{"id":30133,"date":"2020-03-22T19:22:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T19:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=30133"},"modified":"2020-03-23T01:42:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T01:42:47","slug":"fellow-travelers-useful-idiots-or-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=30133","title":{"rendered":"Fellow Travelers, Useful Idiots, or Both?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' 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href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/fellow%20traveler\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Merriam-Webster definition<\/a> of a <strong>fellow traveler:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>:&nbsp;a person who sympathizes with and often furthers the ideals and program of an organized group (such as the Communist party) without membership in the group or regular participation in its activities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>broadly<\/em>:&nbsp;a sympathetic supporter of another&#8217;s cause <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Useful_idiot\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Useful idiot:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong> In&nbsp;political jargon, a&nbsp;useful idiot&nbsp;is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause&#8217;s goals, and who is cynically used by the cause&#8217;s leaders <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Soviet Union made great use of both fellow travelers and useful idiots. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/uk\/2017\/05\/fellow-travellers-and-useful-idiots\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This article by John Gray<\/a> in the British publication New Statesman goes into great detail about them. Fellow travelers willfully ignore the misdeeds of these authoritarian states while praising their successes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just like the former Soviet Union, China goes to great lengths to make use of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/editorials\/archives\/2019\/06\/16\/2003717007\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fellow travelers<\/a> and apologists. They also use their growing economic clout to discourage criticism of their regime, its policies, and its practices. One merely needs to look at how they forced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/07\/sports\/basketball\/nba-china-hong-kong.html\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA <\/a>to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/10\/31\/774985504\/the-nba-and-hong-kong-protests\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">kow-tow<\/a> to them over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/11\/11\/china-response-to-nba-hong-kong-tweet-was-violation-of-us-sovereignty-rice.html\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticism <\/a>of their actions in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It appears now that they are using Democrat politicians like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and former <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ben_Rhodes_(White_House_staffer)\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Obama advisor Ben Rhodes<\/a> to stifle criticism of their response to COVID-19 as the following tweets make clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We need to bring people together to fight Coronavirus.<br><br>Blaming China may seem like good politics, but it doesn\u2019t solve anything, or mitigate the Trump Administration\u2019s failures.<br><br>Calling it the \u201cChinese virus\u201d only breeds disunity, discrimination and division.<br><br>Enough already.<\/p>\u2014 Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepAdamSchiff\/status\/1241504277048238080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 21, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No other country on Earth calls it the China virus. Hard to overstate how dumb, racist and pointless this must look from abroad &#8211; like Trump\u2019s entire presidency. Damage to US standing incalculable.<\/p>\u2014 Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brhodes\/status\/1241361327903240194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 21, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the overwhelming evidence that the Chinese Community Party and President Xi Jinping have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chinas-coronavirus-diplomacy-11584744628?mod=searchresults&amp;page=1&amp;pos=5\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">done <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/beijings-coronavirus-propaganda-blitz-goes-global-f2bc610c-e83f-4890-9ff8-f49521ad6a14.html\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">everything <\/a>in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/14\/world\/asia\/china-ren-zhiqiang.html\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">power <\/a>to cover up their own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/how-it-all-started-chinas-early-coronavirus-missteps-11583508932?mod=searchresults&amp;page=2&amp;pos=12\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complicity <\/a>in the spread of COVID-19, the question remains whether Schiff and Rhodes are fellow travelers, useful idiots, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> The New York Times has an excellent interactive graphic showing the spread of COVID-19. It is entitled <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/03\/22\/world\/coronavirus-spread.html\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How the Virus Got Out<\/a><\/em> and is worth watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the Chinese government imposed travel restrictions, it is estimated that 7 million people can and went from Wuhan which was the epicenter. Let me repeat &#8211; 7 million people left Wuhan after the first cases were discovered and thousands upon thousands were already infected.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam-Webster definition of a fellow traveler: :&nbsp;a person who sympathizes with and often furthers the ideals and program of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5167,1787,5166,5051,5164,3370,5165],"class_list":["post-30133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ben-rhodes","tag-china","tag-chinese-communist-party","tag-coronavirus","tag-fellow-travelers","tag-rep-adam-schiff","tag-useful-idiots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30133"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30136,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30133\/revisions\/30136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}