ownership
and democratic control.
However, no matter how egalitarian and democratic
a worker-cooperative model may be, it still does not
eliminate the very essence of the capitalist system:
profits in command. A worker-cooperative will seek to
maximize profits for its employee shareholders.
Imagine if the US “defense industry” were operated
under a worker-cooperative model. Would this end
the “military industrial complex” long decried by
leftists? Would the drive to make profits from war no
longer influence US foreign policy? Not at all. If
anything, the lust for war profits would expand beyond
the corporate boardrooms to the factory floor.
Employees would be motivated to see the government
go to war and for government military spending to
increase, as it would directly impact their incomes.
86 CALEB MaupriN

Having the guards as equal, democratic co-owners of

private prisons would not eliminate the inherent
societal problems flowing from the much decried
“Prison Industrial Complex.” Having workers as equal
co-owners of pharmaceutical giants would not
eliminate the drive to overprescribe potentially
addictive or dangerous medications.
Other problems inherent to the capitalist system of
production for profitwould continue as well. Employee
owners would certainly be incentivized to replace labor
with machines, as the fewer workers hired by the
cooperative firm, the larger their share of the profits
would be. Employee owned enterprises would compete
with other employee owned enterprises producing the
same products and services. Environmental regulations
and laws affecting other “externalities” would still be
an impediment to the profits of corporate owners just
as they are now, even if the corporate owners were the
employees themselves. We could, of course, expect
that “worker owners” would seek to lift regulations
and maximize their own profits just as corporate
owners would.
A system of “profits in command” is still irrational
and unsustainable, even if those profits are shared.
Simply declaring workers to be co-owners of profit
centered entities functioning in the chaos of the market
does not eliminate the irrationality of capitalism.
In the context of a state centrally planned economy,
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 87

worker-cooperative ownership is very different. The

most successful examples of worker-cooperatives tend
to be those that emerge in the absence of the anarchy
of production, when an overall state central plan guides
their activities.
The most successful example of a profit-sharing
corporation, by far, is one that BreadTube avoids
highlighting. The largest telecommunications
manufacturer in the world is Huawei Technologies, a
cooperative corporation established by the Chinese
government and its military in 1988. An article in
Harvard Business Review published on September 24,
2015 hails it as “A Case Study of When Profit Sharing
Works” and speaks of the company in glowing terms.
In the context of China’s 5 year economic plans,
receiving huge subsidies and directions from the state
and military, Huawei has become very successful. The
model of worker ownership, profit sharing, and
coordination with state central planning and a socialist
economy has made Huawei a model that many
corporations in the capitalist world have studied.
Huawei is widely respected for its efficiency and
success. Of course, BreadTube voices largely remain
silent on Huawei, as it takes the lead from the US State
Department deeming anything associated with China
or other anti-imperialist states to be toxic and evil.
Elements of “worker ownership” have been
implemented in many socialist countries. The
88 CALEB MAUPIN

collectivization of agriculture in 1931 resulted in the

prevalence of collective farms as the dominant form
in the Soviet countryside. While some state farms
that operated much like state owned factories existed,
most of the Soviet Union’s agriculture was carried
out by independent kolkhozy, which sold agricultural
goods to the state at a set rate. This motivated the
farm workers to produce as much as possible in order
to maximize the payout they would receive from the
central government. This model became the dominant
form of agriculture in “really existing socialism” of
the Cold War, beyond the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong
launched the creation of a collective farm system
with his “Hail the Communes” campaign in the
1950s. Cuba, North Korea, and various Eastern
European countries adopted the collective farm
model. Trotsky criticized this, arguing that state
farms were more socialistic in nature than collective
farms and arguing that material incentives and
differing abilities among farmers would lead to
inequality. Stalin defended this model, arguing it was
more efficient. Che Guevara and Mao Zedong both
upheld the collective farm model as being more
egalitarian and decentralized, and presented the
Soviet Union as being a bit too centralized and
bureaucratic in its planning of production, leading
to a lack of participation by the working class and a
level of alienation.
 BrREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 89

During the cultural revolution in China, the model

of a “Three in One Combination” was adopted, where
each factory was governed by an elected worker
representative as well as a Communist Party official
and a technical expert. Mao Zedong put forward the
“Three in One Combination” as an alternative to the
model of total factory autonomy put forward during
the infamous “January Storm” of 1967, which
established the Shanghai People’s Commune.
Josip Broz Tito developed a model of “worker self-
management.” Albania declared this model to be state
capitalism because it relied on material incentives to
motivate labor, but other socialist countries considered
Tito’s model to be more effective. Tito’s “worker self-
management” model was most likely a big influence
on Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Opening Up”
policies in 1978. Vietnam and Nicaragua have
developed self-employment programs where workers
become individual entrepreneurs in coordination with
the state’s overall vision. Venezuela has created many
colectivos and communes, which produce goods and
render services, while being subsidized with state
revenue and directed by state central planners.
Worker-cooperatives are not bad, but the
fetishization of them and the rejection of the need to
eliminate the anarchy of production, distorts the
nature of socialism. BreadTube’s insistence that
socialism is “everything exactly the same except every
90 CALEB MAUPIN

corporation is cooperative” is particularly problematic

in the context of imperialism.
Capitalism in the 21st Century involves huge
multinational corporations based in western countries
reaping super profits at the expense of the developing
world. Wars are waged to enforce that system, with
socialist and anti-imperialist governments being the
primary targets. Imperialism is a global economic
order in which the world is made poor and kept poor,
so that the finance capitalists of London and Wall
Street can remain rich.
Simply offering a greater share of the super profits of
empire to the workers within the imperialist homeland
is not dismantling this global system. If anything, it is
a scheme that would likely stabilize and enhance it.

The Myth of the 20th Century

Underlying BreadTube’s redefinition of socialism is
the same motivation and sentiments that are highly
present in Trotskyism, Anarchism, Social-Democracy
and other brands of left-wing anti-communism. In the
United States, anti-communist propaganda about the
20th Century is widespread and inculcated among the
population. It is so central to the rhetoric of every
faction of the ruling class that repeating it is almost
mandatory for any voice that seeks to avoid being
marginalized.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 91

In order to conform to the ‘party line’ that is almost

universal among every faction of the US ruling class,
BreadTube mustaccept the premise that “Communism
failed everywhere it has ever been tried.”
It is tragic that so many adherents of socialism, who
claim to oppose the capitalist system, are so cowardly
that they cannot state what is obvious, socialism works.
When Yale economist Dr. Richard Wolff debated
Steven “Destiny” Bonnell, he confronted this
mythology head on, proclaiming: “I have no idea what
this silly remark that I so often hear that no socialist
society has succeeded at anything, I have no idea what
you are talking about. Let me give you an example, one
of the most important metrics used in the economics
profession around the world to assess the success of an
economic system is the rate of economic growth. You
measure GDP and you look at how it grows over time,
and then you compare one country to another to assess
their relative success, not as societies, because that’s a
vague generality... Its not the only metric, but it’s a
widely used one so I am now going to use it. In the
20th century the fastest growing GDP in any country
measured was the Soviet Union. And in the 21st
century we are living in, the fastest growing GDP in
the world has been the People’s Republic of China.
This is not an endorsement of one or another economic
system, it’s a statement of fact verified by any reliable
source of information, the UN, the projects of the
92 CALEB MAaUPIN

University of California at Berkeley and others who

keep track of this.”
Bonnell quibbled, trying to say that Japan had been
more successful than the Soviet Union and that the
industrialization of the USSR was irrelevant because
many countries underwent similar growth at the time.
Wolff further ripped this illogic to shreds proclaiming:
“Those are the facts, you can play whatever games you
want, the fact of the matter is that the Soviet Union’s
performance in the 20th century completely outshines
that of Japan. In 1917 when the Soviet Union began,
it was the poorest country in Europe by far. It then
goes through 70 years of World War 1, of a civil war, of
collectivization, and of World War 2, which did more
damage in Russia than in any other country.
Notwithstanding that it was the poorest country at the
beginning of this horrific story, it ends up in 1965
being the number one competitor of the United States
for global hegemony. That’s only because of its number
one status in economic growth that it achieved the
overcoming of all those horrificlosses. I am notarguing
in favor of this or that about the Soviet Union, but the
fact of its achievement is a staggering reality that you
can dance around today and tomorrow, but it doesn’t
go away because it is inconvenient to confront it. The
same thing is true now. If you read Pear] Buck’s novels
about China before the revolution, you will read about
a society whose depth of poverty literally blows your
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 93

mind, and here they are about to surpass the United

States by the end of this decade, and that was
accomplished by a Communist revolution and a
government that has been run by a Communist Party
to this day.”
BreadTube’s insistence that socialism is merely a
worker cooperative scheme reveals further the thesis of
this book, that Bread Tube is largely the creation of the
more powerful, globalist wing of the ruling class in its
efforts to beat back the rebellions of Trump and lower
level capitalists. The pro-imperialist narrative, where
Communist revolutions “only made life worse” is
repeated by BreadTube voices, despite being
overwhelmingly inconsistent with reality. Because
BreadTube targets the same governments that the US
State Department targets, and repeats the same
narrative of the 20th Century that is widely promoted
in US society, italso allows the most common argument
against socialism to go unchallenged.
Right-wingers have long mocked the comment,
“That’s not real socialism,” which BreadTube aligned
voices frequently fall back on. During the Iraq War,
right-wingers who taunted leftists would carry sarcastic
placards reading “Communism only killed 200 million
people, let’s try it again!” There is a refusal of leftists to
challenge the historical record; not about human rights
or the shortcomings of existing socialist societies, but
aboutbasic economic data. This is the greatest weakness
94 CALEB MaurIN

of the socialist movement in the United States.

However, it fitswith the overall weakness of Bread Tube’s
analysis, which is a refusal to confront or discuss
imperialism, in an age where western capitalism IS
imperialism.
Basic economic data shows that the Soviet Union
had a consistently high rate of economic growth
throughout its existence. In 1917, Russia was an
agrarian underdeveloped country. By 1936 the Soviet
Union was fully electrified and had become an
industrial powerhouse. The Soviet Union produced
more steel and tractors than any other country in the
world. It wiped out illiteracy, built a modern university
system, and constructed some of the largest power
plants in the world. In the field of culture, the Soviet
Union spawned the films of Sergei Eisenstein, the
music of Shostakovich, and some of the greatest ballet
performers and Olympic athletes.
With an economy where the state controls the major
industries and banks and issues 5 year economic plans,
China has become the second largest economy on
earth, lifting 800 million people from poverty. Cuba’s
achievements in terms of healthcare and literacy are
marveled at by international observers. Prior to the fall
of the Soviet Union, North Korea experienced huge
explosions of growth with Soviet aid. A BBC article
from August 26, 2008 admits: “The mass mobilization
of the population, along with Soviet and Chinese
 BreaDTuBe SERVES IMPERIALISM 95

technical assistance and financial aid, resulted in

annual economic growth rates estimated to have
reached 20%, even 30%, in the years following the
devastating 1950-53 Korean war. As late as the 1970s,
South Korealanguished in the shadow of the “economic
miracle” north of the border.”
Baathist Arab Socialism in Iraq and Syria resulted in
massive economic achievements in terms of literacy,
education, and industrialization. Years of pro-western
regimes have not undone the great achievements of
Gamal Abdel Nasser, who took great strides to
industrialize Egypt, constructing the Aswan Dam in
coordination with the Soviet Union. Kwame Nkrumah,
Julius Nyerere, Muammar Gaddafi, and other African
revolutionaries who established socialist planned
economies achieved similar victories in terms of basic
societal health. The Islamic System labelled “Not
Capitalism Burt Islam,” in which the state and the
Revolutionary Guards control the commanding
heights of economic power has resulted in a huge level
of development in Iran.
Criticisms of these societies related to issues like
human rights, consumer goods, or other issues are
certainly reasonable. To say Marxist-Leninist
governments and anti-imperialist states “never
accomplished anything” or “only made life worse” is a
sick joke that is completely contrary to all basic
economic data.
96 CaLEB MaUPIN

However, BreadTube’s vision of socialism as merely

profit centered worker cooperatives, its demonization
of the very same governments the imperialists target,
all make BreadTube a version of socialism that is
deemed acceptable by the ruling class. In rare instances
BreadTubers will even defend cuts in social spending
and the erosion of the welfare state, arguing that “we
don’t want state socialism” and “socialism has nothing
to do with the government.” Somehow various
adherents of BreadTube thinking have determined
neoliberal economics and austerity is not a threat to
socialism, because their worker cooperative schemes
will still be permitted.
It is clear that BreadTube has created a brand of
“socialism” that is not very threatening to the status
quo. Rather than calling for society to control the
means of production, even a minimal class struggle
program like stopping cuts in social spending or
opposing imperialist regime change wars, BreadTube
simply wants to experiment with profit sharing and
employee stock ownership as imperialism and austerity
are allowed to roll ahead.
Not surprisingly, this deviation from everything
Marxists and socialists have advocated for hundreds of
years has been enabled to go viral and speak in the
place of genuine anti-capitalism.
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 97

Chapter Three: Nazi! Nazi! Nazi!

Biden’s first joint address to Congress, delivered on
April 28, 2021 contained some subtle but dangerous
rhetoric. In his opening, Biden invoked the January
6th Capitol Riot when Trump supporters vandalized
the halls of US Congress: “As I stand here tonight —
just one day shy of the 100th day of my administration.
100 days since I took the oath of office, lifted my hand
off our family Bible, and inherited a nation in crisis.
The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on
our democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden used the bulk of his address to promise
sweeping economic reforms such as infrastructure,
healthcare, guaranteed college and labor union
protections. The speech was far more social-democratic
in its content than anything heard from a US President
in recent decades. However, underlying the progressive
economic content was hostility to a number of
countries, most especially the People’s Republic of
China.
98 CaLes MauriN

“We're in a competition with China and other

countries to win the 21st Century. We have to do more
than just build back. We have to build back better,” he
told the American people: “In my discussion with
President Xi, T told him that we welcome the
competition — and that we are not looking for
conflict... No responsible American president can
remain silent when basic human rights are violated. A
president has to represent the essence of our country.
Americaisan idea— unique in the world.” Throughout
the speech Biden used the word “autocrat” to refer to
anti-imperialist governments.
In the final moments of the speech, Biden spelled
things out more clearly: “America’s adversaries — the
autocrats of the world — are betting it cant. They
believe we are too full of anger and division and rage.
They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this
Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American
democracy. They are wrong... We have stared into an
abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic
and pain — and “We the People” did not flinch.”

