Why I Hate The Far Left
I think you could say that the most vicious critic of any belief system will be a person who once held the very belief he or she is now attacking. Perhaps that explains why I react with such fury to the actions of the far left, while I usually just role my eyes when I read a stupid post written by a white power person. You see, I was raised on leftism. My parents were ex-hippies, and brought up my siblings and myself with an egalitarian, enlightened mindset. As a young person, I loved to read about the exploits of my parent’s generation. The Berkeley Free Speech Movement. The March on the Pentagon. Woodstock. It all just seemed like so much fun. My heroes were Abbie Hoffman and Huey Newton. By age 19, I was a Dead Kennedys-listening, Noam Chomsky-reading, grow-your-hair-long lefty. I even had a picture of Karl Marx tacked to my bedroom wall. Then I began to read sources outside of the leftist continuum. My political outlook underwent a radical alteration. I began to see what much of what I had so strongly believed in actually led to. I realized that those on the far left are for the most part full of it. Think about what the far left promised us versus what they delivered: Feminism promised egalitarianism but instead produced an ideology based on man-hating. The left promised us racial harmony, but instead gave us a society so racially divided and uptight that any frank discussion of race relations is impossible. They promised us free speech, and instead gave us hate crime laws. The promised an academic atmosphere conducive to an open expression of ideas, and instead gave us a system so restrictive in its thinking that Orwell would have been impressed. The promised us economic egalitarianism, and then stood back dumbfounded as the most impoverished portions of our society threw their support behind the most reactionary elements of the political scene. They promised us peace, and instead gave us the mindless violence of the anarchist thugs. They promised a free world, then opposed the military drive to oust the Taliban. The promised us sexual liberation, and gave us anti-porn laws. They promised us an environment free of pollution, and then decided the beast way to get there was to burn SUVs. The joyful, freedom-loving left that blossomed in this country in the 1960’s is long gone. It has been replaced by pinched, bitter individuals who seek not to “do their own thing”, but to force their twisted PC reality on the rest of us.
Don’t take this as meaning that I’ve gone over to the conservatives. I’ll be damned if I’ll align myself with the religious fanatics and scary corporate types in that scene. But I save my personal rage for the left. Damnit, they lied to me. They lied to all of us.
posted by Henry Garfield at 1:39 AM
2 Comments:
Oddly, I had a conversation with E last night that followed almost this exact same vein ... except I was going after the idea that leftists are more rational than right-wingers. Sure, the left supports evolution, which is a huge plus in their column. But the left, in my opinion, are exactly like the right in that there are certain issues where no amount of evidence could cause them to change their minds.The simple fact seems to be that we have a nation divided down the middle who see the world in two very opposite, very irrational ways, and that almost all "political dialog" is not diolog at all. No one challenges their own beliefs and no one is willing to change their minds on these core issues, so the debate about current events or other surface topics is meaningless (or, just rapidly devolves into name-calling).
Nice post-in a lot of ways, it expresses the main theme of this blog. Extremists see things through an irrational, unalterable lens. But they only reflect the far end of a much greater problem that as you note afflicts most of the political discourse in this country. I’ve always been interested in reading points of view that I disagree with as a means of testing my own beliefs (which might partially explain my interest in extremism in the first place). The more I agree with an author, the less likely I am to read his or her work. It amazes me that most people are completely unwilling to do this. When I’ve suggested to my leftists friends that they should read some conservative writings so at the very least they’ll understand what they’re criticizing, they reply with something like “Why would I want to waste my time reading that crap? There’s nothing to understand. Those people are imbeciles.” If you can read something you disagree with and still maintain your own beliefs, it means those beliefs are based on fairly solid principals. And hey, you might even change your mind on some topics. I’ve been forced to reconsider my own position on school vouchers after reading some conservative opinions on the subject. To not challenge your beliefs in this way on a regular basis is in my opinion a form of mental laziness.
Post a Comment
<< Home