The WSJ’s Bill McGurn has written a fascinating column that exposes the weird dichotomy of the Left’s views towards despotism.
During the election, Donald Trump was routinely likened to Hitler. The headlines suggest not much has changed.
From the New Republic: “Donald Trump Is Already Acting Like an Authoritarian.” National Public Radio: “Donald Trump: Strong Leader or Dangerous Authoritarian?” The New York Times: “Beyond Lying: Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Reality.” The New Yorker: “Trump’s Challenge to American Democracy.”
What’s striking here is that the same folks who see in Mr. Trump a Mussolini in waiting are blind to the soft despotism that has already taken root in our government. This is the unelected and increasingly assertive class that populates our federal bureaucracies and substitutes rule by regulation for the rule of law. The result? Over the Obama years, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reckons, Washington has averaged 35 regulations for every law.
Besides mental illness, can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?
Besides mental illness, can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?
Mental illness is likely too simple and yet to nebulous to qualify. I would chalk it up to ideological arrogance as well as isolation. The msm doesn’t do debates anymore so has little to no contact with dissenting opinion and “unapproved” facts. Air time is reserved to dismiss outright all who offer alternate opinions as well as to treat them like crazies. The narrative is supreme. An election defeat is so overwhelming it causes hysteria because they had no idea that half the country is comprised of the “other”.
I’ve noticed over the decades that those on the left refer PROCESS over RESULTS. Since they “mean well” that’s all that matters to them. Whether or not they deliver positive results is not relevant because they are absolutely certain they MEAN WELL, so contrary facts just don’t matter to them.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
–C. S. Lewis
You assume incorrectly that the leftists aren’t aware and if they were aware they would disapprove. I don’t subscribe to that line of thinking. They know exactly what was done and heartily approve. What’s unacceptable to them is someone who disagrees with them. That’s unacceptable behavior in a democracy according to them.
can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?
James is correct, they’re not ‘blind’ to reality; they choose to define their own reality. It’s largely because most leftists are LibArts majors if they went to post-sec school at all.
Science people are in school learning how to separate truth from propaganda.
LibArts people are in school learning how to make propaganda from truth.
Those opposing views of reality will always be in conflict.
Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge”) usually describes the effort to understand how the universe works through the scientific method, with observable evidence as the basis of that understanding; a way of understanding the world through thought and experimentation. The sciences tend to be positivistic in their approach to truth and knowledge, in contrast to the humanities which tend toward relativism. Relativism is the belief that there’s no absolute truth, only the truths that a particular individual or culture happen to believe.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgement simply need not be believed–in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical–and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers from Prison, ’43.
They are liars. They lie about what they really want, and what they really like.
They lie all the time. They never do anything else but lie. but this year, the business with the Electors in the USA is one reversal too many. Now we can see through the lies.
What they want is nothing. Other than an air tight inescapable tyranny with them running it.
“The New Yorker: “Trump’s Challenge to American Democracy.””
Please peoples….America is NOT,repeat,NOT a democracy. They are a republic, just like the Romans. And they will fall,the same as the Roman Empire. (Canaduh is not far behind)
I don’t think we need to go into the relative versus the scientific, I think it’s simpler than that. It’s the choice between experience and theory. There’s nothing in this to disagree with what John Galt wrote above, I think I’m just applying Occam’s Razor.
When one is younger they have less experience, so they have less to base decisions upon. “What will likely happen?”, asked internally, will result in several theoretical results. Sometimes one of them will be close to right, so following theory gains support. If what happens isn’t what was predicted, well you didn’t theorise enough, so it’s not a problem with method. When young enough (this should only apply to children), no one else is real so it’s not possible to fully learn from them.
As one ages they gain experience. “I’ve done this before, what happened when I did this, and what will likely happen this time if I do it?” Sometimes our growing individual will ask others “what do you think will happen?” As more choices are made, and more experience is gained, the individual has to balance between what their experience has shown (and whether it’s applicable to this circumstance) or whether their ideas are more important. Nuances are important, experience can readily be discarded by some if there are slight differences in results from previous experiences, or if a theory can be brought to bear for why the previous theory was incomplete. The more impact the experience of being wrong has, and how it applied directly on the individual, the more likely the individual will become conservative.
Unless one has a total disconnect with reality (and there are multiple ways for this to happen), eventually the experience side will dominate – you will learn from how things have affected you, and who your best advisers were in terms of “who has been right in the past”. Those who are extremely affluent (by birth or early life success) can be exempt from this because the negative affects of their decisions are not felt by them directly.
If you’ve never been responsible for your own success (or failure) then you don’t associate success or failure with your own choices or actions. Rural living can be painful for those who don’t learn. Cities are made of bubble wrap, and safety nets. That’s one reason conservatism is difficult to find in youth in nice parts of cities.
Those who believe we are a part of government believe they know better what to do with out money and think it leaves society “better off.”
But, having no theory of opportunity cost, never consider the damage of removing productivity from the economy or confiscating wealth.
Thus, economic failure they cause becomes the need for more of their statism and taxation and shared misery.
So, they can never admit defeat as their failure because that means admitting their methods are the cause of theirs and our failure.
So, they blame anything else possible but their statism and love of our money as the problem.
So, Trump, the Russians and fake news are the cause, not their incompetence or even the realization by voters they are the problem
Thus, they wait until our guard is down to foist more of their failure on us and of course, blame us for their failure.