“Insurrection and Autocracy”

Biden’s use of phrase “insurrection and autocracy”
after referring to anti-imperialist leaders as “autocrats”
was an attempt to equate the right-wing crowds that
participated in the January Gth events with the
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 99

governments of Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba,

and North Korea.
However, this is simply the opposite of reality. The
bulk of Trump’s crowd of supporters chanting “Stop
The Steal” were white Americans of working class or
middle class origin. However, a big chunk of the crowd
were from specificright-wing immigrant constituencies
long cultivated by the US intelligence apparatus to
fight against anti-imperialist countries.
The Falun Gong religious cult that opposes the
Chinese Communist Party and pubhshes the Epoc‘/J

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At t/ae
]anuary 6th pro-Trump a’emommztzon that escalated to
the infamous Capitol Riot, many adherents of the anti-
communist Falun Gong religious cult were present. Anti-
Communist Cubans, Koreans and Venezuelans were also well
represented. BreadTubes attempt to paint the Capitol Riot as
somehow linked to anti-imperialist countries is completely
dishonest.
100 CaLEB MAUPIN

Times were among the protesters. This group of anti-

communists glorify feudalism in China and call the
empowerment of women since 1949 a sign that the
world is in a “Dharma Ending Period.” The group is
very hostile to LGBT people. Supporters of the anti-
communist riots in Hong Kong were also present.
Supporters of the Pahlavi Monarchy, deposed by
Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, were present, unfurling
the monarchist flag and chanting against the Islamic
Republic.
Busloads of Cuban anti-Communists from Miami,
along with exiled rich from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and
Bolivia, were at the rally echoing Rudy Giuliani’s claim
that the US elections had been rigged by Communists.
A large number of Israeli flags were unfurled as
supporters of Netanyahu and the Likud Party marched
in support of the man who murdered Qassem
Soleimani and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Joe Biden’s attempt to link the Capitol Riot with the
progressive anti-imperialist states targeted by US
imperialism was simply inaccurate. This was a pro-
imperialist mob. The Proud Boys chanted “west is the
best” and the forces blamed for the supposed rigging of
the vote were Chinese Communists and Bolivarian
Socialists. To think this right-wing crowd of anti-
communists, Zionists, feudalists, libertarians, and
anti-Islamic bigots have anything in common with the
emerging block of 21st Century Socialism around the
 BreaDTUBE SErVES IMPERIALISM 101

world is an absurd delusion. However, this distortion

fits the narrative of mainstream US media and
Bread Tube.
Endless attention was given to the racist Confederate
Flag displayed by white nationalists and neo-
confederates who attended the rally, while the various
highly visible pro-imperialist counter-gangs were
ignored. The narrative of mainstream US media echoed
by BreadTube is that the bulk of America’s working
class are racist white trash and that Donald Trump was
a Nazi attempting to stir them up. This suggests that
this “populism” somehow is the equivalent of Bolivarian
Socialism, Chinese Communism, or the Islamic
Revolution of Iran.

The Proud Boys, a racist organization that participated in the

January 6th Capitol Riot, chants “West is the Best” at their
gatherings. This belief that western capitalist countries are
superior to anti-imperialist and socialist countries is shared by
most Bread Tube commentators.
102 CALEB MAUPIN

The enemy in the Bread Tube narrative is “Populism”

and socialist governments around the world are just
another variant of this evil, the equivalent of fascism.
When the ignorant, inferior working people are rising
up and demanding that the state protect them, rallying
around a charismatic leader, this is a threat to the non-
conformity and freedom of the superior caste of
cosmopolitan intellectuals.
This bizarre narrative that views average Americans
as the enemy and equates socialist states that control
the means of production with Nazi gas chambers, has
nothing to do with Marxism. However, it is not new.
It is a narrative that was carefully cultivated by the
Congress for Cultural Freedom and covert
manipulation of intellectual discourse throughout the
Cold War. BreadTube has taken this toxic narrative to
a new, far more illogical and far more absurd level, in
an attempt to defend the liberal order from right-wing
opposition.

“A counter-revolutionary mass movement”

Among Marxists and scientific socialists, three
narrative definitions of fascism are commonly used.
The most common narrative, repeated by social-
democrats and mainline Communist parties, is that
fascism is merely a right-wing dictatorship. If
conservatives become more authoritarian and
totalitarian this represents “creeping fascism.” This is
 BreADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 103

the narrative usually used by leftists in the United

States to justify voting for the Democratic Party, as
Republicans are presented as potential Hitlers.
The second definition, put forward by Trotskyites, is
that fascism is an ever present middle class political
movement that condemns both big capital and the
labor movement. Trotskyites argue that the current is
utilized by big capital to wage a campaign of violence
against socialist revolutionaries and progressives in
times of capitalist crisis in order to lay the basis for a
police and military state.
The third definition of fascism, utilized by the Soviet
aligned parties during the “Third Period” of 1928-
1935 following the Sixth Congress of the Communist
International, is that fascism is a cheap capitalist
imitation of socialism used to prevent revolution and
stabilize the economy in a crisis. On this basis, the
Comintern referred to social democrats, who at the
time called for the political repression of Communists,
as ‘social fascists.’
All of these definitions contain an element of truth,
but all of them miss the essence of fascism. Fascism is
defined by a mass mobilization of destruction and
driving down of living conditions intended to resolve
an economic crisis.
As Georgi Dimitrov, the leader of the Communist
International explained in 1935: “With the
development of the very deep economic crisis, with
104 CALEB MAUPIN

the general crisis of capitalism becoming sharply

accentuated and the mass of working people becoming
revolutionized, fascism has embarked upon a wide
offensive. The ruling bourgeoisie more and more seeks
salvation in fascism, with the object of taking
exceptional predatory measures against the working
people, preparing for an imperialist war of plunder,
attacking the Soviet Union, enslaving and partitioning
China, and by all these means preventing revolution.

AN o E‘—f;".‘ ,,{;” 4"§.7.c,’e“'

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down living standards in the hopes of resolving an economic crisis.

 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 105

The imperialist circles are trying to shift the whole

burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working
people. That is why they need fascism. They are trying
to solve the problem of markets by enslaving the weak
nations, by intensifying colonial oppression and
repartitioning the world anew by means of war. That is
why they need fascism. They are striving to forestall
the growth of the forces of revolution by smashing the
revolutionary movement of the workers and peasants
and by undertaking a military attack against the Soviet
Union — the bulwark of the world proletariat. That is
why they need fascism.”
'The most scientific study of fascism is Fascism and
Social Revolution, written by British Communist
intellectual R. Palme Dutt in 1934 after Hitler took
power in Germany. Dutt explained what fascism is in
practice: “to endeavor to strangle the powers of
production, to arrest development, to destroy material
and human forces, to fetter international exchange, to
check science and invention, to crush the development
of ideas and thought, and to concentrate on the
organization of limited, self-sufficient, non-progressive
hierarchic societies in a state of mutual war-in short, to
force back society to a more primitive stage in order to
maintain the existing class domination. This is the
path of Fascism, the path to which the bourgeoisie in
all modern countries where it rules is increasingly
turning, the path of human decay.”
106 CALEB MAUPIN

Dutt rips to shreds the notion that there is some set

of ideas or principles that define fascism as a distinct
political ideology or economic system. Dutt writes:
“Fascism in this specific or narrower sense is marked by
definite familiar characteristics: in the case of the
Fascist movements, by the characteristics of terrorism,
extralegal fighting formations, anti-parliamentarism,
national and social demagogy, etc.; in the case of the
completed Fascist dictatorships, by the suppression of
all other parties and organisations, and in particular
the violent suppression of all independent working-
class organisation, the reign of terror, the ‘totalitarian’
state, etc.”
After summarizing the diverse creeds, principles,
economic theories, mythologies, and rhetorical styles
utilized by fascists, Dutt shows that all of them are
mere bombast. Fascism is defined by action in the form
of political violence and repression, not any clear set of
principles: “All these abstract general conceptions
which are paraded as the peculiar outlook of Fascism
have no distinctive character whatever, but are common
to a thousand schools of bourgeois political philosophy,
which are not yet Fascist, and in particular to all
national-conservative schools... Fascism, in fact,
developed as a movement in practice, in the conditions
of threatening proletarian revolution, as a counter-
revolutionary mass movement supported by the
bourgeoisie, employing weapons of mixed social
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 107

demagogy and terrorism to defeat the revolution and

build up a strengthened capitalist state dictatorship;
and only later endeavored to adorn and rationalise this
process with a ‘theory.” It is in this actual historical

British Communist theoretician R. Palme Dutt composed the

important book “Fascism and Social Revolution” in 1934,
giving the most in-depth and scientific understanding of fascism
in this era.
108 CALEB MAUPIN

process that the reality of Fascism must be found, and

not in the secondary derivative attempts post festum at
adornment with a theory.”
Dutt points out that unlike revolutionary leftist
movements, Fascism does not achieve power through
struggle, but rather, is called upon by the power
structure after a long period of grooming: “Fascism has
never ‘conquered power’ in any country. In every case
Fascism has been placed in power from above by the
bourgeois dictatorship. In Italy Fascism was placed in
power by the King, who refused to sign the decree of
martial law against it, and invited Mussolini to power;
Mussolini’s legendary ‘March on Rome’ took place in
a Wagon-Lit sleeping-car. In Germany Fascism was
placed in power by the President, at a time when it was
heavily sinking in support in the country, as shown by
the elections. The bourgeoisie, in fact, has in practice
passed power from one hand to the other, and called it
a ‘revolution,” while the only reality has been the
intensified oppression of the working class. After the
establishment of the full Fascist dictatorship, the policy
has been still more openly and completely, despite a
show of a few gestures of assistance to small capital, the
most unlimited and ruthless policy of monopolist
capital. The whole machinery of Fascism mercilessly
turned against those of its former supporters who have
been innocent enough to expect some anti-capitalist
action and called for a ‘second revolution.”
Y
 BreaDTuBE SErVES IMPERIALISM 109

The Myth of Fascist Ideology and Aesthetics

This scientific understanding of fascism as an attempt
to stabilize capitalist society amid a crisis through brute
force, economic regression, and a mobilization of
destruction and barbarism leading toward war was the
understanding used by those who were most successful
in defeating fascism. The Communists who mobilized
to beat back Oswald Mosley in Britain at the 1936
Battle of Cable Street held this understanding of
fascism. The underground resistance in Germany and
the occupied countries which sabotaged armaments
and bombed railways was led by Communists who
had this understanding of fascism. The Red Army that
liberated Auschwitz concentration camp and eventually
took Berlin had this understanding of fascism.
However, since the end of the Second World War,
there has been a huge attempt to erode this scientific
understanding and replace it with one that is more
convenient for the western capitalists. Recognizing
that fascism emerges from the natural workings and
failures of capitalism is certainly an argument in favor
of socialism and against the capitalist system.
Undermining this definition and replacing it with
subjective, aesthetic, and philosophical obfuscations
has been a key task of the US intelligence apparatus.
The Congtess for Cultural Freedom formed in 1949
as an association of left-wing artists, scientists, and
110 CALEB MAUPIN

academics who opposed Communism is considered by

the US Central Intelligence Agency to be one of its
most successful operations. The organization was
funded by the CIA and the Trotskyite Irving Kiristol,
an associate of Max Shachtman, who later became
known as the “Father of Neoconservatism,” was
selected to lead the operation. Literary magazines such
as Partisan Review, Encounter, Paris Review and Der
Monat were subsidized and circulated throughout the
United States, Britain, and western countries to nudge
leftist circles away from the Soviet perspective.
Theodor Adorno, a Marxist intellectual associated
with the Frankfurt School, had his work subsidized
and promoted as part of the Congress for Cultural
Freedom operation. His work was published in Der
Monar, and his research for 7he Authoritarian
Personality was conducted with individuals tied to the
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, an entity
widely known to be utilized for research by British
intelligence.
The conclusions of Adorno’s writing on the concept
of an “Authoritarian Personality” are a complete
departure from scientific Marxism.
Among his sources, Adorno cites the crackpot
psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, infamous for his
“orgone machine” that supposedly captured a magical
energy source created from human orgasms. Reich also
claimed that he was in contact with extraterrestrial
 BreADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 111

creatures. Much like the crackpot Reich who was

expelled from Psychoanalysis by Freud and expelled
from the German Communist Party before moving to
e

Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich was convicted of fraud by the Food

and Drug Administration, for marketing an “Orgone Machine”
that had no real medical value. Reich’s narrative that Nazism is
rooted in sexual repression is a key influence on Theodor Adorno,
Susan Sontag and the Synthetic Lefts reinterpretation of fascism.
112 CALEB MaurIN

