Monday, January 17, 2011

Leftist mentality explained

5 comments:

Cannon said...

This clip may seem to be about "leftist menality explained" and to that degree it is certainly true.

It is also true that it may be called "conservative mentality explained", for instance by sticking with the nonsense of state-enforcement of marriages to be exclusive for 'straight' people. Also, the notion that Republicans are not behind a lot of programs and behind telling people what to do, is patently absurd and demonstably wrong in light of the mountains of damning evidence available.

As such this clip is just Republican, right-wing propaganda for fools who already know about the leftist mentality, but prefer to keep dreaming about the right-wing being all that different i.e. BETTER than the left.

Worst of all, this clip denies evolution and plays the trick of calling atheism the same as "creationism".

I'm disappointed to find this clip here, where i expected better than what obviously is no more than religious-rightwing propaganda disguised as an 'expose' of the evils of the leftist mentality.

R. Hartman said...

@Cannon

Marriage is a state thing by default; why would people want to marry (get a state license) instead of just signing a legally binding contract of faithfulness and mutual dedication (which a marriage license really is) and deposit that at some private mediator they can turn to in case either party breaks that contract.

To put it differently: why should the state be involved in marriage at all? Marriage, and registering your kids, is just turning self-ownership of yourself and your kids over to the state.

What this clip exposes is the fact that 'liberals' enforce themselves on everybody's lives, because they know best and people should be protected from themselves. Take away their responsibility, and their money, and have not a single rational argument to support them.

That's what this clip is about. Left and Right are two sides of the same coin, both are collectivist in nature. But you will find quite a few Constitutionalists among Republicans, while you'll find none with the democrats.

So, forgetting about religion, the Republican has arguments he can back up, which is more then the Democrat can say. That the issues picked are a bit selective, and that it would be easy to find 'horrible things our country has done' with Republicans. But it remains a fact that the Republican in this video is using arguments, staing facts, while the Democrat is just debiting blunt lies, and knows it.

Like Henry Mencken said: The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. and Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

He was dead on.

Cannon said...

@ R. Hartman

"Marriage is a state thing by default;"

I agree, but the conservative in the clip obviously believes in marriage as a state thing. He is arguing for exclusivity of marriage to straight people.


"What this clip exposes is the fact that 'liberals' enforce themselves on everybody's lives, because they know best and people should be protected from themselves."

What this clip exposes is hypocrisy, for conservatives want to enforce themselves on everyone's lives just as much. The aforementioned gay marriage is one example. Drugs being illegal is another. Warfare is yet another. Liberals want to impose themselves mainly on economic issues. Conservatives mainly on social issues. And there is overlap where both liberals and conservatives want to interfere even on those ground where the *pretend* to be in favor of liberty.

Furthermore, the *reasons* for sticking one's nose in another's business is irrelevant. Interfering in one's personal life because you yourself don't like their lifestyle may actually be worse than believing you are doing it for their own good.
At least one has the illusion of "good intentions".


"But you will find quite a few Constitutionalists among Republicans, while you'll find none with the democrats."

So why are you presenting a video by a guy who obviously is NOT a constitutionalist?

Furthermore, the word "constitutionalist" doesn't mean anything for liberty. The constitution is still made up by an elite and imposed on others (read "No Treason" by Lysander Spooner), and is basically about giving states power rather than the federal government.
As if it matters all that much if the state government, rather than the federal government, sticks its nose in your business.

Cannon said...

"the Republican has arguments he can back up"

Back up HOW? By mentioning a document from 200 years ago?
By the same logic, the EU proponents can back up their claims by pointing at the Lisbon treaty.
Or communists in North Korea can back up their claim by pointing at their own 'constitution'.
Constitutions mean nothing. Only reason does.
And as i proved, the nonsense about gay marriage is not "backed up" by anything than bigotry.

As wretched as i find the liberals and their collectivist arguments; if they posit arguments that simply ignore the constitution i actually somewhat agree with them.
Why should a constitution that has never had any true moral legitimacy or unanimous agreement among ALL Americans at ALL times, carry any authority over those who disagree with it at ANY time?
To suggest that it does is collectivist and statist.


"But it remains a fact that the Republican in this video is using arguments, staing facts, while the Democrat is just debiting blunt lies, and knows it."

