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Disclosure: Am a refugee from communism, an emigre to the US, a naturalized citizen, and a veteran.
The first stage of my life is significant to my comment about The Left.
I make two critical distinctions about The Left: the Intellectual Left and the Political Left. Under the Political Left is the Activist Left.
From my PERSONAL experience with The Left of both types, the Intellectual Left are NEVER blind to their own authoritarianism streak. Not only that, they do not merely embrace it but produce it. They are supremely confident of their intellectual superiority over everyone else. They believe they are more insightful of everything related to humanity and this confidence treads the racialist, not necessarily racist, line, and they see no problems with that. The Intellectual Left sees no malevolence about being racialists in the sense that in history, civilizations rise and fall, and now is the time for the Anglo-European stocks to be preeminent. For now, racialism and racism are too intertwined to be open about this, so best to leave it alone.
Because the Intellectual Left is supremely confident of their superiority, dissent must not be tolerated. They are generous enough to allow one instance of persuasion in that you have one chance to acquiesce to their demands. After that, the end justifies the means to suppress dissent. For the Intellectual Left, believing in that superiority means their intellectual talents must not be restrained, in other words, their superior intellect ORDAINED their ruling status. Instead of the 'divine right' it is the 'intellectual right' to rule. And this right must be defended.
The Intellectual Left gives philosophical and moral directions to the Political Left.
The Political Left also believe in their intellectual superiority but they also acknowledge that someone must be the executors of whatever plan for humanity. The Political Left works in institutions such as governmental ministries while the Activist Left, the partner, works in the communities. Together, there lies the 'Deep State'. If there is sufficient resistance, the Political Left will be accommodating and even willing to make compromises, but the Political Left will not hesitate to exploit any numerical advantage.
At the community or neighborhood level, most Left leaning people do not view themselves as authoritarians. They are just frustrated that you are not as insightful as they are. But from the Activist Left and up, they have no doubt that authoritarianism is in their ideological DNA.
Posts like the two above are the real reason I come to forums like this.. to expand my perspective. Thanks.
I don't necessarily agree with you on everything but appreciate the posts. Even if my firearms will prove meaningless they give me the illusion that I have power and control at least. I dont like the idea of government some day deciding to impose broad mandates that affect my life because they think its for my own good. The best way in my opinion to prevent this is more checks and balances to keep human nature in check. We don't have enough checks and balances. Along with states rights we need term limits and campaign finance laws to prevent the rich from buying political influence. Lifetime political and judicial appointments should be abolished.
If I may ask, what would your idea of an ideal nation, culture, and government be, if corporations are so bad? Do you think we would have reached the level of technological development we have achieved without capitalism? What do you make of China and Xi? He seems to be taking them down a more militaristic and nationalist path.
They need censorship to retain power. Any form of reality is a threat to that power.
If I made a post on Reddit/Twitter/YouTube discussing my opinion of how bad the left is, I would be immediately censored because the left doesn’t tolerate opposing views.
As I search through the internet through articles talking about the rise of authoritarian rule, as I watch modern TV series made in the last couple of years, one thing strikes me... the left tends to be blind to their own authoritarian tendencies.
This is not the only article, there are countless other articles equating illiberalism with Trump, comparing Trump, Xi, and Putin, and talking about voter suppression in the US and republicans trying to overturn elections.
No mention of the overreaching covid mandates. Vaccine passports. Wanting to disarm the populace. No mention of the great reset, build back better, or any number of progressive ideals that could be seen by those on the right as authoritarian. The progressives are as nanny state and micro-management of people's lives as they come.
Do they believe what they are saying or are they just blind to their own cultlike beliefs?
Any sufficiently large group of people is capable of behaving in this manner. Doesn't matter who they are, and whether their intentions are good or not. That old saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" rings true for this reason.
Both parties are blind to their misjudgments because it is human nature to be blind to one’s own biases. How do you expect a person to be good at judging their own judgments, when their judgments are being judged using their own judgments? It’s the exact same reason that those who are tipsy often think they are fine to drive even when everyone else can see that they are not.
I agree. However, in this case the communist have definitely taken over the Democratic Party. They are completely and totally out of control.
The Democrats are more Fascist today than Communist although they really are a combination of the two. The Democrats never talk about Rights, Freedom and Liberty at all except if it's for some very small, fringe group they pick in order to DIVIDE us.
Not for nothing. Both sides are blind and have abandoned reasonible common sense
only five replies in, and we get the cammed “both sides” deflection from the topic being discussed. no one is arguing there aren’t extremists on the right. the fact that you brought it up seems to indicate the premise of this thread is quite true, that the left is blind to their own authoritarian views.
since the war on terror europe and other country's have seen an increase in right wing anti-immigrant type political partys
these are the authoritarian party's the article mentions nobody refers to pandemic health emergency's as "authoritarian" only the right wing posters on this forum and others like it are living in their own bubble
What utter nonsense from you again! The right is not anti-"immigrant" they are anti-illegal immigration. You do know the difference, don't you? We embrace legal immigration in reasonable numbers from immigrants who will assimilate into our society and won't be a fiscal burden to us. I wish you and yours would stop the lies. It's irritating as hell!
What utter nonsense from you again! The right is not anti-"immigrant" they are anti-illegal immigration. You do know the difference, don't you? We embrace legal immigration in reasonable numbers from immigrants who will assimilate into our society and won't be a fiscal burden to us. I wish you and yours would stop the lies. It's irritating as hell!
what superficiality from you again? the "conservatives" i know after having talked to them over the years
are plainly blaming people of color for this or that....but then these are only the people i know, certainly not
all conservatives...
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I dont like the idea of government some day deciding to impose broad mandates that affect my life because they think its for my own good. The best way in my opinion to prevent this is more checks and balances to keep human nature in check. We don't have enough checks and balances. Along with states rights we need term limits and campaign finance laws to prevent the rich from buying political influence. Lifetime political and judicial appointments should be abolished.
We embrace legal immigration in reasonable numbers from immigrants who will assimilate into our society and won't be a fiscal burden to us. I wish you and yours would stop the lies. It's irritating as hell!
