If I were a progressive idealogue, these are the kinds of books and authors I would include in an essential reading list. The ideas contained herein would lay the foundation for progressive thinking.

• Anything from Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels. Include Trotsky and Lenin as well. These are essential for implanting the idea that everything is a binary class struggle. These books would develop not just the economics of Marxism, but the cultural aspects as well. You will need these to develop into a good Communist. 
• Anything from Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was an early “sexologist” who promoted homosexuality, gender theory and transgender surgeries. As a gay man himself, Hirschfeld is widely considered to be an early advocate of LGBTQ rights, and it’s important to study the genesis of ideas.
• Art is also important. For the artistically inclined, I would include post-modern works of the Dada sort. Bauhaus school stuff. Ugly. Empty. Nihilistic. The idea that anything can be art, and art does not have to convey beauty or skill, is very Marxist in nature.
• Albert Einstein. A good progressive “trusts the science” and thus science would need to be included in the curriculum. More importantly, Einstein was a proponent of progressive one-world government, earning him “approved scientist” status. Nations are an “infantile disease” according to Einstein.
• Sigmund Freud. His works deeply explored ideas of perversion, infant sexuality, and sexual aberrations. Many know Freud as the psychoanalyst guy, and not much else. He’s actually quite important as modern psychology is built off of his back. He vehemently opposed religion and traditional culture and earned the moniker of the “Black Mass of Western Science.”
• Margaret Sanger’s works. Abortion and eugenics go against everything that is traditional and conservative.
• And as a catch-all, I would include the teachings of Frankfurt School academics. The Frankfurt School was responsible for subversively introducing many of these ideas into American academia.

I am not a progressive. But if I was, the works of these individuals would be essential reading. In 2022 America, conservatives are fighting against the push to implement these ideas into public education, often against the accusations of “censor” and “book burner.” And as evidenced by recent Virginia elections, it is a hot issue. These concerns are at the front and center of American politics. But current American politics are not the point of this article. And this list is not merely a starter-kit for progressives. There was another nation that fought back against these ideas…

The National Socialists of Germany burned the books of these authors.   

Everyone knows that the National Socialists burned books, but you rarely hear anyone talk about what books they burned and why. If you ask the average person, they may say that they were burning Bibles. There is no evidence of that (yes, I understand the irony of not having “evidence” of a burned book. Work with me here. There’s enough first-hand evidence of what books they actually burned). That also makes zero sense in the context of what the National Socialists were fighting against.

Others may say that the National Socialists were destroying works of culture. I guess they were. They were purging what they saw as degenerate culture from their society. Modern LGBTQ advocates say that the National Socialists were anti-LGBTQ bigots. That would also be correct. From a modern lens, it seems like the world went LGBTQ-crazy 10 or 15 years ago. We literally fight wars over this now. But this stuff didn’t just appear out of nowhere. Weimer Germany was dealing with the same issues in the 1930’s.  

Weimer Germany was not just economically ravaged. Things like hyperinflation, punitive trade barriers and Versailles grievances are often given as the main reasons for the rise of the mustache guy and his party. But that is only part of the story. And to understand history, you need to view the entire puzzle. Cultural issues were an extremely important factor. The creeping Marxism and degeneracy of the 1930’s did not grow organically. There is plenty of reason to see why the Germans would believe that these ideas were being forced on them.

From the German point of view, the economic policies were forced on them by outside agents. Why wouldn’t cultural policies be the same? You can draw parallels to today – people like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi didn’t all of the sudden believe that there are 274 genders when they were in their 70’s. And in Weimer, it wasn’t just books and ideas that sprung up out of nowhere. Gay brothels, transgender clinics, post-modern art galleries and abortion clinics also appeared out of the blue. Today’s conservatives are also against these things, especially if they’re being forced on children.

Here’s another parallel: the National Socialists burned the books of a mentally challenged progressive who promoted communism and globalist talking points. Wait a minute, Greta Thunberg won’t be born for another 60 years, who am I talking about? I’m referring to Helen Keller.

Burning the books of Helen Keller is often used as an example of why the National Socialists were pure evil. How could they be so cruel to the handicapped? Nobody puts much thought into this, but if you think about it for more than 3 seconds, it falls apart. Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind since infancy. She did not have political views, let alone write books (Wikipedia lists Keller as an author. Seriously, I can’t make this up). Keller’s handler was Anne Sullivan, and if you look into her history, it all starts to make sense. Sullivan was a radical Communist who used Keller to voice communist propaganda. Often targeted towards German school children. Exploiting the handicapped has always been a tried-and-true tactic of the Marxists.   

If you’re a conservative in 2022, it’s not hard to see why the National Socialists wanted this material out of their society. So, should “book burner” still be perceived as a pejorative? It’s always used by the modern left to describe anyone who wants Drag Queen Story Hour or Anti-Racist Baby out of their children’s environment. Is book burner a label that conservatives should own? Not all material is appropriate for all ages, but progressives may disagree. Either way, it is scary how similar today is to pre-WW2 Germany.

Frankly, I’m tired of talking about World War II. It seems like the average American can only make one historical analogy, and it’s always the Second World War (sadly, even that is getting replaced by fiction, i.e., Star Wars and Harry Potter parallels). But if you are going to perpetually circle back to WW2, you need to get the story right. World War II was one of the most destructive events in human history. And if you truly believe in “never again,” you cannot just look at 50% of the problem. And you need to stop viewing events in cartoonish good vs. evil narratives. History isn’t that simple.

Progressives always shriek about a post-apocalyptic nightmare where a right-wing dictator rises and plunges the country into despotism. Conservatives ridicule this as alarmist nonsense, but maybe they should look at the situation more closely. Every nation, every culture and every person does ultimately draw a line somewhere. Many draw that line at children. We have already seen isolated cases where our government has overtaken parental rights on transgender issues. How long before this becomes widespread? If this does become widespread, what would the right-wing backlash look like?

History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. It is scary how similar 2022 America is to Weimer Germany, and I pray that we never see history rhyme in the same ways.