Cancel culture Soviet comparison
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Cancel culture Soviet comparison
The Red New Deal looks at cancel culture by recalling how Soviet authorities tried to erase the “old” world, even down to discouraging traditional names that grandparents later used only in private. This small, personal detail shows how ideology could reach into everyday family life.
The book uses this example of Soviet “canceling” to show how change, when imposed from above just to break with the past, can become senseless and disruptive instead of genuinely humane or constructive. It sets the stage for comparing that mindset with modern debates about cancel culture in the West.
In brief
- The book recalls a small but telling Soviet practice: pressuring families to abandon “weird” or traditional names, effectively canceling parts of the old world and its heritage in the name of progress.
- It argues that such top‑down efforts to erase what is labeled outdated show how absurd and harmful change can become when it is pursued mainly for ideological conformity, not for real improvement.
- Later, the book compares this with Western cancel culture, describing how it aggressively polices “misinformation” and dissenting views, echoing patterns of intolerance toward opinions that fall outside an approved ideological line.
What to do
In The Red New Deal, Soviet‑era “cancel culture” is shown through concrete, everyday details rather than abstract theory. One example is the pressure on parents to stop giving children traditional names that no longer matched the new ideological fashion. By the 1960s and 1970s, this trend with so‑called “weird” names had mostly faded, but the memory of grandparents using them quietly stayed as a reminder of how politics could intrude into private choices.
The author uses this anecdote to argue that canceling the “outdated” world for its own sake leads to ridiculous and often senseless change. When the real goal is ideological uniformity, not better lives, even something as personal as a child’s name can become a target. This helps readers see how mechanisms of conformity, fear, and self‑censorship can operate under socialism, not only through formal censorship but also through social pressure and signaling.
From there, the book draws a line to modern Western cancel culture, describing how it “ferociously fights” what it labels misinformation and targets opinions that do not align with progressivism. According to the author, dissenting opinions and even “dissenting facts” that arise from logic or economic reality, rather than from state or elite narratives, become prime targets. This comparison is meant to prompt readers to think critically about how power, ideology, and public shaming can function across very different times and systems.
What to keep in mind
This perspective may resonate with readers who find current cancel culture debates confusing and polarized and who prefer concrete stories over academic theory. The Red New Deal offers a first‑hand, experience‑based look at how social pressure worked under real socialism, then uses that lens to comment on present‑day dynamics in Western democracies.
The book is especially relevant if you are looking for clear parallels between modern social shaming and Soviet‑style efforts to control what is considered acceptable. It highlights how both Soviet practices and Western cancel culture can stigmatize views labeled as outdated, deviant, or misinformed, and how that stigma can encourage conformity and self‑censorship in public and private life.
At the same time, this is not a neutral textbook or a balanced policy report. The author is openly critical of socialism, progressivism, and the behavior of certain U.S. political and law‑enforcement institutions, including references to the “Russian hoax,” FISA abuse, and actions against President Trump. Readers who want a strictly detached or bipartisan treatment should know that the book presents a strong, polemical argument.