Is a prediction from a former KGB agent playing out today? … a four-step process to undermine our way of life … Charles Sizemore’s next election prediction

Most of the American politicians, media, and educational system trains another generation of people who think they are living at the peacetime.

False.

United States is in a state of war: undeclared, total war against the basic principles and foundations of this system.

That comes from Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB agent, propaganda agent for Novosti Press, and Soviet Union defector who fled to Canada in 1970.

In 1984, Bezmenov sat down with G. Edward Griffin for an interview titled “Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press.” It’s gone on to become a well-known discussion in which the former KGB agent detailed the Soviet Union’s plan to topple the United States – not through overt warfare, but rather, through a slow, methodical process of psychological subversion and demoralization. You can find a link to the full interview on YouTube.

Bezmenov described it as a “great brainwashing.” In his own words:

What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

Stepping back, we’re just over two months away from the presidential election

As I write, Vice President Kamala Harris has a slight lead in the polls over former President Donald Trump.

Now, there are countless ways we might analyze the race and its potential impacts, including the investment angle. To that end, tomorrow and Saturday, we’ll be featuring a “Digest Takeover” by Charles Sizemore from The Freeport Society.

Charles is one of our most popular guest contributors, whose analysis blends the political and investment worlds. If you’re a regular Digest reader, you’ll recall that in November, he predicted that President Biden would be replaced by a “shadow candidate.”

Tomorrow and Saturday, Charles will elaborate on his latest prediction: an “election shock” that has the potential to roil the investment markets, not to mention our nation’s social cohesion.

Today, in preparation for Charles’ essays, let’s look beyond the outcome of November’s election. After all, regardless of who wins, the unfortunate consequence will likely be deep resentment from the losing side.

Have you wondered how we got here? Looking more broadly, have you wondered why we’re so divided as a nation?

Pew Research reports that the percentage of Democrats and Republicans that hold unfavorable views of the opposing party has doubled since 1994. Meanwhile, those who hold very unfavorable views of the opposing party clocks in at record highs.

Why?

Bezmenov’s interview from 1984 provides a chilling answer. And while it’s certainly not the sole explanation, it’s fascinating to consider.

But let’s explore it together and you can decide for yourself.

It’s less “James Bond,” and more “ideological subversion”

When I think of nations engaging in subversion tactics, it brings to mind shadowy figures making backroom deals… tense moments where the fate of a coup hangs in the balance… breathless espionage at a world-class level.

According to Bezmenov, this isn’t how it works:

Ideological subversion is the process which is legitimate, overt, and open. You can see it with your own eyes. All you have to do, all American mass media has to do, is to unplug their bananas from their ears, open up their eyes, and they can see it.

There is no mystery, there is nothing to do with espionage. I know that espionage intelligence gathering looks more romantic. It sells more deodorants through advertising, probably. That’s why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond-type of thrillers.

But in reality, the main emphasis of the KGB is not in the area of intelligence at all.  According to my opinion, and the opinion of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15 percent of time, money and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85 percent is a slow process, which we call…ideological subversion.

Bezmenov described a four-stage process.

The first stage is called “demoralization.” Apparently, this requires at least 15 to 20 years because that’s the minimum time required to re-educate one generation of students away from its nation’s prior core ideologies. The more time that passes, the more generations that follow suit, the greater the collective demoralization.

Bezmenov claimed this process was well underway back in 1984:

Marxism–Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism, American patriotism. The result, the result you can see.

Most of the people who graduated in the ’60s, drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, educational system.

You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated.

Destabilize, then create a crisis

Once demoralization has begun to erode traditional ideologies, belief systems, and social norms, Bezmenov said “destabilization” is up next.

He suggested this takes two-to-five years, with the goal being to destabilize the essential structures and social institutions of a nation: think the economy, education, foreign policy, religion, defense…

Whether Bezmenov is right or wrong, today, it’s easy to look at our nation and find examples of growing destabilization.