New York City in the 1930s, Adorno argues that

fascism is rooted in psychological and cultural trends,
not the breakdown of capitalism.
Among the various leftist intellectuals and cultural
critics who are now documented to have been covertly
promoted by the US intelligence in the post-WW2
years, a new narrative exists about what fascism is.
Adorno documents an “authoritarian personality” of
individuals who are deemed to be deviant because they
would be predisposed to be part of a mass political
movement, and seek to make sacrifices for causes
greater than themselves.
Susan Sontag, another CIA favorite, spent pages
reflecting on the “fascist aesthetic” in a New York Times
Review of Books piece. In Sontag’s mind fascism is
“extravagant effort, and the endurance of pain... the
massing of groups of people; the turning of people into
things; the multiplication and replication of things
and grouping of people/things around an all-powerful
hypnotic leader-figure or force. The fascist dramaturgy
centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty
forces and their puppets, uniformly garbed and shown
in swelling numbers. Its choreography alternates
between ceaseless motions and a congealed, static,
“virile” posing... “mass athletic demonstration, a
choreographed display of bodies are a valued activity
in all totalitarian countries; and the art of the gymnast,
so popular now in Eastern Europe, also evokes recurrent
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 113

features of fascist aesthetics; the holding in or confining

of force; military precision.”
Hannah Arendt, a favorite of the Partisan Review
milieu, composed a book entitled Eichmann in
Jerusalem, which was widely praised. In the book she
put forward the widely celebrated concept of the
“banality of evil” arguing that genocidal Nazi war
criminal Adolph Eichmann was just an ordinary
person, essentially making the case that all populism
and mass mobilizations are fascistic in essence, because
deep down ordinary working class people are potential
Nazis.
All of these concepts and redefinitions were implied
throughout the cultural revolution of the 1960s and
70s, when long haired counterculture youth decried
their pro-military right-wing parents as “fascists.” This
redefinition of fascism to be “people working together
in groups for a common aim” or “people acting like
responsible adults and controlling their impulses”
flowed from the New York Times, academia, and
everywhere else in US society.
The ultimate purpose of this non-materialist, idealist
retelling of the 1930s was revealed in 1982, when
Susan Sontag spilled the beans in front of a crowd of
protesters who had gathered to protest in support of
the anti-communist and anti-semitic Solidarsnoc dock
workers of Poland. Sontag said: “Communism is
Fascism—successful Fascism, if you will. What we
114 CALEB MAUPIN

have called Fascism is, rather, the form of tyranny that

can be overthrown-—that has, largely, failed. I repeat:
not only is Fascism (and overt military rule) the
probable destiny of all Communist societies—
especially when their populations are moved to
revolt-—but Communism is in itself a variant, the most
successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human
face.”
Susan Sontag equated the Red Army that took
Berlin, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteers who
fought Franco in Spain, the activists who organized in
support for the Scottsboro Nine against Jim Crow, and
almost all of the greatest heroes of the 1930s and 40s,
with the very entity they successfully defeated.
To the Synthetic Left, brought to you by the CIA,
fascism is not a form of Bonapartism intended to hold
off revolution as capitalism enters a crisis. Rather, it is
people refusing to become atomized and easily
controlled individuals, and holding on to any notion
of solidarity and joint effort. Progressives who refuse to
embrace their individualist anti-populism that view
average working people as a dangerous mob, most
especially Communists, are deemed to be fascists.

Natalie Wynn’s “F@scists”

Natalie “Contrapoints” Wynn, the shining star of
the BreadTube internet sphere, who stands shoulders
above her colleagues in terms of production values and
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 115

coherent narrative, gained mainstream appreciation

for her video “Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to
Recognize a F@scist.”
While much of Contrapoints work contains useful
insights, this particular video is almost comedic at
points. One is forced to think of the 1964 film Dr
Strangelove which mocked the anti-communist
hysteria. In the film a particularly crazed general speaks
obsessively about “bodily fluids” and brags that he only
drinks rainwater because he believes most liquids have
been contaminated by a secret communist conspiracy.
Contrapoints begins the video stating “contemporary
fascists hold three core beliefs.” She lists them as a
beliefin the sacredness of the white race, the conspiracy
theory that Jews seek to conduct “white genocide” or
“replacement,” and the ultimate goal of creating a
“white ethno-state” in which non-whites and
“degenerates” are “purged.”
This is certainly an accurate description of what
white nationalists believe. However, the right-wing,
especially in the age of the internet, is far more vastand
ideologically diverse. Many far-rightists are Anarcho-
Capitalists who advocate unregulated free market
capitalism. They want no government intervention
whatsoever in the economy or on matters of sex, race,
or social justice. Many far-rightists are anti-Islamic
bigots who do not believe Jews are a secret cabal, but
rather see Israel an outpost of civilization against the
116 CALEB MAUPIN

menace of Islam. Far right circles are full of followers

of Julius Evola, traditionalist Catholics, Neo-
Confederates, Libertarians, Incels, etc. The white
national current exists as one of many strands of
dissident right wing thought.
Contrapoints then spends the rest of the video
developing all kinds of loopholes through which
individuals who have nothing in common with white
nationalism can be linked to it: “So if you want to
recognize a fascist, you have to know how to read
subtext and hear dog whistles because 99 times out of
a hundred, a fascist will disavow fascism, racism, and
white supremacy, at least when talking to you, a non-
fascist,” Contrapoints explains, “I am not a fascist is
exactly what a fascist would say.”
Is it true that many White Nationalists conceal their
views, and operate covertly in broader conservative
circles? Yes. It is true that many advocates of a white
ethnostate who harbor anti-semitic views will conceal
this message when creating broader content? Yes.
However, Contrapoints video basically argues that
anything can be a dog whistle, anyone can be a fascist,
and all that is necessary to prove it is something as
meaningless as a hand gesture, a slip of the tongue, or
most importantly a disagreement with the mainstream
of the left.
'The overwhelming majority of people in the United
States feel patriotic, but according to Contrapoints,
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 117

statements like “Tlove my country” could be interpreted

as coded fascist messaging. Gestures like “Thumbs up”
or “OK” signs are used by millions of Americans each
day, but according to Contrapoints, these could indeed
be secret Nazi hand signs.
Contrapoints video would be laughable if it were not
taken seriously by many of the millions of people who
viewed it. One of the primary targets of this bizarre
cancel culture conspiracy theory is anti-imperialist
leftists. Across the internet, commentators like Jimmy
Dore, Kim Iverson, and others who do not agree with
US foreign policy are considered to be “fascists” and
“crypto-fascists.”
The proof is that they support anti-imperialist
countries like China, Syria, Venezuela, Russia, etc.
These countries have been declared “fascist” by US
media, and therefore anyone who shows sympathy
with them is “fascist” by default.
If you are reminded of McCarthyism, you should be.
If one showed sympathy for the Soviet Union or Mao’s
China during the 1950s, you were dismissed as “a
communist.” Careers and lives were destroyed by
the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Organizations with the word “worker” in their name
were falsely accused of being Communist front groups.
Individuals were forced to disavow their friends,
relatives, and co-workers.
McCarthyism was a mobilization to silence all critics
118 CALEB MAUPIN

of US foreign policy as the Cold War exploded

following the Second World War. In the New Cold
War, BreadTube is being utilized to destroy the lives
and careers of all who don’t echo the rhetoric against
Russia and China.
Contrapoints and Bread Tube do not apply this “guilt
by association” and conspiratorial decoding to liberals.
Joe Biden can salute the flag, shake hands with
Republicans, give a thumbs up, or do whatever he
wants and not be declared “fascist” by BreadTube. Joe
Biden’s series of racial gaffes, his string of sexual assaults,
rape allegations from Tara Reade, his support for the
Iraq war, his crime bills, are all forgivable mistakes.
None of these vicious actions and blatantly racist
words render Joe Biden to be part of the secret fascist
conspiracy that sits at the center of the BreadTube
worldview. Why? Unlike the right-wing and the
legitimate anti-imperialist left, he defends the status
quo, so by definition he cannot be fascist.
BreadTuberoutinelyinsistsphraseslike “International
Bankers” or “Western Civilization” are fascist dog
whistles, yet Hillary Clintons use of the term
“superpredators” is deemed to be merely an
understandable mistake or error. Legitimate anti-
imperialists are routinely baited for supporting
anti-imperialist states like Russia or China, deemed
“fascist” by mainstream media. However, the
Democratic Party’s embracing of Israel, Saudi Arabia,
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 119

and other US aligned regimes that violate human

rights never renders them “Red Browns” or
“Crypto-Fascists.”
Contrapoints video has been utilized to destroy the
lives of countless individuals. Internet harassment
campaigns are mobilized frequently against all kinds of
people. Jeopardy contestants, adolescents on social
media, confused conservatives, random Trump
supporters, legitimate anti-imperialist leftists, and all
who do not immediately bow before NATO and the
Pentagon run the risk of being declared a “literal Nazi”
by the internet cult of “anti-fascists” who demand
100% adherence to MSNBC talking points.
Like much of BreadTube, Contrapoints ideology is
inconsistent. Sometimes she seems like a social-
democrat or anarchist, but other times it seems like she
is merely a pro-establishment warrior working to purge
the US government apparatus of an evil “secret fascist
conspiracy” that has taken it over. Much like the anti-
semitic narrative that views western capitalism and
imperialism as inherently good, but merely corrupted
by a sinister cabal, Contrapoints seems to argue that
the evils of American capitalism are due to a sinister
conspiracy of white nationalists, not the system itself.
If only this conspiracy can be purged, everything will
be fine.
Of course, in the world view extolled by much of
BreadTube, if you dare disagree that the west is a
120 CALEB MAUPIN

bastion of tolerance and freedom, while China, Russia,

Syria, and Venezuela are evil “fascist” regimes, you
must be a fascist yourself. Who cares if you are anti-
racist, or have spent over a decade working against
racism; remember: “I am not a fascist is exactly what a
fascist would say.”
The cancel culture conspiracy belief in which almost
every conservative and every dissident leftist is part of
a secret white nationalist cabal that must be stopped at
all ¢osts is not an honest delusion. Much like the John
Birch Society of the early 1960s, the conspiracy theory
has been weaponized to serve one wing of the political
establishment in its fight against the other. The intent
is to cultivate a mob of paranoid fanatics who will
function as the foot soldiers of the establishment.

A Gift to Actual Fascism

Hilariously, according to Contrapoints, she herself
must be a fascist. Throughout her video she wears a
Nazi-esque costume, shows images highlighting the
work of far-right commentators (despite disavowing
them, something she claims doesn’t matter), and shows
various hand signs and images known to be coded
fascist imagery.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that claiming
innocuous gestures and symbols are “fascist” was
actually a stated maneuver of white nationalists at one
point. The idea was to make the left look delusional,
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 121

paranoid and stupid by claiming all kinds of benign

things were “fascist.” It appears this maneuver has
been effective.
Though the BreadTube community and its content
is certainly loved by the YouTube algorithms, few
Americans have been convinced that most of their
friends and neighbors who use the wrong words or
question US foreign policy are part of a secret white
natiopalist cabal. Right-wing figures like Jordan
Peterson have certainly benefited from popular disgust
at cancel culture. Much like many Cold War
Republicans, Contrapoints lives in an alternate
universe where the world consists of two types of
people: those who agree with her and the US status
quo, and those who are part of a vast conspiracy of
people pretending to believe all sorts of different
things, but in reality they are all working for the same
sinister agenda. It is a vast conspiracy against our
American way of life. Watch out for your precious
bodily fluids!
This kind of childish black-and-white totalitarian
thinking is what much of the Cold War Synthetic Left
was intended to undermine. The Congress for Cultural
Freedom and the Frankfurt school were funded in
order to undermine the dichotomy of “with us or
against us” that often led to marginalized people like
African-Americans or LGBT people becoming
sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Now, hilariously, the
122 CALEB MAUPIN

very mindset the Synthetic Left was set up to combat

is being promoted by it: Agree with them (and US
foreign policy) or no matter what you say or really
believe, you are working for the fascists.
The entire reason the Synthetic Left was covertly
funded by the CIA is due to the reality that the
Communist Party USA and the various Marxist-
Leninists of the world were on the vanguard of
combating racism and fascism. The Soviet Union
brought the petition of William L. Patterson entitled
Wa Charge Genocide to the United Nations, exposing
the horrific realities facing Black Americans. The Soviet

BreadTube commentators regularly equate Communists with

white supremacists and Neo-Nazis despite the historical legacy
of the two political currents being completely opposite. Pro-
Soviet Communists such as William L. Patterson, Nelson Peery,
Paul Robeson and Harry Haywood were key in building the
Civil Rights Congress and opposing Jim Crow segregation.
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 123

Union convened demonstrations in the 1930s in

support of the Scottsboro Nine, a group of African
American men falsely accused of rape. Paul Robeson,
Henry Winston, James W. Ford, Langston Hughes
and many of the most anti-racist and anti-fascist voices
in US society were sympathetic to or even joined the
Communist Party USA. The Communist Party formed
the Civil Rights Congress to fight for African-
Americans in the southern USA.
While the US government coddled and did business
with Hitler, Communists rallied against him from day
one. In 1935, Communist Party USA members led by
Bill Bailey attacked a Nazi ship that had docked in the
New York harbor, and ripped down the swastika flag.
While the US government did nothing to aid the
Spanish Republic, members of the Communist Parties
from around the world formed International Brigades
to fight Franco’s fascism. Communists formed the
League Against War and Fascism rallying progressive
writers and artists to oppose the Nazis. Admiration for
Stalin and adherence to ideological Marxism-Leninism
was widespread among the most vehement anti-racists
and anti-fascists. BreadTube seeks to obscure this
widely recognized historical reality and equate
Communists with the people they heroically resisted,
like Hitler and the KKK.
Natalie Wynn is merely the trendsetter, but she has
given birth to a whole layer of pathetic confusion and
124 CaLEB Maurin

childlike thought conformity. Across BreadTube,

accusations of fascism grow on trees. Railroads are
fascist. All Trump supporters are fascists. Neckties are
fascist. Citing economic data is fascist. Quoting
classical philosophers is fascist. Knowing enough about
what fascism actually is in order to defend oneself
against accusations of fascism is smoking gun proof
you are a fascist.
By declaring all questioning of the status quo to be
fascist, Bread Tube is the best friend actual Nazis and
fascists ever had. The result of their actions has been to
channel millions of people who refuse to accepr their
mandated thought conformity into a position of
interest or sympathy with actual fascism. Many who
would have just been attracted to anti-war leftism or
class struggle economics in the past have suddenly
began exploring the teachings of Adolph Hidler, Julius
Evola, and Gregor Strasser after being informed by the
BreadTube internet circus that they are “Fascists” and
“Red Browns.”
Reader beware: In the aftermath of publication,
buying, owning, or simply reading this book will be
100% confirmation to many Bread Tubers that you are
a fascist.
Such a disgusting trivialization of the millions who
died in Hitler’s gas chambers, and the millions more
who died in the Second World War cannot even be
imagined.
 BreapTuBk SERVES IMPERIALISM 125

