JON CALDARA: The woke mob’s ‘Reign of Terror’ moment.

During the French Revolution’s “Reign of Terror,” those accused of not being true enough to the cause were publicly beheaded. To unify the Communist Party in Russia, the Stalinist purges did much the same. Mao used the equivalent tactic with his Cultural Revolution.

It’s a tried and true technique.

People who didn’t want to get swept up in these eradications learned quickly to not just embrace the political philosophies championed by the new power structure, but to chant the new mantras louder than the person next to them. This way they can show they’ve always been on the winner’s team, and hopefully not be beheaded.

Take three minutes and watch “Crying for Kim Jong-il” on YouTube to witness this life-saving phenomenon. North Koreans take turns in front of the Great Leader’s monument to wail and bellow in grief over his recent death, each louder and more hysterical than the last. It’s a competition to see who acts the most hurt over his demise.

Looked very much like the city of Boulder when Jerry Garcia died.

Of course, this competition of staged sorrow was to prove how faithful one is to those in charge. They aren’t crying over Kim’s death. They’re crying to save their own lives. And who can blame them?

Is corporate America’s public self-flogging over Black Lives Matter all that different?

Read the whole thing.

One last thought: If you’re looking for a single word for all the various progressive, woke, and Marxist groups running rampant right now, it’s “Jacobins.”