How Those Using "Useful Idiots" Become "Useful Idiots"
And that's how totalitarian movements come to power: the citizens give up on the Establishment factions, as they've failed to solve the problems being exploited by extremist groups.
Useful Idiots describes those who support or encourage movements of mayhem in the misguided belief that these movements are positive or necessary. The classic example (and no, V. Lenin did not coin the phrase) are Western fellow-travelers who supported the totalitarian Soviet regime out of naivete, idealism or sentimentality.
But there is another class o…
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