Anna Morgan-Lloyd, the 49-year-old grandmother from Indiana who strolled into the U.S. Capitol and spent several minutes peacefully walking around, got the same message that was delivered to Chinese dissidents and "bad elements" during Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: confess to thoughtcrimes, embrace the state-sanctioned ideology, and you will be shown mercy.  In the case of Morgan-Lloyd, the message was delivered to her by her own defense lawyer, a public defender paid by taxpayers.  And it worked.  She received three years' probation, a $500 fine, and no incarceration beyond the two days she had spent in jail following her arrest.

Julie Kelley describes at American Greatness the imposition of an ideological test on a defendant whose own lawyer was in on the brainwashing initiative:

"My lawyer has given me names of books and movies to help me see what life is like for others in our country. I've learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street."

That passage is part book report, part white privilege mea culpa submitted to a federal court this month by Anna Morgan-Lloyd, one of the more than 500 Americans arrested for her involvement in the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Her lawyer, Heather Shaner, also represents other 1/6/21 defendants and apparently is recommending the thought reform confessions to other clients:

In an interview with Huffington Post, Shaner explained her belief that "this is the most wonderful country in the world, it's been great for all kinds of immigrant groups, except for the fact that it was born of genocide of the Native Americans and the enslavement of people." 

Sure sounds like Critical Race Theory to me.

"I have had many political and ethical discussions with Anna Lloyd," Shaner wrote in her motion agreeing to the plea and probation for Lloyd. "I tendered a booklist to her. She has read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Just Mercy, and Schindler's List to educate herself about 'government policy' toward Native Americans, African Americans and European Jews. We have discussed the books and also about the responsibility of an individual when confronting 'wrong.'"

Shaner also told the court that Lloyd watched the "Burning Tulsa" documentary on the History Channel as well as "Mudbound," a story of two families, one black and one white, living on the same property after World War II.

Just affirm that this is an awful, racist country and that you are the beneficiary of white privilege, and you can escape lengthy imprisonment for "parading" in the Capitol.  While others at other times have invaded and disrupted hearings, and wrought far more havoc (the Kavanaugh hearings, for example) with little or no punishment at all, and certainly no requirements for thought reform

This moment is straight out of a struggle session in China during the Cultural Revolution (which closed schools and tore down statues — sound familiar?):

During her sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Lloyd broke down while apologizing for her actions. "I apologize to the court, to the American people, to my family," she told Lamberth. "I was there to support Trump peacefully and am ashamed that it became a savage display of violence." She said she's never experienced racial negativity but "realizes many people do." She was not charged with any racially motivated crime.

"Savage display of violence"?  Yeah, there were some people who broke windows and forced their way into the Capitol, and that is very, very bad, deserving prison time.  But the only person against whom violence was perpetrated was demonstrator Ashli Babbitt, and the cop who shot her dead is being protected, his name kept from the public.  For violence to be "savage," don't living people need to be harmed?

Back during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the required reading list was much shorter: Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, The Thoughts of Chairman Mao.

Photo released by Chinese news agency in 1969, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 license.

Those people were ordinary peasants.  For people with bad class origins, or who were tainted by education overseas, it was much worse.  In the early 1980s, I interviewed a Chinese scientist who had gotten a Ph.D. at Indiana University working on the study of DNA with Watson and Crick, who discovered the double-helix.  The eminent scientist was paraded in public, wearing a dunce cap, pelted with garbage, and had his arm broken.

We're not there yet, but our foes are still gathering momentum.  At least the Thoughts of President Biden will be a very short book.

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