Tea at Trianon: The Green Movement’s Red Roots

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

The Green Movement’s Red Roots

From Direct Line News:

The modern Green movement likes to brand itself as the enlightened successor to the civil rights movement or the labor reforms of the 20th century. But scratch beneath the glossy “save the planet” slogans, and you find something much darker: the fingerprints of communism all over again, dressed up in green paint.
The left insists that radical environmentalism is about protecting the Earth for future generations. They say it’s “nonpartisan” and “based on science.” Yet, anyone who has studied history knows that totalitarian ideologies rarely march under their true banner. Yesterday it was red flags and hammers and sickles; today it’s wind turbines and solar panels. The end goal remains the same—control.
Communism has always thrived on manufacturing crises. Marx conjured up class struggle as the existential crisis of his age. Lenin, Stalin, and Mao built their regimes on the idea that only centralized planning could rescue humanity from economic ruin. The Green movement uses the same playbook—this time, the crisis is climate change. Their message is stark: surrender your freedom, your prosperity, and your choices—or the planet burns. Conveniently, their solution always requires more government power, more bureaucratic oversight, and fewer individual liberties.
Look no further than the policies championed by today’s climate radicals. Bans on gas stoves, forced transitions to electric vehicles, restrictions on farming, and the war on affordable energy are not acts of conservation—they’re acts of coercion. In practice, these policies strangle the middle class while enriching elites who invest in “green tech” companies subsidized by taxpayers. Who benefits most when America kneecaps its energy sector? China, the same regime that controls the global solar supply chain and most of the rare earth minerals needed for wind and battery production. (Read more.)