Communists

What other New York Mayor has been as loyal to his mother’s — in this case, very subversive — politics?

Yikes, the recent reports of Bill de Blasio as one “Warren Wilhelm Jr.” were news to me (even as news of his name change was first reported several years ago). Such was the birth name bestowed by his mother, whose maiden name was Maria de Blasio, and his father, Warren Wilhelm Sr., who tragically killed himself when Bill was 18 years old. The parents had bitterly divorced long before that, and the young Warren had steadily pulled away from his father as he was raised by his mother and her Italian family. He identified with them and eventually took her family’s name. It really is a sad story. Bill de Blasio had a tough upbringing.

When communism collapsed in Europe 30 years ago, it seemed vanquished. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics turned out to be none of those things and broke into 15 independent countries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, McDonald’s replaced Marx, and no one argued anymore that real communism still hadn’t been tried.

Conservatives want us to learn about the red menace

One of the more egregious failures on the part of educators on both sides of the Atlantic over the past 50 years has been their omitting to teach several generations of young people about the communist regimes of the 20thcentury. Now I understand that classroom time is limited, and that these days especially it is very important to decolonise Peppa Pig or whatever, but even so.

That the systems that held entire populations captive, and which enslaved and killed millions, and were run by little men who were worshipped as gods, are deemed too trivial to study is really quite remarkable.