"Woke" Imperialism

I just found this jewel of a paragraph, giving a nutshell version of the story of Gloria Steinem, the CIA's official "Feminist" since the 1960's.

"The CIA was heavily invested in mid-twentieth-century art and cultural production through the Congress of Cultural Freedom (CCF), and was involved in the noncommunist Left more broadly, much to the chagrin of conservatives at the time.9 The CCF’s tendrils were seemingly end­less, even reaching the preeminent postcolonial writer Derek Walcott.10 The CIA was consistent in its anti-communism, but it was never conservative. The feminist Gloria Steinem went so far as to characterize the CIA as “liberal, nonviolent and honorable.”11 Steinem would know—she freely admitted to working with the CIA through a front organization called the Independent Research Service.12 The CIA’s Harry Lun encouraged her to become the face of the organization, sending her to lead a group which would disrupt pro­ceedings at the Marxist Vienna Youth Festival in 1959, and later to Helsinki in 1962.13 These affiliations were hardly a problem for Steinem on the left; she long served as an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America until such positions were abolished in 2017.14 The DSA officially condemned Steinem a year later in 2018 in its magazine—not for being a CIA agent, but rather for her insinuation that young women supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton because “the boys are with Bernie.”

 In this article, whose thesis I generally agree with, though I'm not 100% happy with.

I had not the courage to speak out against Steinem when I was at the DSA Convention in 2009 and the annual vote on Steinem was taken.  (It was immediately unanimously approved.)  I learned of her CIA history while reading a Nation obituary of Ellen Willis, who wrote an expose of her.  Willis adopted the designation Pro Sex Feminist to distinguish herself from the adamantly antiporn (one of those who would ban all nude magazines, as "objectifying women") feminists like Steinem.  This puts a whole different spin on Steinem's brief employment as a Playboy worker which enabled her to write a cutting denunciation of the venture.  It would be fairly obvious she joined the club specifically for that purpose, much as she had joined the Marxist Vienna Youth Festival in 1959.

I remain a fan of Hugh Hefner (and fondly remember my one visit to a Playboy Club (in Vegas, 2009)... I wish they were in every neighborhood, it was top shelf) while appreciating most Hefner's earlier days, the 1960's, when the Playboy magazine published the work of Seymour Hersch and others, exposing the monstrosity of the Vietnam War, which the magazine openly opposed.   After Steinem's attacks, the tone of Playboy media shifted over time.  In the final season of The Girls Next Door (2008) we learn that Bridget has a brother fighting in the War in Iraq, who finishes his deployment and visits the mansion before returning home.  The show is very careful never to praise or criticize the war, though Bridget herself speaks in the usual terms "fighting for our freedom" perhaps only once.   Hefner concludes the episode saying God Bless America.

Anyway, after merely ranting against Hefner, Steinem had a meteoric rise to the top as the leading voice of American Feminism.  THE one the CIA/Media always quotes.  This also suggests that nearly every "leading" American cultural personality, including the lefter personalities, is really a CIA asset.  They were the ones of their kind who could most well steer clear of effective criticism of American Empire, along with whatever schtick they do, to be continually promoted in the CIA/Media.  Such personalities often have a suspicious and dramatic fall at the end, like Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison, possibly at the time they are beginning to feel independent of the machine.  

And that's just the beginning.