Chapter Four:
Understanding Left-Pessimism
In between his videos on suicidal ideation, self-
harm, and childhood trauma, Matt “Thought Slime”
decided to explain their analysis of modern capitalism:
“When exactly do you think capital will be done
making money? How much money is enough for the
ultra-rich jackasses who already have most of it? We've
long ago sailed past it because several of them own
incalculable sums, so much that they could not spend
it in a thousand lifetimes and yet they don’t stop,
despite the consequences, the human cost, the
environmental cost, they keep going... There are only
so many resources to be extracted from the earth until
there aren’t any left... They keep going forever, or
more realistically, until they can’t, and at that point we
aredoomed.... Ahuman being intuitively understands
that growth cannot continue forever, we understand
the concept of finite resources... We the consumer,
particularly, those of us in the west, bear some
responsibility in this too. We buy shit we don’t need
and throw away shit other people could use.”
126 CALEB MAUPIN

The De-Growth Delusions

This view is inherently opposite of Marx’s view. In
Matt’s view the problem is not that capitalism is
holding back human progress and creativity, but
rather that it is unleashing it. Like a neoliberal
economist, Matt “Thought Slime” believes the
delusion that somehow the system that leaves millions
of people in poverty across the developing world, and
increasingly drives first world workers into greater
poverty and lower living standards, is not holding
back human productivity. Like a free market
economist, Matt “Thought Slime” believes capitalism
is capable of creating endless growth, something the
last 200 years of economic crises, wars, and chronic
poverty despite technological advancement has clearly
refuted. While Mattaccept the premise that capitalism
is capable of creating endless growth, Matt thinks this
is bad.
In their video championing “de-growth”, Thought
Slime argues that humans have gone too far. The
problem isn’t that working people are increasingly
impoverished due to capitalism’s inherent creation of
poverty amidst plenty, the problem is that average
working people have too much stuff. As American
workers are seeing their wages go down, their homes
foreclosed, and their children condemned to a life of
student debt, the problem is that they are still too
 BreaDTuBke SERVES IMPERIALISM 127

comfortable. Thought Slime anticipates an ecological

apocalypse unless human consumption can be urgently
reduced. Matt insists their “degrowth” model is not the
same as capitalist austerity.
This perspective is certainly not new. In 1972 a
capitalist think-tank based in Italy called “The Club of
Rome” published a document called 7he Limits to
Growth. Jimmy Carter’s White House published a
document called 7he Global 2000 Repor: making
similar claims.
This has been the worldview of many of the wealthiest
and most powerful capitalists for a long time. In 1798
British economist Robert Malthus published A Essay
on the Principle of Population arguing that the birth
rate naturally outstrips the food supply, and measures
must be implemented to stop peasants and workers
from breeding. The Rockefeller family was heavily
involved in the Neo-Malthusian society, sponsoring
the Birth Control League and pushing for the
legalization of abortion and contraception.
It is the biggest capitalists, namely those associated
with the “free trade” theories of Adam Smith and the
British Empire that have pushed “degrowth.” They sit
at the top of the world, and do not want to lose their
position. Human history and progress must be ended
so they can remain permanently in their winning
position. The world must remain poor and get poorer,
so they can stay rich.
128 CaLEB MauPIN

The imperialist wars of the last 70 years have largely

been de-growth operations. Millions were killed in
Vietnam and Korea in the hopes of preventing these
countries from industrializing with socialist economies.
Iraq and Libya, who had used state-run oil resources to
fund industrialization and development have been
reduced to poverty and chaos. China and Russia are
hated by the western imperialists because they are no
longer impoverished client states, but competitors
selling their own oil, steel, and computer technology
in competition with the monopolists.
“Human progress has gone too far! Stop it!” Scream
the Wall Street ultra-rich from the boardrooms of JP
Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, and Bank of America.
Not only must the developing world remain poor, they
proclaim, but living standards must also drop in the
west. The industrial middle class that once made
western imperialist homelands so stable must be
reduced to lower living standards.
Marxists have always opposed and dissected this
fallacious logic. Friedrich Engels described Malthus’
concept of “overpopulation” as “the crudest, most
barbarous theory that ever existed, a system of despair
which struck down all those beautiful phrases about
love thy neighbor and world citizenship.” In Zheories of
Surplus Value, Marx wrote, “Malthus’s theory of value
gives rise to the whole doctrine of the necessity for
continually rising unproductive consumption which
 BreaDTuBE ServES IMPERIALISM 129

this exponent of over-population (because of shortage

of food) preaches so energetically... this theory, for its
part, suits his purpose remarkably well—an apologia
for the existing state of affairs in England, for
landlordism, ‘State and Church’, pensioners, tax-
gatherers, tenths, national debt, stock-jobbers, beadles,
parsons and menial servants... Malthus also wishes to
see the freest possible development of capitalist
production, however only insofar as the condition of
this development is the poverty of its main basis, the
working classes, but at the same time he wants it to
adaptitself to the ‘consumption needs’ of the aristocracy
and its branches in State and Church, to serve as the
material basis for the antiquated claims of the
representatives of interests inherited from feudalism
and the absolute monarchy. Malthus wants bourgeois
production as long as it is not revolutionary, constitutes
no historical factor of development but merely creates
a broader and more comfortable material basis for the
‘old’ society.”
In his economic notebooks, Marx showed how
Malthus’ conceptions of “unproductive consumers”
were completely false, but served the interests of the
wealthy people who had commissioned his work. Marx
wrote: “Malthus’s book On Population was a lampoon
directed against the French Revolution and the
contemporary ideas of reform in England (Godwin,
etc.). It was an apologia for the poverty of the working
130 CALEB MAUPIN

classes. The theory was plagiarized from Townsend

and others. His Essay on Rent was a piece of polemic
writing in support of the landlords against industrial
capital. Its theory was taken from Anderson. His
Principles of Political Economy was a polemic work
written in the interests of the capitalists against the
workers and in the interests of the aristocracy, Church,
tax-eaters, toadies, etc., against the capitalists. Its
theory was taken from Adam Smith. Where he inserts
his own inventions, it is pitiable.”
What is the inherent flaw regarding the logic of
“limited resources”? This logic fails to take into account
that the way human beings interact with resources has
constantly been in a state of change. Across Africa,
minerals are being extracted and sold at high value
currently, when just several decades ago they were
worthless. Computer chip technology has rendered
them very valuable. The long predicted “peak oil”
scenario in which petroleum would run out causing a
global catastrophe never panned out, because new
methods of extracting oil, from deep sea drilling to
hydraulic fracking have been invented.
The current fossil fuel economy is certainly
unsustainable and creating a global crisis of climate
change, but the solution is moving to a more efficient
and sustainable energy source, the most promising hope
for which is nuclear fusion. For this reason, China and
Russia have called for international cooperation for
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 131

Fusion research, and China has announced its intent to

mine the rare isotope helium-3 from the Moon.
The way human beings interact with resources must
change, no doubt about it. But the pessimistic notion
that the human race must “de-grow” is frightening and
unrealistic. As Friedrich Engels noted: “the animal
merely uses its environment, and brings about changes
in it simply by its presence; man by his changes makes
it serve his ends, masters it. This is the final, essential
distinction between man and other animals, and once
again it is labor that brings about this distinction.”
Human beings are tool-makers and inventors,
constantly changing how they interact with their

Many Anarchists and environmentalists put forward the notion

that somehow growth and economic progress are bad, and
societies should be reduced to lower living standards amid efforts
to control the population.
132 CALEB MAUPIN

environment, more efficiently forcing it to serve us

and expand our life expectancy and quality of being.
Marxism seeks for the population to expand and for
living standards to rise. In fact, the transition from the
lower stage to the higher stage of Communism is
rooted in the ability of a centrally planned economy to
vastly increase the productive forces. In his Critigue of
the Gotha Program Marx explained that the ultimate
goal of total equality and a stateless, classless world was
only possible with vast material abundance. Marx
wrote: “In the higher phase of Communist society,
after the enslaving subordination of the individual to
the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis
between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after
labor has become not only a means of life but life’s
prime want; after the productive forces have also
increase with the all around development of the
individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth
flow more abundantly — only then can the narrow
horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety
and society inscribe on its banners: from each according
to his ability, to each according to his needs!”
Marx was pointing to the fundamental reality that
inequality is rooted in scarcity. Class society, the state,
oppressive relations, and patriarchy are all rooted in
managing a society at a certain level of development.
As society has become more abundant and living
standards have become higher, the rigidity of less
 BreaDTUBE SErVES IMPERIALISM 133

abundant times has somewhat eroded. No one spoke

of “freedom of speech” in ancient times, because such
a concept was simply inconsistent with a society
at this technological level. Scarcity necessitates
authoritarianism and hierarchy, and abundance and
development loosens these restraints creating equality
and freedom.
Marx brillianty ripped to shreds the “liberal”
ideology of the enlightenment, exposing that rights
and liberties are not “natural” and “god-given” but
rather correspond to the economic base of society.
Only by creating a society of vast abundance, totally
eradicating scarcity, can total freedom be attained, and
only by having rational central planning of the
economy can this level of abundance be created. As
capitalism holds back technological progress with the
irrational creation of poverty amid plenty and the crisis
of overproduction, it prevents humanity from
marching toward the ultimate vision of a high-tech
classless society of freedom and abundance.
Socialism has always been a fundamentally optimistic
political movement. It views human history as
marching forward from hunter-gatherer civilization,
to slavery and feudalism, to capitalism, with socialism
(the lower stage of Communism) and the ultimate
higher stage of Communism on the horizon.
This understanding of the state, hierarchies and the
progressive trajectory of humanity toward great
134 CALEB MAUPIN

abundanceiswhat makes Marxist historical materialism

so valuable. In an age where right-wing figures like
Jordan Peterson argue that hierarchies and inequality
are just natural, it is essential to understand human
social structures as reflective of an underlying economic
base. As the underlying economic base changes, human
relations also change. The family, the nature of
government, the level of freedom and social mobility is
not rooted in some “natural” way found in our DNA
or created by divinity. These institutions have evolved
throughout human history as human beings moved
toward agreater state of materialabundance. Bread Tube
obscures this and furthermore denounces human
progress and technological advance, thus feeding the
common right-wing delusions.
The agenda of the ultra-rich proclaiming that human
progress must be stopped has repeatedly been inserted
into the socialist movement. In the process of
Bonapartism, in which capitalists urilize workers as
their foot soldiers in a struggle to stabilize the capitalist
economy utilizing the state, various pessimistic
counter-gangs have been formed in order to hijack the
passion and activism of those who would be
revolutionaries.

Georges Sorel’s “Birth Strike”

The French philosopher Georges Sorel was the first
prominent leftist voice to break with this optimism,
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 135

long considered essential in the socialist movement.

Sorel wrote in his 1908 pamphlet Reflections on Violence:
“It seems to me that the optimism of the Greek
philosophers depended to a great extent on economic
reasons; it probably arose in the rich and commercial
urban populations who were able to regard the universe
as an immense shop full of excellent things with which
they could satisfy their greed. I imagine that Greek
pessimism sprang from poor warlike tribes living in the
mountains, who were filled with an enormous
aristocratic pride, but whose material conditions were

The first to introduce a pessimistic worldview into Marxian

circles was the French syndicalist theoretician Georges Sorel.
136 CaLER MauriN

correspondingly poor... they explained their present

wretchedness to them by relating catastrophes in which
semi-divine former chiefs had succumbed to fate or the
jealousy of the gods; the courage of the warriors might
for the moment be unable to accomplish anything, but
itwould not always be so; the tribe must remain faichful
to the old customs in order to be ready for great and
victorious expeditions, which might very well take
place in the near future.”
Sorel openly attacked the concept of optimism, and
as his thought influenced the Syndicalist current in
Europe, he broke with much of the Marxian tradition
and outlook. The primary difference that Sorel had
with the French Marxists and Social-Democrats was
their belief in building a mass organization. Sorel
argued that instead of building a broad organization
among the working class with roots in unions,
community groups, and such, it was instead better to
build a group of fanatical dedicated men who would
engage in “heroism” through acts of violence. Sorel
invoked the power of mythology in building effective
mass movements, and drew heavily from the history of
Greece and Rome when arguing how to build an ideal
revolutionary organization to overturn capitalism.
At the time of his death in 1922, Georges Sorel was
an enthusiastic admirer of both Vladimir Lenin and
Benito Mussolini. Sorel believed that both Lenin’s
“Party of New Type” and Mussolini’s Blackshirts
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 137

proved that his model of a violent “heroic” counter-

gang, as opposed to a mass party, was effective.
While no record of contact between Lenin and Sorel
can be established, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini
was heavily influenced by Sorel’s teachings. Mussolini
had been the editor of a socialist newspaper in Italy,
but he broke with Marxism and became a syndicalist
and adherent of Sorel’s teachings while living in
Switzerland in 1902. Eventually, Mussolini formed the
Fascist Party in 1919, synthesizing the teachings of
Georges Sorel with the theories of Iralian Futurist
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Friedrich Nietzsche, and
Plato, among other influences. However, he made it
clear: “I owe most to Georges Sorel. This master of
syndicalism by his rough theories of revolutionary
tactics has contributed most to form the discipline,
energy and power of the fascist cohorts.”
Mussolini’s blackshirt gangs seized control of Italy
and established the fascist state at the famous March
on Rome in October of 1922.
The Spanish Falangists, the fascist movement led by
Francisco Franco that ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975,
is also rooted in Sorel’s Syndicalism. Franco and his
allies were originally members of the “National
Syndicalist” party of Spain, a group of Sorelians who
supported the Spanish monarchy, arguing that mystical
power of the throne could be used to mobilize the
working class.
138 CaLEB MAUPIN