There’s the growing political polarization of our citizens… our K-shaped economy… the declining marriage rate… the plummeting birth rate…conflicting views on the Israeli/Hamas war… the housing market that’s now inaccessible to millions of Americans… the coming insolvency of Social Security (not to mention our government) … the record levels of mistrust in the media… cancel culture… the failure of our armed forces to meet recruiting goals… the rapid decline in citizens who consider themselves “religious” … the surge in citizens self-describing as “depressed” … the near-record low of people who self-describe as being very/extremely proud to be American…

The third stage is crisis. Bezmenov referenced it as “a violent change of power, structure, and economy.”

You could argue we’ve already had a succession of smaller crises in just the last handful of years.

The Covid Pandemic… the ensuing economic lockdowns… the wave of social protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death… the aftermath of the 2020 election and January 6^th Capitol riots…

And, of course, the potential for another such crisis following November’s election (we’ll circle back to this with Charles’s help on Friday and Saturday).

Finally, the last stage is normalization

This is when the subversion is complete, and the country now lives under a new ideology.

Now, let’s pause…

While it’s fascinating to look at some of our nation’s current challenges through the prism of Bezmenov’s commentary, is this anything other than a boogeyman?

Answering that fairly and objectively would require far more space than we have in today’s Digest. But for a quick sense of things, let’s investigate the beliefs of our younger generations. After all, they’re the ones most likely to be reflecting a multi-decade process of intentional ideological shift.

Here’s the Acton Institute. Keep in mind, this comes from 2020, so the statistics have likely grown since then:

The number of young Americans who have a favorable view of Marxism has increased five-fold in just one year.

According to the new survey, nearly one-third of the members of Gen Z – Americans between the ages of 16 and 23 – deem “Marxism” worthy of support. The term’s favorability has skyrocketed to 30% among Gen Z respondents, up from 6% in 2019.

Gen Z’s approval of socialism also crept up nine points since last year (49% favorable in 2020, compared to 40% in 2019) …

The article goes on to explain its theory on the growing popularity: one, many Americans are ignorant to what socialism has historically meant definitionally; two, many Americans are ignorant about socialism’s impact on the world in the 20^th century.

Back to the Acton Institute:

As Simon van Zuylen-Wood explained in New York magazine last March, “the word [socialism] had lost its meaning by the time it got hot again.”

Thus, 31% of [survey] respondents say they believe that socialism “means a free market economy with private property” in which “the government provides ample social welfare benefits, as in many Scandinavian and Western European countries” …

One in three said socialism meant the government would “end poverty and provide basic things” …

The [survey] finds that 32% of Americans “think that Donald Trump is responsible for the deaths of more people” than North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Twice as many Americans (64%) “say they are unaware that the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for more deaths than Nazi Germany.”

(If your world history is rusty, reports estimate that between 40 – 70 million Chinese died under Mao’s regime, compared with roughly 17 – 20 million people under Hitler.)

And how might Bezmenov respond to such beliefs?

Back to his interview in 1984:

Educate yourself, understand what is going on around you.

You are not living in a time of peace. You are in a state of war and you have precious little time to save yourself. You don’t have much time, especially if you are talking about young generation… Very soon it will go, just overnight…

I know it sounds unpleasant. I know Americans don’t like to listen to things which are unpleasant, but I have defected not to tell you the stories about such idiocy as microfilm James Bond-type espionage. This is garbage. You don’t need any espionage anymore.

I have come to talk about survival. It’s a question of survival of this system.

What do you think?

Are we living through what Bezmenov described 40 years ago? Or are we simply experiencing growing pains as our nation evolves?

Given your answer, what will be the impact of today’s social division on American society? Tying to our central focus here in the Digest, what about the impact on the investment markets? Let us know your thoughts at Digest@InvestorPlace.com.

Meanwhile, be on the lookout for tomorrow’s and Saturday’s Digests that will focus more on the presidential race, Charles’s “election shock,” and what it could mean for your portfolio.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg