I have long held that there is a dichotomy in the psychology of the socialists/collectivists – who i am going to refer to as ‘leftists’.
There is the casual leftist, who has never really thought things through and simply votes ‘cuz that’s what seems like a good idea – driven by emotional decision making to support the principle of ‘why can’t we all have everything we want?’ without any understanding of the consequences.
And there is the committed leftist – Driven by envy and hate, accuses their opponents of being everything that they themselves are – because that is how they see the world, Driven to a philosophy they can use to justify to themselves their desire to take what others have by force and happy to use any means to achieve power because they have convinced themselves that their hatred and envy is righteous.
It is the latter that seeks power and it is the reason why socialism has an unblemished record of mass-murder and genocide whenever it is implemented.
If this hypothesis is correct, do leftists get drawn to socialism because it justifies their desire to use violence against others for their personal gain, or does socialism create these monsters? Also, is there the same dichotomy on the conservative/libertarian side?
8 replies on “Are leftists ignorant, or evil, or both?”
The ignorance is primary. Everything they do is a consequence of that.
The ignorance, which comes from the lack of a proper education and/or the effects of counter-education against facts and reason, leaves them unable to deal with reality, which is what it is and does what it does and doesn’t care one way or the other what they want.* Therefore, they feel (not think – they’re unable to do that; also, never say “feel” when you mean “think,” words have meanings, and meanings matter) that if they can only exert control over the things that won’t yield to their wishes then they can make those wishes come true.
But beneath the grasping at control lies a horrible fear that is also a result of ignorance: reality doesn’t allow them to get what they want, and that terrifies them because they have no idea why and, due to their ignorance, no cognitive tools to figure it out. This is the most primal of fears – fear of imminent death. Not achieving what they want, the feel that they are failing at survival. They feel that way because the failure seems to have no source and no cause; it seems to come from nowhere and is ever present. They don’t – they can’t – understand it so, like a two-year-old who hasn’t yet learned how to deal with blocks that won’t stack, they explode in a tantrum which, unfortunately for those of us who can think, is extremely dangerous because they know enough to be able to lash out in violent ways rather than merely screaming and crying like the two-year-old.
So, never having learned how to deal with reality (ignorance), they’re utterly terrified because at the root they feel like they’re failing to survive (going to die), therefore they scrabble for any kind of control over their lives and try to impose their will on reality and all the rest of us.
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*Take some time to try to develop a deep understanding of what apathy, particularly in this case the universe’s apathy, truly is at the most fundamental level.
THE UNIVERSE. DOESN’T. CARE. ABOUT. YOU.
It’s not the sort of not caring that kind of turns its nose up and walks on by. That’s not really apathy at all. It’s contempt, which is one way to care about something. No, the universe has no attitude whatsoever toward you. It can’t, because it has no capacity whatsoever to do so. It knows not, therefore it must care not.
Let that really, deeply sink in. It’s that full realization that makes life precious and gives it purpose. In the face of the greatest possible absence of even mere recognition of your existence, you can create your character and build your life anyway. The unending entirety of insentient nature doesn’t even know that you are, let alone care that you are. Yet Here. You. Are.
The vital flip side of the universe not being oriented to help you is that it is also, necessarily, not oriented to oppose you. Reality isn’t seeking to stop you, it isn’t seeking anything. It can’t. Your only obstacles are nothing more than just the way things are. So they’re not really obstacles at all – nature doesn’t put things in your way, it just puts things where they are. They’re just the pre-existing conditions to be dealt with. They happen to have been here first.
Of course, you could give up and say that nothing matters. And that’s true, nothing does matter. To the universe.
But things do matter, infinitely, to you. Things can only matter to someone, to some sentient being. That’s you. And here you are.
Don’t let your light against the infinite blackness go out. Use your amazing mind to do whatever you can, however you can. Once done, nothing in that infinity can ever make it not have happened.. You will have been.
I believe they are drawn to socialism because it justifies their desire to use violence against others. That was very well said. It is like the concentration camp guards. The camps don’t make good people become brutal.
I believe that the draw to all totalitarian structures is motivated by an innate human desire for control over all aspects of one’s world. This desire for control extends to a desire to control others within an individual’s sphere of influence. The reality is where humans fail to recognize that such control is nothing but an illusion that eventually motivates individuals to perform horrific acts against others.
Totalitarianism for people is like a lightbulb for moths. It is a significant temptation that is often too strong to ignore.
Socialism/Collectivism/Communism i.e. progressive leftism is a political philosophy that is pathological and psychopathic; the people who are committed to it are themselves psychopathic. The casual leftist is someone who is narcissistic and self-aggrandizing, who practices pathological altruism caring not whether their actions harm or help the recipient. They are shallow thinkers and empty vessels who take pride in signaling fake virtue.
I wish I could write that well!
😌 Thank you. You write quite well. As I composed my reply to your comment, I felt I wasn’t meeting the bar you set.
Sorry Rod, I thought I was replying to the author Touay, but thank you for your nice comment.
Agreed. It is a shame all the university psychology department a rabidly leftists, as I think this dichotomy is an idea worthy of study.