Taking lead from Sorel, Mussolini and Franco

utilized anti-capitalist demagogy, but wrapped it in
pessimism, looking backward to the supposed glory of
archaic monarchies and nationalistic imagery while
glorifying violence and destruction. One big aspect of
this was opposing the expansion of the human race
and embracing the concept of “overpopulation.”
In the lead-up to the First World War, the Syndicalists
and followers of Georges Sorel began arguing for a
“Birth Strike.” They argued, in Marxian terms, that
having children would drive wages down by increasing
competition for jobs. They furthermore argued that
revolutionaries should not be upstanding working
class community members, but rather a special elite
group of dedicated fanatics who did not have time for
the distraction of family life.
While the Marxist movement supported the right of
women to contraception and abortion, it rejected the
“Birth Strike.” They understood that believing poverty
was due to “overpopulation” was a fundamental break
with Marx’s economic teachings. Marx had vehemently
argued against the concept of overpopulation, and
exposed the demagogy of the originator of this concept,
Robert Malthus.
When Georges Sorel and his proto-fascist Syndicalists
proposed the “Birth Strike” this was a component of
rejecting Marxism’s optimism. It fit in with their
reintroduction of organizing methods rooted in
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 139

7
3 3 _—

The syndicalist groups influenced by Georges Sorel mevged into

the wider, right-wing, fascist current during the lead up to the
Second World War.
140 CaLeEB MauriN

mystical chivalry and love of violence rather than

material need and solidarity.
More than a century after Sorel wrote, pessimism
flows through almost all that the dominant BreadTube
voices say and do. In their view, the world is on the
brink of collapse unless there can be a reduction of
consumption. The population is too large. Technology
has advanced too much. The pessimism manifests itself
beyond merely the doomsday and hopeless rhetoric.
The excessive use of profanity, the celebration of drug
use, the endless conversation about suicide and mental
illness, the fixation on ugly and grotesque things such
as feces, semen, urine, dirt, slime, self-harm and
cathartic violence all fit with this worldview.
The fact that Matt “Thought Slime” narrates
sarcastic, crude videos which often condemn the
concept of economic growth or fixate on mental illness
related topics, while standing in front of the image of
a sewer dripping with green slime may not be an
accident. Let us revisit a passage from Malthus
infamous 1798 piece An Essay on the Principle of
Population: “All children who are born, beyond what
would be required to keep up the population to a
desired level, must necessarily perish, unless room be
made for them by the death of grown persons....
Therefore ... we should facilitate, instead of foolishly
and vainly endeavoring to impede, the operations of
nature in producing this mortality; and if we dread
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 141

this too frequent visitation of the horrid form of

famine, we should sedulously encourage the other
forms of destruction, which we compel nature to use.
Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor,
we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns
we should make the streets narrower, crowd more
people into the houses, and court the return of the
plague. In the country, we should build our villages
near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage
settlement in all marshy and unwholesome
situations. But above all we should reprobate specific
remedies for ravaging diseases; and restrain those
benevolent, but much mistaken men, who have
thought they are doing a service to mankind by
protecting schemes for the total extirpation of
particular disorders.”
It is also worth noting that Sorelian pessimist and
ex-socialist Benito Mussolini shared the fixation on
feces and the cruel degrading humor of bullies, often
found among BreadTube voices. One of Mussolini’s
favorite ways of punishing dissidents is described in
Peter Carlson’s 2016 article published on HistoryNet:
“As Rogers studied Mussolini, he learned about the
dictator’s favorite disciplinary tool—castor oil.
Blackshirts would seize a foe, rough him up, strap him
to a chair, and pour the laxative down his throat. Once
the fellow soiled himself, the Blackshirts would send
him home sick, hurting, and humiliated.”
142 CALEB MAUPIN

The article describes how mainstream US media

radio personality Will Rogers found this demented
practice to be humorous and joked about it with the
murderous fascist dictator while they bonded over
Russophobia: “Rogers found this stratagem hilarious.
‘I know of nothing that would lessen a man’s political
aspirations more than this, he wrote. ‘Just think of the
possibilities not only in Italy but in our country.’
Delighted that an American appreciated his torturous
innovation, Mussolini elaborated. ‘One fellow, he not
so bad, we give him half-liter,” he said, laughing. ‘Next
fellow, he bad boy, we give him one liter.” Rogers asked
Mussolini to sell him the recipe so he could dose U.S.

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The fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was known for torturing

Communists and political dissidents by inducing diarrhea with
castor oil. US radio personality Will Rogers was highly amused
by this tactic.
 BreaDTuUBE ServVES IMPERIALISM 143

senators engaging in filibusters. Congressmen were

‘not so bad,” Rogers added, so he'd give them only half
a liter. The two men laughed. Rogers said he was going
to Russia. ‘Oh, Russia,” Mussolini said. “You take recipe
to Russia. Very good for Russia—castor oil. I give you
free.” And they laughed again.”
The pessimism also fits with another theme in Sorel’s
ideology, which is “the power of myth.” While Marxists
focused on seizing power, the Syndicalists rejected
politics favoring only direct activism on the job
between workers and employers. Syndicalists argued
that a ‘great general strike” in which all the workers of
the world refused to work and seized their factories
would end capitalism in one big dramatic battle. Sorel’s
writing argued that while this glorious apocalypse was
unlikely to actually happen, the myth of it would
inspire great revolutionary activism. In essence, Sorel
foreshadowed the eventual emergence of post-
modernism, saying truth does not really matter and
thatideas, feelings, and “narratives” are more important
than objective reality.
BreadTube voices generally argue that truth does not
exist, and that the only positive role for revolutionaries
to play is that of deconstruction if not outright
destruction. This thinking follows the trajectory of
anti-Marxist post-modernism, a trend directly linked
to the Congress for Cultural Freedom and CIA covert
efforts.
144 CALEB MAUPIN

In the BreadTube perspective we find echoes of

George Orwell and Ayn Rand’s post-WW2 middle class
dystopias. In the presented view, all principles which
people may give their lives to are merely totalitarian
scams. All heroes who people may idealize are hypocrites
and demagogues. All statues must be torn down. All
states must be smashed. All hope is naive. All passion
and love between people is weakness. The individual
stands against the world, the rest of the human race, the
vulgar mob that would take away his sacred isolation.
There is no real vision of a post-capitalist world to
strive for beyond “start a cooperative pencil factory,” so
instead Bread Tube voices merely celebrate the libidinal
release of tearing down the current world in an
explosion of rage. The glory is found in memes such as
“punch a Nazi” or taking gleeful pleasure in the
suffering of a person deemed to be privileged. One
identity politics oriented group called Black Hammer
announced that Anne Frank, the victim of the Nazi
holocaust whose eloquent diary was published in the
post-waryears,wasa “Karen.” Thegroup hasannounced
it intends to burn copies of The Diary of Anne Frank as
a fundraiser for its efforts to build a city in Colorado in
which no whites are permitted.

Sexual Freedom and Left-Pessimism

Sexual frustration seems to be a big component of Left
pessimism, as its most infamous recruit demonstrates.
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 145

Margaret Sanger was a primary financial backer of

the Industrial Workers of the World and was a leading
figure in the Socialist Party of New York City. Sanger
associated with a number of wealthy left-wing
intellectuals in New York City in the early years of the
20th Century, including John Reed, Emma Goldman,
Max Eastman and Upton Sinclair. Sanger led
fundraising efforts to support the strikes of textile
workers in New Jersey and eventually launched her
own magazine 7he Woman Rebel.
Sanger was a Marxist, but central in all things was
her belief in sexual freedom. Marxism promised to
liberate women from patriarchy and thus create a
world of “free love” in which sexual desires would no
longer be restrained, and this seemed to be the primary
appeal of left-wing politics for Margaret Sanger. The
slogan frequently used in her publication was “No
Gods, No Masters,” a phrase that remains popular
with anarchists.
After calling for the assassination of John D.
Rockefeller and facing criminal charges for distributing
birth control, Sanger fled the United States for Britain
in 1914. In Britain, she began to associate with the
Neo-Malthusian Society. Charles Vickery Drysdale
was the founder of the Malthusian League. The League
was comprised of a group of wealthy British people
who believed birth control and abortion could reduce
the human population. Opinion such as Sanger’s
146 CaLeB MAaurIN

Marxism began to fade following the Russian

Revolution of 1917. The Soviet Union did not become
the free love paradise of sexual liberation she had hoped
for. However, Sanger’s new friends in the British Neo-
Malthusian society were fully committed to legalizing
birth control and abortion, as well as promoting
pornography. The very Rockefeller oligarchs whom
she had previously threatened soon gave her financial
backing. With her legal troubles conveniently resolved,
Sanger returned to the US and established the first
birth control clinic in New York City.
Sanger denounced Marxism in scathing polemics,
announcing that the problem was not capitalism but
simply humanity’s drive to procreate and expand:
“Discontented workers may rally to Marxism because
it places the blame for their misery outside of themselves
and depicts their conditions as the result of a capitalistic
conspiracy, thereby satisfying that innate tendency of
every human being to shift the blame to some living
person outside himself, and because it strengthens his
belief that his sufferings and difficulties may be
overcome by the immediate amelioration of his
economic environment. In this manner, psychologists
tell us, neuroses and inner compulsions are fostered.
No true solution is possible, to continue this analogy,
until the worker is awakened to the realization that the
roots of his malady lie deep in his own nature, his own
organism, his own habits. To blame everything upon
 BrEADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 147

the capitalist and the environment produced by

- capitalism is to focus attention upon merely one of the
elements of the problem. The Marxian too often
forgets that before there was a capitalist there was
exercised the unlimited reproductive activity of
mankind, which produced the first overcrowding, the
first want. This goaded humanity into its industrial
frenzy, into warfare and theft and slavery. Capitalism
has not created the lamentable state of affairs in which
the world now finds itself. It has grown out of them,
armed with the inevitable power to take advantage of
our swarming, spawning millions.”
Like most contemporary environmentalists, Sanger
concluded that individual workers and the very creative
nature of humanity was the problem, not capitalism.
As Sanger joined in with the wealthiest capitalists to

After abandoning Marxism in favor of Malthusianism,

Margaret Sanger begcm courting support fi’om racists such as the
Ku Klux Klan.
148 CALEB MauriN

reduce the human population, she began to espouse

genocidal racism, speaking at Ku Klux Klan rallies.
Lothrop Stoddard, one of the most outspoken
Eugenicists and White Supremacists of the 1920s,
served on the American Birth Control League’s
National Board. In personal correspondence, Sanger
talked of the need to cultivate Black ministers to
promote birth control, and passingly admitted some
rather horrific intentions, writing: “We do not want
word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro
population and the minister is the man who can
straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their
more rebellious members.”
In 1921, a speech from Margaret Sanger specifically
condemned working class and low-income people for
being religious and having many children, proclaiming:
“There is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people
that the procreation of this group should be stopped.”
When the Great Depression hit and mass hunger
and starvation took place across the United States,
Sanger’s former comrades formed Hunger Marches
and Unemployment Councils demanding economic
relief. Chanting “Work or Wages now!” the Communist
Party forced the Roosevelt administration to create the
Works Progress Administration, Social Security and
Unemployment Insurance. Sanger doubled-down on
her position, blaming the economic crisis on
overpopulation and condemning efforts to feed the
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 149

hungry masses. Sanger’s book 7he Pivot of Civilization

condemned helping the poor, saying that doing so
“encourages the healthier and more normal sections of
the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and
indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with
it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of
human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to
eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the
future of the race and the world, it tends to render
them to a menacing degree dominant.”
Planned Parenthood, the successor to Sanger’s Birth
Control League, often claims that Sanger was not
herself a racist, but simply appealed to racism in the
hopes of promoting women’s right to contraception.
Sanger may not have harbored consciously racist views,
but she was very openly a Malthusian. She believed the
problem was not capitalism, but the working people
themselves and their desire to procreate and improve
their lives. The goal was not a world of greater
abundance and prosperity, but rather some kind of
great correction that would kill off the “useless eaters”
and throw the world back into balance.

Orgasmic Politics
Margaret Sanger’s departure from Marxism, trading
socialism for sex, follows a common pattern of
Synthetic Leftism. Many deviations from scientific
socialism appear intoxicated by a carnal undertone.
150 CALEB MaurIN

Rather than seeking a healthy society of sustainable

growth and human progress, the goal is a cathartic
explosion of destruction and vengeance.
At the time feudalism was toppled in Europe, the
Roman Catholic Church was obviously a primary target
of the emerging bourgeois revolutionaries. However,
many of the mercantile capitalists and conspiring
rationalists embraced pre-Christian European religions
and mysticism rather than science. Pantheism, sun-
worship, Odinism, and the alchemical tradition was
popular among the anti-feudal revolutionaries who
often organized themselves into secret societies like the
Freemasons or the Bavarian [lluminati.
In the mid 1800s, as the new “leisure class” of
capitalists with lots of free time was created, a trend
rightly called “salon culture” came to dominate
intellectual circles. A variety of different forms of
flim-flam pseudo-intellectual entertainment emerged
to alleviate the boredom of the privileged.
Freudian Psychoanalysis, the Occultist teachings of
Aleister Crowley, Hypnotism, and various
spiritualist movements eventually emerged from this
cultural trend.
Unlike Marxism, these trendsall seemed to emphasize
the importance of the individual rather than the
collective fate of humanity. Furthermore, unlike
Marxism, the various occult trends did not predict a
transition to a higher stage of civilization, but rather
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 151

an explosive destruction that would return humans to

a state of harmony with nature.
In his book Civilization and its Discontents, Freud
argued that civilization was not a worthwhile endeavor,
as the impulse for aggression was natural. Christianity
is lambasted for urging “love thy neighbor as yourself”

The influence of salon culture and various charlatans such as

Aleister Crowley, who pander to the idol rich, has been a
longstanding curse on left-wing politics. Marx urged his followers
to get beyond such circles and to the laboring masses who produce
society’s wealth.
152 CALEB MAUPIN

which Freud deems impossible, leading to endless guilt

and shame. Allister Crowley told his followers that
“Do As Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law,” and
that through his rituals and counseling, he could help
them discover their inner will and true desires so they
could be pursued and satisfied.
Woagner’s Ring Cycle, aseries of four operas completed
in 1874, dazzled audiences throughout Europe. The
opera was not for the working class but for the leisure
class. Not surprisingly, Wagner’s magnum opus
contains similar themes to the revolutionary
intelligentsia. The plot and characters were derived
from Germanic mythology. The final opera concludes
with Briinhilde, mourning her slain hero Siegfried,
mounting a horse and riding it into his funeral pyre as
an act of passionate suicide. The fire then spreads and
the entire world soon bursts into flames in a climactic
apocalypse. The natural beauty of the Rhine River is all
that remains.
The Revolutionary Intelligentsia, young students
and intellectuals drawn to left-wing politics, was and
remains heavily stamped by the influence of Salon
Culture. Many of those who embraced Marxism,
Socialism, or Anarchism were among the same
privileged strata where Freud, Crowley, and various
charlatans and performers made their rounds.
In BreadTube politics, much like 1960s
counterculture, one finds a heavy representation of the
 BrReaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 153

salon culture’s remnants. The journey of the individual

to discover what they truly desire and who they truly
are is very much the focus. The fulfillment of sexual
desires and liberation from restraints on sexual
impulses, as well as impulses toward aggression and
resentment against authority, is also central. There is a
condescending fascination with primitive cultures
believing they are somehow purer than the modern
world corrupted by technology.
While efforts to conceal it have largely been
successful, the age of information technology has
allowed the US public to see more clearly that the
occultist, apocalyptic, hypersexual, and pantheist
tendencies are very much alive among the ruling elites
of American capitalism. US politicians and business

Among the rich, mystical rituals and occultism remain popular.

Many prominent political and business figures in the United
States gather at an exclusive nude resort called the Bobemian
Grove in California.
154 CALEB MauriN

elites are part of secret societies like the Order of Skulls

and Bones at Yale, and they gather in nude resorts like
the Bohemian Grove. Al Gore and many prominent
figures in the Democratic Party received spiritual
advice from Marilyn Ferguson, an occult guru based in
Southern California who published a bizarre political
screed called The Aquarian Conspiracy in 1980. The
book calls for a mass spiritual awakening. It lays out an
individual process for “personal transformation” that
follows the brainwashing patterns developed by
American intelligence agencies, promoting
hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and other methods.
Ferguson describes California as the center of her
“conspiracy” and lists several CIA linked academic
think tanks such as the Stanford Research Institute as
being onboard. It was later revealed that the Stanford
Research Institute spent decades conducting CIA-
funded research into telekinesis and other paranormal
beliefs, and was also involved in project MK-ULTRA,
the CIA drug program.
The pessimism, sex obsession, anti-growth politics of
BreadTube clearly have deep roots. They are not the
personal innovation of Vaush, Thought Slime,
Contrapoints, orany other shallow internet personality.
But these are not the politics of the working class.
These are the politics of the ultra-rich who find amid
their splendorous existence that something is missing.
They want to dig into their personal psyches, discover
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 155

and unleash their sexual desires, and fantasize about

existing in a more primitive state of being where
“harmony with nature” would mean less restraints on
their impulses. They seek to explore the depths of their
personalities and perhaps overcome some heavy
subconscious guilt that flows from living at the top of
a global empire. They seek the thrill of a cathartic
explosion that will correct the injustices of the world,
putting everything back into balance.
Beyond whatever psychological motivations, there
are the direct economic ones. The pessimistic politics
represent the interests of those who already sit at the
top of the world economy; ultra-monopolists who say

Occultist guru Marily Ferguson served as the spiritual advisor to

Al Gore and other prominent politicians. Her ties to CIA
research at the Stanford Research Institute were quite visible.
156 CarLEB MaurIN

growth must end because they are already on top. The

oil banking elite sees nuclear power and human
progress beyond fossil fuels as a threat to their global
order. For them, Climate Change can only mean that
humans have gone too far, and a mass reduction of the
population and consumption is needed.
The working class, however, in its desire to build and
construct, solving problems by driving forward human
progress, has a completely different worldview. Unlike
the optimistic Marxists who lead China and the
Bolivarian countries, BreadTube does not serve the
march of humanity toward freedom from the
irrationality of greed. In its pessimism and destructive
mindset, Bread Tube serves imperialism.
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 157

Conclusion: The Conditions

Themselves Call Out...
Louis Bonaparte’s regime that seized control of
France in 1851 did not work to bring the working class
to power. Its aim was to stabilize French capitalism on
behalf of one section of the capitalist class. Karl Marx
described the coalition the military dictator built for
himself.
Marxwrote: “On the pretextoffoundingabenevolent
society, the lumpen proletariat of Paris had been
organized into secret sections, each section led by
Bonapartist agents, with a Bonapartist general at the
head of the whole. Alongside decayed roués with
dubious means of subsistence and of dubious origin,
alongside ruined and adventurous offshoots of the
bourgeoisie, were vagabonds, discharged soldiers,
discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers,
mountebanks, lazzarone, pickpockets, tricksters,
gamblers, pimps, brothel keepers, porters, literati,
organ grinders, ragpickers, knife grinders, tinkers,
beggars — in short, the whole indefinite, disintegrated
158 CALEB MAauPIN

mass, thrown hither and thither, which the French call

la bohéme; from this kindred element Bonaparte
formed the core of the Society of December 10. A
“benevolent society” — insofar as, like Bonaparte, all
its members felt the need of benefiting themselves at
the expense of the laboring nation. This Bonaparte,
who constitutes himself chief of the lumpenproletariat,
who here alone rediscovers in mass form the interests
which he personally pursues, who recognizes in this
scum, offal, refuse of all classes the only class upon
which he can base himself unconditionally, is the real
Bonaparte, the Bonaparte sans phrase. An old, crafty
roué, he conceives the historical life of the nations and
their performances of state as comedy in the most
vulgar sense, as a masquerade in which the grand
costumes, words, and postures merely serve to mask
the pettiest knavery.”
This passage from Marx, containing plenty of
outdated and unfamiliar terminology, is essential to
understanding BreadTube. The Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines roues as “men devoted to a life of
sensual pleasure.” Literati are “well-educated people
who are interested in literature.” Mountebanks refers to
“persons who deceive others in order to trick them out
of their money.” Lazzaroni is an Italian term referring
to the desperately poor organized into gangs, often
described as “street people under a chief.” When Marx
describes “the whole indefinite, disintegrated mass,
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 159

thrown hither and thither, which the French call la

bohéme” it can easily be understood that what he
describing is counter-culture (“bohemians”) elements.
Marx describes this counter-gang amassed by Louis
Bonaparte as “benefiting themselves at the expense of
the laboring nation.” This lumpenproletariat according
to Marx is separate from those who lay the basis of the
Communist revolution. The proletariat, the class with
nothing to lose but their chains and the world to win,
who sit at the center of the Marxist narrative of world
history, are not organ grinders, pickpockets, and
literati. Rather, they are the broad masses, the working
class. The real proletariat are the millions and millions
of people who spend their days working in order to
pay their bills, feed their children, and hopefully retire
in old age. The proletariat are not grifters, leeching
wealth from the society around, but rather the class
that produces the wealth with their labor power.
Whenlookingover Bread Tube’s various personalities,
we can clearly see modern incarnations of the elements
Marx describes in the coup d’état assembled by the
original Bonapartist. It appears that in order to beat
back Donald Trump and the rebellion of the New
Right, Biden assembled his own “society of December
10th.” Among its ranks we find roues (Vaush), literati
(Contrapoints), mountebanks (Thought Slime),
lazzaroni, vagabonds and discharged soldiers (Antifa),
the 21st century’s digital “Brothel Keepers” and
160 CALEB MaurIN

pornography industry, the marijuana and hallucinogen

lobby, all of them “with dubious means of subsistence
and of dubious origin”, as they collect money from
anonymous sources on Patreon and benefit from the
convenient love of the social media algorithms.
And who do they see as their enemy? The laboring
nation. While they do not call out Falun Gong, the
Israel Lobby, the Miami Cubans, or other foreign
policy interest groups who marched on January 6th,
they single out the low-income white workers with
their Confederate flags as the target.
It is certainly right to condemn the use of the
Confederate Flag, a symbol of a pro-slavery uprising
backed by the British empire and Wall Street insurance
cartels, but this is not their real grievance with Middle
America. The crime of middle America is that they do
not accept the “de-growth” presently being forced on
them. They do notaccept their kids dying from opioids
and being locked in for-profit prisons, facing a lifetime
of low wages. They do not accept the factories closing
down and good paying jobs disappearing as we
transition to a global low wage economy. They do not
accept the idea that they the working people are merely
evil privileged Eurosettlers who deserve to be poorer as
retribution for historical and ongoing injustices. They
do not accept that Silicon Valley should rule over all
society determining what ideas are and are not
acceptable in the discourse. They do not accept the
 BreaDTuBg SERVES IMPERIALISM 161

post-modernist commandment that Jesus Christ and

his teachings of kindness and brotherhood should be
replaced with academic moral relativism, Allister
Crowley’s “Do As Thou Wilt” or Ayn Rand’s “Virtue
of Selfishness.” They do not see human solidarity as
inherently totalitarian and fascist. They do not see the
celebrated individualism of a few lumpen content
creators, who are triggered by class struggle rhetoric
and popular will, as worthy of holding back all
humanity’s dreams of a better future.
Let us be reminded of Lenins famous essay
Imperialism and the Split in Socialism, where he ripped
to shreds the social chauvinists who dominated the
various social democratic parties of the world, but
ended by urging genuine revolutionaries not to
abandon their task: “Neither we nor anyone else can
calculate precisely what portion of the proletariat is
following and will follow the social-chauvinists and
opportunists. This will be revealed only by the struggle,
it will be definitely decided only by the socialist
revolution. ...And it is therefore our duty, if we wish
to remain socialists to go down lower and deeper, to
the real masses; this is the whole meaning and the
whole purport of the struggle against opportunism.
By exposing the fact that the opportunists and social-
chauvinists are in reality betraying and selling the
interests of the masses, that they are defending the
temporary privileges of a minority of the workers, that
162 CALEB MauriN

they are the vehicles of bourgeois ideas and influences,

that they are really allies and agents of the bourgeoisie,
we teach the masses to appreciate their true political
interests, to fight for socialism and for the revolution
through all the long and painful vicissitudes of
imperialist wars and imperialist armistices.”
The broad masses of Americans are full of anger and
ripe for rebellion against the same forces from which
China, Russia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Iran, Syria and many other countries have already
broken free. The ultra-rich class of multinational
oligarchs and their “great reset” would destroy the lives
of the American proletariat and drive it down to the
third world conditions, all to facilitate the high tech,
low wage economy that no longer deems their labor
power to be valuable.
Itis not only white Americans who are ready to rebel.
The Black Lives Matter uprising. The refusal of
Minister Louis Farrakhan to support Hillary Clinton.
The rise of Black and Chicano Nationalism. The
increased Asian American political awareness. The
massive demonstrations against US complicity in
Israeli crimes by Arab Americans. These all show rising
opposition to the Wall Street Silicon Valley New World
Order among all different strata of the American
working class.
With the voices purporting to represent the Marxist
movement having turned their back on them, the
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 163

rising anger of the American working class manifests

itself in many confused ways. Conspiracy theories,
libertarianism, and other delusions take the place of
scientific socialism. This can only be resolved by
conscious revolutionaries abandoning the protest cages
and liberal “safe spaces” and spreading the liberating
truth in places it has never been heard. The future of
socialism is getting out of “the movement” and to
the masses.
Donald Trump attempted to hijack this rising
discontent, and his racist demagogy, appealing to
bigotry and free market “might is right” neoliberal
thinking certainly took hold. But Trump failed because
he was unable to resolve the crisis. The problems
Trump claimed to address are rooted in a society of
which he is merely a creation, and of whose ideology
he is a vocal promoter. The problems facing US society
are not cultural. They do not flow from a lack of Gender
Studies courses or anti-racist trainings in workplaces.
They will not be resolved with employee stock
ownership programs or kneeling ceremonies on
Capitol Hill.
The only solution to the crisis facing US society is a
government of action that will fight for working
families. The broad masses of people, who have been
misdirected by many phonies of both the right and the
synthetic left, must demand swift government action
to resolve the crisis. The banks, factories, industries,
164 CALEB MAUPIN

and all centers of economic power must be controlled

by popular power. The chaos of the market must be
eliminated, and a rational, centrally planned economy
must emerge to replace the nightmare of capitalism in
order to ensure that growth and human progress are
unending.
The awakening of the American proletariat will be a
gradual, difficult process, but it is the only way in
which the present contradictions and the failures of
decaying imperialism can be resolved. As Marx
reminded us in his pamphlet on Louis Bonaparte:
“Proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth
century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly
interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the
apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they
deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures,
weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts, seem
to throw down their opponents only so the latter may
draw new strength from the earth and rise before them
again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from
the indefinite colossalness of their own goals — until a
situation is created which makes all turning back
impossible, and the conditions themselves call out:
Hic Rhodus, hic salta! (Here’s The Rose, Now Dance!)”
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 165

Appendix #1:
4-Point Plan to Rescue the Country
— Center for Political Innovation
We, the Center for Political Innovation, see that
urgent measures are needed to save the country from
the disaster created by the greed of billionaire bankers
and capitalists. We put forward this 4-point plan:

1. A Mass Mobilization to Rebuild the Country

Now is the time to hire the millions of unemployed
at union wages. Put them to work rebuilding the roads,
bridges, water treatment facilities, power plants,
schools, and hospitals of the country. High speed
railway must connect the Midwest and South to more
prosperous regions. The universities must be revamped
so once again we are churning out the world’s greatest
scientists and engineers.
Abrain trust of the smartest minds must be assembled
in order to lay out a detailed 5 year economic plan. The
public must be mobilized to carry it out with the full
support of the country’s resources.
166 CALEB MauUPIN

2. Public Ownership of Natural Resources

It has become clear that big corporations and banks
are not trustworthy in their management of America’s
oil, natural gas, coal, timber, and other natural
resources. As communities across the country fall into
greater poverty, Wall Street monopolists enrich
themselves from the natural wealth of American soil.
Nationalization of these resources will end the budget
deficit. The profits from America’s wealth must go to
the country overall, not into the pockets of a few
bankers. Popular power will be far more capable of
managing these resources in a sustainable and eco-
friendly way to ensure a better future in the face of the
looming climate crisis.

