I was scanning Twitter recently and saw conservative commentator John Cardillo tweet about a local Florida publication that physically printed a glowing profile of communism. It wasn’t your typical whitewashing of communism, mind you. It was a column geared towards kids.

I hunted down the digital column and traced it back to The Conversation- a self-described nonprofit with the motto “academic rigor, journalistic flair.” The Conversation’s U.S. division printed the disturbing piece entitled What is a communist, and what do communists believe?, as part of their Curious Kids series inspired by a question from a 10-year-old. The piece was written by Michigan State University Associate Professor of History Amanda Smith. Nowhere in her piece did she mention the horrors inflicted by communist regimes.

Unsurprisingly, this drivel was syndicated by major outlets like SFGate and the Houston Chronicle and posted on Michigan State University’s website.

Let’s carefully dissect the most egregious claims Professor Smith made in her column.

Lie #1 - “Communism has long been controversial, and in the U.S. today, reputable sources disagree about it.”

The truth: There is agreement among reputable historians that socialism, a derivative of communism, leads to untold misery, poverty, and death. The mass murder of over 100 million people globally is hard to refute and deny, unless you’re a denier of democide–the government-sanctioned murder of people witnessed under collectivist societies. Those who whitewash........

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