If you needed more evidence that the United States is in full self-destruct mode, you got it last week when it was announced that former Vice President Al Gore had sold his failed cable talk network Current TV to Al Jazeera for $500 million.

Gore wasn’t the only partner in Current TV, so he is expected to reap only about $70 million, but that’s a pretty hefty haul for a guy who was worth under $2 million when he ran for president in the year 2000. Nor can you attribute the big cash infusion to his brilliance as an entrepreneur. Current TV was a dismal failure in all regards, and has practically no market value as an economic engine.

However, as a propaganda outlet for the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida and extreme Islam, it is priceless. The name Al Jazeera literally means The Peninsula in Arabic, and it is a reference to the Arabian Peninsula, where it is based in Qatar. But Al Jazeera America, as Current TV will be renamed when it begins programming from its New York headquarters, should really be nicknamed “The Beachhead” because it is a bold incursion of anti-U.S. propaganda directly into the homes of millions of Americans.

Of course, “progressives” like Al Gore don’t recognize any distinction between the United States and the rest of the world. They believe that truth is “relative” and that it will be a good thing when ultimately a global “brotherhood of man” replaces nations and, as John Lennon wrote, “the world will live as one.”

This notion of one-world government has been tried before. Hitler was a big proponent of it, as was Stalin, but not surprisingly the unification that they attempted did not have anything to do with brotherhood. It was all about manipulation, oppression and prevarication. But though their propaganda worked to persuade some people that they were only interested in “living life in peace,” very few Americans were ever fooled by them. There was a nearly united front against the forces of anti-Americanism. Indeed, strange as it sounds today, we even had representatives in Congress who investigated un-American activities in order to keep us safe.

No, that could never happen nowadays.. If you are anti-American, well, that is your right. As a result of the “anything goes” Sixties and the “me, my, mine” Seventies, we have been indoctrinated to believe that as an American, you should be able to believe whatever you want. And maybe there is some truth to that, but the difference between America 50, 60 and 70 years ago, and the America of today is that in those days there was actually a sense of shame. You might not go to jail because you wanted to overthrow our Constitution, but you certainly wouldn’t be welcome at the church social, and you sure as heck wouldn’t be elected to office.

Nowadays, being anti-American is cool. Just bring some potato salad for the pot luck and all is forgiven. Or, if you are Al “Inconvenient Truth” Gore, just spend enough of your ill-gotten loot on progressive causes, and no one will even think to ask why you sold your cable network to oil-rich, repressive Qatar.

Which brings us back to Al Jazeera. No way, no how such an organization could have ever gotten a foothold in the United States 50 years ago. It would be the equivalent of FDR allowing the Japanese to broadcast Tokyo Rose’s WWII propaganda direct from Los Angeles. National security wouldn’t stand for it, and neither would the American people.

But now, a radical group like the Muslim Brotherhood — which wields huge influence over Al Jazeera — can purchase its way into the American mainstream with no comment by the American government and barely any notice by the American people. And if that doesn’t scare you, nothing will.