They claim to be fighting for “social justice,” “black liberation,” and “black sovereignty.” Although it’s unclear how we would know when those goals are met, they promise to “burn down the system” if they don’t achieve success. But black Americans already enjoy full legal equality and civil rights protected by law. Polls reveal that police are well regarded by 70 percent of minority community members. Charges of excessive black deaths at the hands of police have been statistically debunked many times.

So what’s really going on here? BLM was founded by proud Marxists with the avowed intent of spreading Marxist ideology. In a 2015 interview, co-founder Patrice Cullors broke the code, stating “myself and Alicia [Garza] in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.” Nothing said or done since would provide cause for doubt.

Many well-intentioned Americans buy the notion that BLM is a populist movement dedicated to combatting police brutality against blacks and promoting the welfare of the black underclass. But Marxism is an ideology devoted to the destruction of democratic capitalism and the eventual triumph of the proletariat.

Like other totalitarian movements, it historically has never been that concerned with the plight of minorities. In fact, the liberals of his time were a major source of irritation to Karl Marx (liberals here meant as those dedicated to Enlightenment values like reason, liberty, and equality).

So now BLM starts to make sense. Totalitarians don’t tolerate criticism, so critics of BLM have been attacked and lost their jobs, some for simply not showing adequate enthusiasm.

If black lives mattered to BLM, they have the funding to do enormous good. They could establish community watch programs, create opportunities for black children with education initiatives like charter schools and provide rewards for the apprehension of the murderers of black children.

But that’s not their style. Their street “protests” inevitably degenerate into terrifying, demoralizing riots with looting and burning that couldn’t possibly benefit blacks. Erasing the nation’s past is in the Marxist playbook, so statues are toppled and America is denigrated even though again it has nothing to do with helping today’s blacks.

Some of the BLM‘s stated goals are nominally concerned with actual black lives, but even these include such dated nonsense as “ending the war against black people.” BLM explicitly demands the dissolution of police and prisons.

They want a “radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth through the tax code”. Then there’s that left-wing totalitarian staple, the “disruption of the western-prescribed nuclear-family-structure requirement.”

The BLM movement stands in telling contrast to the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. MLK’s followers believed their campaign was a moral witness that should be conducted with dignity. Protestors were non-violent, wore suits and ties, and didn’t allow rudeness much less pillaging.

They didn’t hate America, they wanted to be part of it in a fully realized way. Unlike today’s protesters, they faced real racism embedded in the institutions and laws of the time. But they followed their dreams, their cause was just, and in the end, they proved profoundly effective.

BLM followers share the core belief that America is irredeemably racist and therefore deserves to be destroyed. But Shelby Steele, a veteran of the civil rights movement, points out that they have to search hard for signs of actual racism, instead of resorting to complaints of “micro-aggressions” and “cultural appropriation” as well as actual hoaxes. America is always a work in progress, but it is rated among the most tolerant nations on earth.

Yet the bright future promised by the civil rights movement has so far not materialized. Instead, America has become consumed with the twin toxins of black victimhood and white guilt, which have been aggressively exploited by BLM.

BLM isn’t here to help and heal. Everything they do serves to divide us and pit Americans against each other. By their own words, they are here to destroy us unless we bend to their will.

Cheered on by wildly enthusiastic media, BLM is making great progress at undermining America both physically and spiritually. Americans must forsake virtue signaling and face reality. The stakes couldn’t be higher.