3. Public Control of Banking

Speculation, money created from money with no
real added value, hangs as a curse over the US economy.
The Bible, the Torah, the Koran and every major
religion historically has forbidden the lending of
money at interest because it creates an ultra-rich
creditor class, bringing the problem of monopolistic
stagnation; extreme centralization of wealth in the
hands of a few.
The lending of money should no longer be carried
out for profit, but should be done by communities and
the country overall at the local, state, and federal level.
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 167

In place of the financial sector, a National Bank as well

as many state and local banks should be created. Credit
should be assigned in accordance with an overall
economic plan, securing long term growth and
development. Interest should be paid back into the
public budget, lifting the burden of taxation from
working families.

4. An Economic Bill of Rights

In his final State of the Union address, President
Franklin Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of
Rights. The right to a job, housing, education, and
healthcare must be added to the US constitution. No
one in the country should be left hungry while so
much wealth exists. No one should be homeless in a
country with millions of empty housesand apartments.
All who can work should be hired to do useful work
building a better America. Education should be
considered a necessity for maintaining an informed
population and healthy country.

Conclusion
The crisis facing the United States, exacerbated by
the pandemic, is rooted in the capitalist system. The
US has embraced insane, libertarian neoliberal
economics. The setting up of prisons for profit, schools
for profit, and private military contractors, all while
168 CALEB MAUPIN

reducing the public budget and decreasing the quality

of life for the population. The public is viewed by the
ruling elite as an obnoxious horde to be controlled and
managed. The United States and the rest of the world
are being reduced to greater poverty, in order to ensure
that a clique of big bankers and international
monopolies can stay at the top of a global high-tech
economy. The danger of a new world war hangs over
the USA, as it threatens countries like China, Russia,
Iran, and Venezuela.
We, the Center for Political Innovation, reject this
vision for “de-growth,” a 21st Century Dark Age.
Human creativity must be unleashed to build a better
future. This 4-point plan is intended to move the USA
toward a rational socialist planned economy.
America was founded on slavery and genocide of
native people, but the legacy of ugly wars and racism
are not the only side of this country. Within US history
onecan findalonghistory of progressives. Abolitionists,
suffragists, labor unionists, peace activists, innovators,
and optimists are just as much a part of America’s
history as the war mongers and monopolists. This
progressive side of the American people must be
awakened in order to reconquer political power and
drive out the war-makers and bankers.
The current economic crisis is giving birth to a new
generation of young people who are engaging with
left-wing and revolutionary ideas in the hopes of saving
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 169

the country from the nightmare of capitalism. Those

who feel a sense of responsibility, patriotism, and
morality must take history into their hands. The time
is now.
We Need a Government of Action To Fight for
Working Families!
170 CaLEB Maurin

Appendix #2:
Note on the Political
Development of the Author
It is necessary to put this book in proper context by
providing some insight into the background of the
author and my experiences with Marxism and the
leftist milieu.
I first became interested in Marxism as a teenager
growing up in rural Ohio. In a deeply conservative
small town, my opposition to the US invasion of Iraq
and my non-conforming personality forced me to
begin investigating political topics. My mother was a
librarian who was organized into the Service Employees
International Union and went on strike with other
public employees to demand better workplace
conditions. Walking the picket lines with her as a child
also probably influenced my development, as did my
parents’ love for traditional folk music, much of which
contained leftist themes.
Regardless, as I began studying Marxism, I found
the wone of The Communist Manifesto and other texts
 BreaDTuBe ServESs IMPERIALISM 171

to be very inspiring, despite the fact that I struggled to

figure out what these texts actually meant in an
atmosphere of total confusion and disinformation
about socialism.
In 1999, as a 12-year-old child, I visited Ecuador
with my father. We came to Quito amid an economic
crisis. The neoliberal reforms imposed by the IMF and
World Bank, compounded with crop failures and the
collapse of the Asian markets, all resulted in a
devastating episode of malnutrition and mass poverty.
Hundreds of thousands of people died or fled the
country as Ecuador’s economy collapsed in a “man-
made famine” created by Neoliberalism. Seeing these
extreme conditions and economic devastation at such
a young age, despite not understanding their real
origin, most likely pointed me toward an anti-
imperialist mindset.
In the aftermath 0f9/11, I studied the work of Noam
Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Ward Churchill, and
became aware of the ugly history of US military
interventions. I had been led to believe the US went
around the world fighting for freedom and
overthrowing dictators. I soon learned that the reality
of US foreign policy in South America, Africa, Asia,
and elsewhere was quite contrary to the propaganda I
had been spoon fed. I reached out to the Communist
sects that operated in Cleveland, the nearest major US
city, and started reading their publications.
172 CaLEB MAUPIN

It was discovering the works of William Z. Foster

and other leaders of the US Communist Party during
the 1930s that truly opened my eyes to understanding
Marxism. The literature of the Communist Party USA
from this era put forward Marxist-Leninist concepts in
very plain language. I began to actively devour texts
published in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. They gave
me clear answers in a way texts written in more recent
decades when academics and middle class elements
dominated leftist discourse, did not.
As a college student I was able to become politically
active, and was quickly swept into a small Maoist
group that operated in Cleveland. They put me to
work selling their weekly newspaper on college
campuses and in African-American neighborhoods. I
discovered that I was very good at selling newspapers,
and my self-education and study enabled me to engage
with people about socialist concepts very effectively.
As I sold newspapers on a regular basis, Ilearned that
the strongest arguments in favor of socialism were
economic ones. Socialism would ensure that people
had jobs, healthcare, and education. Socialism would
ensure rational use of resources. However, as I began
making these arguments, the elderly Maoists I worked
with informed me this was “economism” and thus
unacceptable. According to them, the argument for
socialismwasabout “liberation” and “ending oppressive
relations.” They informed me that the jobs and wealth
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 173

enjoyed by many Americans was created by exploitation

of the third world and our goal was not necessarily to
expand it.
These Maoists shunned labor activism, and having
denounced China in 1976, had no relationship with
any existing socialist or anti-imperialist countries.
They focused on agitation around the issue of police
brutality and civil liberties, and often their rhetoric
was laced with profanity and violent imagery. I soon
drifted away from them.
In 2007, I joined the Workers World Party (WWP),
seeing that the group’s rhetoric was more rooted in
class struggle and that the group was supportive of
Cuba, China, Venezuela, and other countries seeking
to build socialism around the world.

The 2008 Cirisis of Capitalism

As a college student, I wrote articles for WWDP’s
weekly newspaper, and attended demonstrations in
the Cleveland area against the imperialist wars, the
mistreatment of prisoners, and police brutality. I also
convened study groups about Marxism on my college
campus and at a local leftist bookstore. Occasionally
our branch of 5 WWP members hosted national party
leaders to speak in Cleveland when they were visiting
Ohijo. I distributed WW newspapers throughout the
city, and worked hard to try and promote the
organization and its literature.
174 CALEB MAUPIN

During the first months of my involvement with

WWP, I had the opportunity to interact a number of
times and receive a mild amount of mentorship from
Leslie Feinberg. Leslie was a working-class Communist
from Buffalo and WWP member who is often noted as
the first openly Transgender activist in US history.
Leslie’s works such as Stone Butch Blues and Transgender
Warriors are treasured by trans theorists and academics.
She became ill with Lyme disease shortly afterward.
Leslie made a point of instructing me about the many
unwritten rules of WWP’s internal procedures, as well
as engaging with me about the political line of several
articles I submitted to the WW newspaper.
I received a large amount of direct mentorship from
an elderly woman in Cleveland who had been a
founding member of Workers World Party in 1959.
Born in 1928, Frances Dostal had been a member of
the Socialist Workers Party prior to the split that
established WWP. Both of her parents had been
members of the Communist Party in Brooklyn, New
York, and she had spent her childhood in the 1930s
attending Young Pioneer summer camps and Marxist
after school programs.
Frances had a way of engaging with people and
explaining Marxist-Leninist concepts in popular
language that is very rare in our time, but was common
when she was growing up. The language she used
reminded me of Woody Guthrie songs, and was very
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 175

much a remnant of time before anti-populism had

infected left-wing politics during the 1960s. This was
the language of William Z. Foster, Gus Hall, Eugene
Debs, Elizabeth Gurly Flynn, Ben Davis, Harry
Haywood, and the other activists of another era, who
built a serious revolutionary organization aimed at
reaching the broad masses and building a socialist
America.
In 2008 the US economy crashed, and I became
thoroughly convinced that Marxism should not merely
be a hobby or a personal indulgence. I studied Marx’s
Capital and other texts and became convinced that the
financial crisis was rooted in overproduction.
During this period, WWP began to encourage its
members to study the achievements of the Communist
Party during the 1930s, the unemployment councils
and hunger marches. My already existing interest in
this history peaked, and I began to devour books on
the history of the Communist Party, the history of
Trotskyism, Marxist economics, the history of the
Black Liberation movement, and all else.
I could not understand why my enthusiasm was not
matched by the older party members. They urged me
to just find a job and set up a normal life, and just treat
Marxism as a kind of side hobby. However, I could see
very well that the moment was full of great potential,
and thatI needed to throw my entirelife into organizing
the mass socialist movement that was needed. I became
176 CareB MavuPIN

well known as a Communist activist in Cleveland after

video recording an instance of police brutality outside
of Collinwood High School. I'was profiled in Cleveland
Scene magazine as “The Communist Next Door.”
In Cleveland, I directly observed the activism of an
organization called Black on Black Crime, Inc,
directed by Art Mccoy. The organization had a Black
Nationalist orientation, but it functioned as an
organizing center of the African-American community
on Cleveland’s East Side. Each Wednesday its meetings
had 50 to 70 people attending to discuss issues like
traffic light cameras, hospital closings, police brutality,
and housing affordability. The organization often
negotiated gang truces to stop violence between rival
criminal organizations.
As 1 have studied the Communist movement
around the world, I realize now that Black on Black
Crime, Inc. was the closest thing to what functioning
Communist Parties and anti-imperialist mass
movements are in other countries. The basis of effective
Marxist and revolutionary organizations, be they
Bolivarian, Baathist, or Marxist-Leninist, is their base
among the population and their ability to serve as
centers of the community. During the 1930s, the
Communist Party USA certainly played this role, and
the Black Panther Party did during the 1960s and 70s.
Currently no Communist grouping in the United
States functions in this manner as an embodiment of
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 177

community power on a local level, and this is the very

essence of the weakness of American leftism.
Living in Cleveland was simply unsustainable for me
after finishing college amid the financial crisis. After
working in many gas stations, holding many short
term low wage jobs, selling my blood plasma, and
struggling to get by, I finally did like many of my peers
and I migrated to the East Coast. I ultimately relocated
to New York City in December 02010, and continued
my activism in WWP’s national office.
The amount of dysfunction I observed was massive.
Hundreds of copies of the weekly newspaper were
thrown into the garbage each week. Phone calls from
prospective members asking to join were never
answered. While the party’s rank and file contained
many lifelong dedicated Marxist activists, the party’s
so-called leaders seemed completely uninterested in
ideology and theory.
The unelected clique at WWP’s head focused on
staging rallies around whatever the latest trendy liberal
cause was, and were often deeply unaware even of
WWP’s own history and positions on issues like gun
control. Watching theseignorant “activists” incoherently
present Marxist concepts I had worked hard to
understand, and preside over the decay of an already
nearly dead organization was infuriating for me. It was
simply not permitted to disagree with these leaders or
try to correct the party from its course of deterioration.
178 CaLEB MaurIiN

Accusations of being “un-comradely” and “working to

underminefaith in ourleaders,” often laced in allegations
of racism, sexism, or homophobia were used to silence
all who challenged the rule of a small clique of very
non-ideological individuals. The rank and file of the
party contained many dedicated, ideological baby
boomers who had learned to submit and obey over the
course of decades of declining influence. The clique
who sat at the top of the group were “activists” who had
been bequeathed the organization after the death of
Sam Marcy, the party’s charismatic founder. They could
not be voted out or removed.
WWP remains like many of the Marxist-Leninist
parties of the world today, a piece of wreckage from the
Cold War-era. It is stuck in the past, with a worldview
and strategy that do not fit contemporary events. With
an outdated worldview that its leaders did not really
understand or care about updating, WWP tailed after
whatever the liberal activists and labor bureaucracy
was doing. They hoped that they could maneuver into
securing the permit, setting up the stage, and thus
being “the vanguard” of “the movement.”
As planning for the Occupy Wall Street protests
began in August of 2011, I was able to take time off
from my job at an insurance firm and rush to evening
meetings and demonstrations. As the protests escalated,
it became clear that WWP needed to maintain some
kind of presence in the daily street clashes and
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 179

demonstrations. I moved toward becoming a full-time

activist. I was the primary and often only representative
of WWP within the Occupy Wall Street protests. I
would sell WW newspapers in Zuccotti Park, hold
WWP signs and banners, and do everything to try and
push Marxist-Leninist politics within this liberal
mobilization against austerity.