Sorry folks, I wandered off topic. “… can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?”
The salons and affluent gated communities haven’t seen a down-side to Obama’s rule. They thought that the party would continue, that the idea of another mold-breaker would be embraced by the populous. They haven’t experienced the Obama years the same as rural parts of the country. They didn’t have the experience against which to compare “is the rest of the country experiencing the same thing as us?”
That’s why they were blindsided. They were isolated from the results of the previous selections (and mis-read the mid-term results as a backlash against everything that was going on, thinking instead it was a Republican versus Democrat thing instead of an elite versus normal citizen thing). In their protected world, there was nothing that experience would tell them that could possibly go wrong with a Hillary Clinton presidency. The downsides of Hillary, and what their friends in the media were not willing to tell us about her scandals, raised too many questions and concerns with those who pay the bills in the real world.
The closer one is to being responsible and accountable for oneself, the worse a president Hillary Clinton looked. And those who were telling us to vote for her had a horrible track record where president Barrack Obama was concerned, and the erstwhile opposition to Obama wasn’t doing their jobs. So, bring in an outsider. Preferably one who is known for his ability to fire the incompetent.
that’s my two cents. Man that felt good to say.
They are prepping the battlefield. The next four years will be a full-court press of unrelenting criticism, denigration, personal attacks and hatred. You know, like when W. was president.
These people are scum.
They had a Shuck N Jive huckster as POTUS. That’s why their were blithely ignorant.
Canaduh may be ahead in the race to extinction.
This is why they are referred to as useful idiots.
“Besides mental illness, can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?”
Sure, they’re assholes.
Q E D
“Besides mental illness, can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?”
Yup.
Host and parasite.
Those who live by theft, will defend their thieving ways.
Listen to the kleptocrats,
“We steal from you to “help” you”.
The modern parasite lives on the proceeds of theft by deception.
The biggest lie ever,
“We are from the government,we are here to help you”.
And we are talking generational theft now, 4 generations of career troughing.
Its a way of life, complete with entitlements and our new nobles.
Lords of all they regulate.
As an aside Bernie Madoff should get an Obamanation Pardon.
In the name of Social Justice.
Nope – mental illness pretty much covers it.
lefties sound just like religious people to me. Enviro-wackies, truthers, socialists, all ignore “facts” and gravitate toward “belief”
See? It works!! Just mention “mental illness” and NME000 pops up. I guess it must be the power of suggestion.
BCer
“…Unless one has a total disconnect with reality (and there are multiple ways for this to happen)…”
E.g. living and working mostly indoors, working in large organisations like government and universities that aren’t directly answerable to the people who pay for them and/or the people who they affect.
“Why is the Left Blind to the Despotism Its Own Kind Promotes?”
Clinical Psychologist, U. of T. Prof. Jordan B. Peterson argues that not lying to yourself and not lying to other people is a much more mentally and morally healthy way to live your life.
The left began lying to others, then to themselves. Now they don’t know how to stop.
“besides mental illness”? That’s a tough one.
Any other explanation comes out sounding like an apologist for pedophiles, demented perverts, and other human rights abusers.
In other words it’s a catch 22 – A Liberal Progressive is simply mentally ill, unless your willing to accept that the worst of humanity and their Progressive allies are perfectly sane with a reasonable rational to defend anything that destroys everything else around them, including themselves.
“Mommy, Daddy, I hate you! Give me those keys! If you don’t, you’re both Hitler!!”
Got a link to that article?
They have no objection to despotism as long as it promotes a leftist agenda and economically favors the Left’s cronies, the Armand Hammers of today.
As is well known, speakers and writers who accurately describe the Left’s actions are accused of unfair tactics and attacks; more recently they are also accused of “hate,” “racism,” “Islamophobia” and so on.
“If you will the end, you will the means.”
C. S. Lewis had it right when he made that statement.
I’m not sure that there is mental illness involved. The leadership on the left knows exactly what they are trying to accomplish and the upper middle class ivy league “proletariat” supporters want to believe the “big lie”. The “blue collar” family just wants a job, have a few beers, and go camping on the weekend.
This “lie” has been peddled by the “dictatorship of the proletariat” crowd as a utopian dream for a hundred years. Armand Hammer wanted to believe it, Walter Duranty and the New York Times wanted to believe it. The New Yorker magazine, Time, NewsWeek, the CBC, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CTV, Global News, MSNBC, all want to believe the big lie. What is worse, because they teach our children, tens of thousands of our educators have believed the big lie that began penetrating our educational system sixty years ago.
The “big lie” is an insidious evil that has not only taken over most of our media and educational facilites, but has taken over many of our churches as well, and is even prepared to make common cause with another insidious evil ideology to destroy freedom.
captcha: rise ibiza
I think the peaceful ones are just ideologues who sincerely believe that utopia is just a matter of applying tyranny correctly. The rest are malcontents, bullies and psychopaths who see more opportunity in an authoritarian regime.
“Besides mental illness, can anyone proffer a reasonable theory as to how they can be so blind to what has occurred over the past 8 years?”
Sure. Dishonesty.
‘Mirroring’ is my explanation. One of them starts with some emotional plea like TG genderless bathrooms and quickly one by one they all start falling in line with the narrative. I had the unfortunate experience of attending an earth day ‘party’ and was so embarrassed by this behaviour I had to turn a light on (which I was scolded for). Seeing this mental illness in action is truly mind numbing.
I’ll hazard, they’re retarded.