The Absurd New Red Scare: A Misinformation Campaign is Exploiting the Na?ve

Recently, Chip Wilson, a well-known successful businessman in Vancouver, put up a sign outside his home calling the NDP “communists” (yes, in quotes). Now, it's one thing to have political disagreements, but to label a mainstream political party in Canada as “communist” is more than just a wild exaggeration—it's a symptom of a larger problem. This kind of rhetoric has been bubbling up in the far-right corners of conspiracy forums, podcasts, and media channels like the ones once made famous by the disgraced Alex Jones. And now, it’s inching its way into public discourse.

This isn’t just a case of one person misusing a term. What we're seeing is the resurgence of a Cold War-era tactic—calling anyone who supports any public welfare policies a “communist.” It’s absurd, and it reveals that many people tossing around this word have no idea about its history or its implications. Just a few generations after the original Red Scare, when people were blacklisted and lives were ruined over accusations of communism, you’d think we’d be smarter about throwing around such labels. But here we are, 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the word “communist” is back, used by people who seem to have no understanding of what it even means.

The Rise of Misinformation: Putin’s Playbook

This isn’t a random cultural phenomenon. There’s a deliberate disinformation campaign behind this, and it’s coming from none other than Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. We’ve learned in recent months that Russian-backed organizations, like Tenet Media, have been funneling millions into far-right conspiracy sites and disinformation campaigns in an effort to divide Western countries. The goal is to undermine the cohesion we’ve had in standing up to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2014, and especially since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

The disinformation machine works by preying on those who are either too foolish or too ill-informed to know better. When right-wing influencers start labeling every public service as “communism,” they're not just peddling ridiculous ideas—they're spreading narratives that weaken our political systems. It's a play right out of Putin's playbook: get people to distrust their own government and pit them against each other over imaginary threats.

How Naivety Fuels Division

The real tragedy here is that people are buying into this nonsense. They don’t know the history of communism, and they certainly don’t understand its political theory or its historic applications. They just hear the word and parrot it because it’s convenient. It’s easier to shout “communist” than it is to have an informed discussion about economic policy or public health initiatives.

These people are being played. They're falling into the same trap as those who believed in outlandish conspiracy theories during the Cold War—except now, they’re doing it in a world where the actual threat of global communism has largely disappeared. What’s left is Putin’s calculated campaign to destabilize Western democracies, and it's working because too many people are willing to wield labels they don’t understand.

Trump and the Kremlin Connection

On top of all this, we're now seeing that Donald Trump has continued to align himself with Russian interests since his election loss. According to a recent New York Times article, Trump has maintained contact with Putin, taking cues from him on how to disrupt U.S. politics. If you think about it, the same kind of rhetoric—labeling opponents as communists or socialists—has been a key part of Trump's playbook as well.

What we're witnessing is part of a broader pattern. People who are already susceptible to conspiracy theories because of their personal fear of change and a lack of historical understanding, have latched onto this term "communist" without grasping its meaning. It’s a convenient label, thrown around to discredit policies or political opponents they disagree with. The irony is, of course, that most of these policies are far removed from anything resembling communism.

This isn't an isolated phenomenon. It's part of a deliberate, well-funded campaign by foreign actors like Russia to destabilize Western societies. Putin’s disinformation machine has found fertile ground among those who are eager to believe in grand conspiracies. And it works because it taps into ignorance.

The tragedy is that by adopting these terms out of ignorance, people are unknowingly playing into the hands of those who seek to divide and weaken our democracies. It’s a tactic that worked during the Cold War, and unfortunately, it’s working again. Those who wield the word “communist” without understanding its history or political theory only end up looking foolish, while furthering a narrative designed to undermine the very society they claim to defend.