The US-NATO Destruction of Libya

The US-led NATO bombing of Libya filled me with
outrage. Prior to 2011, Libya had been the most
prosperous country on the African continent. The CIA
World Factbook listed it as having the highest life
expectancy. The Libyan government had come to
power in a socialist revolution in 1969, and used oil
revenue to build up an independent economy. The
government led by Colonel Moammar Gaddafi had
built massive infrastructure, including the world’s
largest irrigation system, the Great Man-Made River.
The population had access to healthcare, education,
guaranteed employment and a version of “universal
basic income” in the form of an oil stipend. The
revolutionary Libyan government drew its support for
people’s committees that operated in neighborhoods.
Not only had Libya raised its own people out of
poverty, but it had provided support to the Black
Panthers and other progressive forces around the world,
such as the Irish and the Palestinians. The ideology of
180 CALEB MAUPIN

the Libyan government was put forward in Gaddafi’s

“Green Book” which I studied, and found full of
interesting insights about the nature of socialism,
democracy and class relations in the Islamic world and
Africa.
Amid the Arab Spring of 2011, US intelligence
agencies began manipulating dissident elements and
smuggling weapons into Libya. In the name of “human
rights” an insurgency was fomented. The rebels lost on
the battlefield numerous times, so the USA led a
NATO bombing campaign thatdestroyed the country’s
infrastructure.
The result of the US-NATO intervention in Libya,
done supposedly for “humanitarian reasons” out of
concern for the Libyan people, has been the total
demolition of a once prosperous country. Once people
from across Africa were piling into Libya, trying to get
jobs in the prosperous oil rich socialist state. Now,
Libyans and other Africans continue drowning in the
Mediterranean Sea, trying to get to Europe, fleeing from
the devastation imposed on Libya by western capitalism.
Libyacurrently does nothaveastablecentral government.
Electricity in the country has not even been fully
restored, almost a decade after the socialist government
was overthrown. Oil exports have decreased, and
terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda have set up shop.
By no objective measure can the US-led toppling of the
Libyan government be described as improving people’s
 BREADTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 181

lives. Libya has been reduced to poverty and instability,

with a socialist government toppled.
As Libya was being bombed, there seemed to be very
little interest in opposing the bombing among the
Occupy Wall Street milieu. In fact, many of the loudest
voices within the Occupy protests even identified their
activism with the CIA sponsored “revolution” against
Gaddafi that had paved the way for the bombing and
destruction of the country.
The Trotskyites, Anarchists, and Maoists all spoke
enthusiastically about what was obviously a CIA-
funded uprising to bring down a socialist government.
When the bombing began most muttered a mild
denunciation of the NATO cruise missiles. However,
they refused to march or protest against the bombing
of Libya. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former
US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and the Nation
of Islam spoke up against the bombing. The Marxist
left was largely silent with almost all voicing support
for the “revolution” celebrated on CNN.
Even within the Workers World Party, despite our
real opposition and protest against the bombing, there
was a feeling that Libya was a “bourgeois nationalist
regime.” WW newspaper contained efforts to distance
ourselves from the socialist government of Libya that
had achieved so much for its population.
I saw Libya as a country where western capitalism
had been driven out, and a government based on
182 CALEB MAUPIN

Islamic Socialism had raised millions from poverty.

However, the voices representing WWP saw Libya as a
regime where “bourgeois nationalist forces” had taken
power, thus preventing a “real workers revolution.”
When I challenged this position, arguing that Libya
was in fact a socialist state, I discovered that the leaders
of WWP had no way of defending their position. They
would fly into a rage, because when it got down to it,
they really did not understand and could not explain
why Libya was “bourgeois nationalist” while China,
Cuba and Vietnam were “worker’s states.” This was a
bit of outdated dogma they clung to almost as an
article of religious faith. Like most ideological topics,
WWP leaders were uninterested in it, and were more
focused on tailing the liberals.
Among the rank and file of the Occupy protests,
there were many young people who did recognize that
the Libyan people were fighting against imperialism.
Many young people sleeping in Zuccotti Park tents
pointed toward Libya’s efforts to create an independent
African currency and other progressive moves, and
understood that it was the center of resistance to
empire. These young people who understood the
nature of the Libyan war, were often from midwestern
backgrounds like myself. Often they were ideologically
libertarian in their outlook.
I was perplexed as to why the “socialists” had so little
interest in defending a socialist country. But
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 183

libertarians, who hate socialism with a passion, could

see that Libya was fighting against the international
billionaire elite that rules the planet, the same elite that
is also wreaking havoc on America’s working families.
During the Occupy Wall Street protests I began
regularly appearing on international television and
radio broadcasts as a critic of US foreign policy. I was
invited to write articles for anti-imperialist websites,
and my work received a great deal of circulation. In
2013 I appeared on CNN as a representative of the
movement opposing US intervention in Syria.

What is Wrong with American Communists?

In 2013, I attended the World Festival of Youth and
Students in Quito, Ecuador. This gathering was a
momentof realawakening for me, asI met Communists
from all across the world. I was shocked to see that
these youthful cadre from Vietnam, China, Cuba,
Angola, Chile, India, Russia and other countries were
not lumpen street activists, but professional politicians
in suits and ties. They held seats in government, and
represented millions of people and entire regions.
While being professional leaders and organizers, not
middle class agitators, the Communists that I met had
not “sold out” or abandoned revolutionary principles.
They understood Marxist-Leninist ideology with far
more depth than the various leaders who dominate
184 CALEB MauriN

leftist politics in the United States. They could defend

their positions and explain world events with a very
thorough understanding of economics.
In so many of the international bilateral meetings,
we were asked: What is wrong with American
Communists? Why havent US Communists
considered developing some kind of mass proletarian
movement like Bolivarian socialism in Latin America?
Why did US Communists operate in isolation from
the masses, among a small milieu of bohemian, middle
class dissidents? Why did American communists not
present themselves as champions of the progressive
e

R,

Q "& % . AT

Communists around the world put forward an optimistic

perspective that celebrates beauty and human achievement.
Such an approach to Marxism is desperately needed in the
United States as the crisis unfolds.
 BreaDpTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 185

side of US history and invoke Abraham Lincoln,

Franklin Roosevelt, John Brown, or Harriet Tubman?
In essence, I was being asked, “why do American
Communists act so strangely? Why do American
Communists not act like successful communists in
other countries around the world? Has it not occurred
to you that the lack of a strong socialist movement in
the United States is due to this divergence from genuine
Marxist-Leninist principles and effective tactics? Why
the anti-populism?”
During this time I also visited the Islamic Republic
ofIran, Venezuela, and otheranti-imperialist countries,
and these questions constantly rang in my head. I was
seeing with my own eyes what countries that had
broken out of the domination of western capitalism
looked like. I was seeing how actual revolutionary
movements were organized. Then I would return to
the United States and look at the political left and see
something completely different.
As my career as a TV reporter and journalist
expanded, my relationship with Workers World
Party came to an end. This was a painful departure in
which I tried, fruitlessly, to leave on good terms. The
leaders of the party launched an internet smear
campaign against me, and worked very hard to
damage my career and reputation. Ironically, many
of the same smears they used against me (‘Nazbol’,
Crypto-Fascist, Class Reductionist), have been
186 CALEB MauriN

picked up by their enemies and used against them in

recent years.
Regardless, my career continued to expand and I
continued to travel around the world as a speaker at
anti-imperialist conferences. As the 2016 election
took place, my criticism of the US left became stronger
than ever.
In 2016, Donald Trump was campaigning and
speaking across the country about how working
families had been left behind. He expressed how
expensive wars were being waged on behalf of an elite,
while the needs of the people were ignored. Of course,
Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims and immigrants
repulsed me. But I could easily understand why
millions of working class Americans were attracted to
Trump’s message. Trump was speaking like a populist,
and amid his right wing demagogy he was appealing to
gut-level anti-capitalistand anti-imperialist sentiments
that were widespread among American workers.
However, from the American Communists and the
voices purporting to represent the left, I heard nothing
but scorn for the confused workers who backed Trump.
There was no attempt to engage with them about
socialism or who was really responsible for their
suffering. Like Hillary Clinton, the American
communists viewed the working class, who they
claimed to be working to liberate, as a “basket of
deplorables.”
 BreaDTUBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 187

The Need for Political Innovation

As my activism with the Workers World Party was
concluding, I noticed leftist circles continued to
become more frightening and uncomfortable. “Call
out culture” where itis considered someone’s obligation
to accuse someone else of being sexist, racist, or
transphobic, has made almostevery meeting degenerate
into an uncomfortable, accusatory argument.
I was several times informed that the term “working
class” was a “white supremacist code word.” I was told
that it was unacceptable to promote Marxism because
it is “eurocentric” and “class reductionist” but that I
should instead be promoting the work of bell hooks,
Judith Butler, and “oppression theorists” whose work
was paid for with grants from Rockefeller foundations.
The shrillness of these accusations, obviously
stemming from an attempt to purge leftwing circles of
any threat to capitalism and imperialism, has only
intensified. I have been informed that not supporting
US military intervention in Libya and later Syria is
proof that I am a “fascist.” Despite being a Marxist
who has worked for years against police brutality, 1
found myself fearing for my own personal safety as
false reports claiming that I am a white nationalist
continue to circulate. I was told that I was unwelcome
in several different leftist spaces, and I have received a
few credible threats of violence.
188 CALEB MAUPIN

Despite many attempts to silence and discredit me,

my social media reach continued to expand. Many
people were clearly hungry for what I had to say. I
continued to be approached by young activists, most
of them from similar backgrounds to mine, who shared
my critique of the problematic direction leftist politics
is moving in.
In 2016, I was invited to attend the National
Congress of the Trade Union Center of Brazil and give
a presentation on oil price manipulation. As President
Dilma Rousseff was being impeached, I spoke to a
crowd of thousands of labor activists in Brazil, exposing
the reality of the oil price drop engineered by the
Obama administration and Saudi Arabia. I made the
case for opposing privatization of Brazil’s natural
resources as rightists and advocates of Neoliberalism
have long aimed to do.
Seeing that white supremacist politics was expanding,
I began to debate and refute the fascist ideas. I formally
debated Augustus Sol Invictus in 2017 just before his
involvement in the Charlottesville events. In a debate
held at a secret location in NYC, I ripped his racist
demagogy wrapped in Libertarian Goth Edgelordism to
shreds. Many deeply appreciated me for doing this, and
saw that I was playing a valuable role by countering far-
right bigotry with the Marxist-Leninist politics I had
learned, not the politically correct “oppression theory”
being promoted on college campuses. My politics of
 BreaDTUBE ServES IMPERIALISM 189

class solidarity and anti-imperialism could effectively

challenge fascist demagogy, while liberal pandering
could not. Julian Assange tweeted out the debate to his
followers on social media, and many antifascists praised
me for effectively refuting Invictus’ ideas.
A community of thousands of people regularly watch
my YouTube live broadcasts, study my writings, watch
my videos, and engage with my ideas. I have convened
lectures in New York City that have been very well
attended by local people who are interested in socialism.
I regularly receive feedback on my work from people
located in China, Russia, Africa, Asia, South America,
and many other parts of the world.
In 2019, I published City Builders and Vandals in
Our Age, presenting a vision for 21st Century Socialism
and analyzing the nature of the global capitalist crisis
and geopolitics. The book received numerous good
reviews. Not only did hundreds of American leftists
purchase the book, but the book was widely studied in
Venezuela, Russia, and other anti-imperialist countries.
Leftists across Europe have also studied the book and
found its analysis to be very insightful.
Under these circumstances, | have determined that it
is necessary to launch a think tank that could facilitate
the new, uncommon conversation about socialism I
have engaged in. As of this printing, we are in the
process of formally launching the Center for Political
Innovation.
190 CaLEB MaupriN

While I have a comfortable job as a reporter for

international television and I am happily married
living in New York City, I am not willing to just rest on
my laurels. If anything has been made abundantly
clear to me over the course of my political development,
it is that I cannot expect others to merely step up and
do the tasks that mustbe done. History is not inevitable,
and the role of the individual can sometimes be
decisive.
Millions of American working people are suffering
and ready to fight back. Millions of young Americans
are getting interested in socialism and need direction
otherthan BreadTube’srazzledazzleand disinformation.
Many are asking, “what can I do to change the course
of history? How can I choose a life that martters?”
My vision for the Center for Political Innovation is a
mass, socialist educational think tank that will rescue
socialism from the pessimistic distortions of the
Synthetic Left, and get to the masses. I meet more and
more people each day who are interested in building it.
Many young Americans are ready to take up history’s
challenge, and I clearly have a role to play in working
with them to facilitate America’s transition to a much
more healthy and rational society.
As Nelson Peery put it: “The future is up to us.”
 BreaDTuBE SERVES IMPERIALISM 191

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192 CALEB MAUPIN

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Bebavioral Sciences, 1991
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194 CaLEB Maurin

Vaisse, Justin Zbigniew Brzezinski: Americas Grand

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1980s, 1987
 Made in the USA
Monee, IL
30 June 2021

IT
72615560R00115
 Caleb Maupin is a widely acclaimed speaker,
writer, journalist, and political analyst. He has
traveled extensively in the Middle East and in
Latin America. He was involved with the
Occupy Wall Street movement from its early
planning stages, and has been involved many
struggles for social justice. He is an outspoken
advocate of international friendship and
cooperation, as well as 21st Century Socialism.

"Inspired as much by Marx and Lenin as by Debs and

Frederick Douglas, Caleb Maupin has put forward a
uniquely American brand of socialism with provocative
Flair. Even if you don't agree with his vision, Maupin's
political imagination and daring demands atttention." -
Max Blumenthal, Journalist & Filmmaker

"Caleb's work is insightful, rooted in a strong grasp of

theory and embedded with critical analysis often
lacking in today's journalists." - Cecily Mcmillan, Activist
& Political Prisoner :

"Caleb Maupin is my favorite American correspondent.

| met him once. He called me a legend. And | call him
one." :
- George Galloway, British politician, Broadcaster &
=]

| ISBN 9798524111708

: " Imfl llgooo]“l

9 1179852411111708