Argument from constitution is an argument from authority. Not a rational argument.

And of course the arguments from the Republican may superficially "sound" better than the Democrats. After all, a Republican made the video.
If a liberal made the video, he could have easily made himself seem more reasonable than the Republican simply by concentrating on some of the worst aspects of Republicans, such as foreign policy, wars, religion, the amalgamation of government with corporations etc...

I think you should consider the source here. The Republican who made this video has no interest in presenting his own arguments as weak or by presenting the liberal's argument as strong. This is not a moderated debate or an objective article. This is a biased piece of propaganda (even if it is correct in some places).


"Henry Mencken... was dead on."

Yes he was.
Which is why i fail to see why Republicans are any better.
And what is the neocons "spreading democracy" through invasion and war all about? That is not "saving humanity"?

As i said, both sides have overlap where they preach the very thing that on general they (are supposed to) oppose.

Serving up propaganda, made by a conservative who's interest it is to appear more reasonable than liberals, as some kind of "proof" is rather silly to me.

Where was the self-reflection in this video? Did you see any condemnation of war? Of the fascistic crony-capitalism? Of the police state? Of the bailouts by Bush himself? (did you see mass Tea Party protests when Bush bailouts occurred)

There is no point in being an anarcho-capitalist (assuming you still are) and still defend this rightwing statist propaganda.

R. Hartman said...

Cannon,

We agree, and I think you know it. Which doesn't make your comments less valuable; as I stated, Left and Right are two sides of the same collectivist coin, and all collectivists love to interfere in one's personal life because they themselves don't like one's lifestyle (or, possibly more common, they're jealous of it) en disguise their action as for one's own good.

"Argument from constitution is an argument from authority."
Not necessarily; the constitution protects birthrights, even though embedded in creationism, which is the part that has no place in a constitution, but hey, the American Constitution is probably the best base ever published to build a state on.

And I agree that this in itself is part of the problem: a minarchy is still statist. But most people unfortunately firmly believe they cannot exist without a state, and those are the ones I try to make aware of the way the Left is scheming them out of their money.

And that's what this video shows clearly: the Left makes a statement, the Right states a fact that contradicts the statement, and the Left either
1) claims facts are irrelevant,
2) ignores the fact and repeats the statement, or
3) changes the subject.

It's that recognizable I know it all and I know best behavior that this animation shows clearly, and yes, it's Republican propaganda, and no, it's not a plea for AnarchoCapitalism. But very few people understand AnarchoCapitalism (even Ayn Rand didn't), so I try to start by creating some awareness of the current state of affairs, in the area they can recognize.

The problem with the Left is that most of what they claim sounds reasonable, as long as you don't think about it. Once you start thinking, and most of the time, following the money, it becomes all too clear what's wrong with those claims. Prime examples are Climatism and wind-energy, to name just two. Not that arguments from the right are necessarily any better, but war is no longer a 'right' thing; in NL, an extreme left party now made it possible NL again goes to Afghanistan. Ow, it's not war, of course. Sure.

The times that Leftism stood for personal freedom are long behind us, and even then Leftist Freedom had nothing to do with real freedom. Leftist freedom is the kind of no-limits, I should be free to do ANYTHING I want, regardless of consequences to others.

It shows from the practice of 'kraken', don't know if there's een English word for it, but it amounts to people breaking into an empty house in order to live there, in the process demolishing the property, as it's not theirs anyway, based on the claim the 'the real owner doesn't use it, so it's vacant', and they need a house. Property rights?

To those according to their needs, from those according to their ability. Yeah, right.

At least, the right honors property rights, where the left does not do so. But the Left/Right dsicussion is getting stale; many Republicans are socialists these days, they tried to get a socialist in the White House, with John McCain.

Fact is that with true constitutionalists (like Michael Badnarik) you get to keep a lot more of the fruits of your labor, and thus a much better chance at persuing your happiness. And that's a plus.

Every election is a sort of advanced auction sale of stolen goods - H.L. Mencken.

Democrat or Republican, once you start promising voters OPM (Other People's Money) those voters will vote for you (and pay for it) as long as they refuse to think. As, again, Mencken said:
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.