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Home Front: Culture Wars
"Progressives" characterized by weakened self-esteem, injured narcissism, paranoid tendencies
2005-12-19
from Best of the Web (yes you have to register, but it's really, really worth it!), who tip their hat to the Instawife. I'm not even going to excerpt this, because it's a really short article, and I know you'll want to read the whole thing. Enjoy!
Posted by:trailing wife

#4  The stuff about weakened self-esteem is Fraudian BS - leftists think the world of themselves.

Outwardly, yes. Internally, they fear they're wrong.

Why else do they resort to violence so readily?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2005-12-19 23:29  

#3  "If they offered their own policy ideas they would be vulnerable to criticism." Just about says everythjing you need to know about the America left today. Case in point: The Dems hate the war and it's management (Bush), but never ever offer a counter policy or direction.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2005-12-19 19:12  

#2  The paper attempts to position the Democratic party as a party of "moderates". On one side, you have Chomsky and on the other, you have Republicans. Democrats, as "moderates", are the owls. The stuff about weakened self-esteem is Fraudian BS - leftists think the world of themselves. Criminals and leftists have one thing in common - big time superiority complexes.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2005-12-19 18:22  

#1  This could be summarized by saying that "There are two opposing groups in the world. One is those who puts people into two opposing groups, the other group does not."

Actually, this is true, though I would call it the difference between those who see the world in terms of black and white, and those who see it in shades of grey.

From Stalin, religious fundamentalists, to even the Star Wars movies, they are drawn to the clarity of dichotomy. The former reject moral compromise. The window dressing of "beliefs" they use is just that, words to cloak their perceptions of the world. Their only distinction is how extreme their extremism is, how insistent they are that the world conform to their worldview.

Other traits often found in such people include:

1) An absence of real humor. They cannot really laugh at anything, because everything to them is deadly serious.

2) An "Us vs. Them" attitude that depersonalizes both groups.

3) Applying other dichotomies to things. That is, seeing polar opposition in all things. Male, female. Body, spirit. Earth, heaven. Dog, cat. etc.

4) Reliance on "herd" behavior and consensus solutions, yet having an abhorrance to a method of consensus. That is, they want the group to act as a mob, without thinking--thinking leads to doubt and indecision.

5) Hiding behind reason, yet rejecting reasonableness. That is, if it follows the precepts of basic reason on paper, that is good enough. Failure in actual practice can never be blamed on a bad plan. If it fails twelve times in a row, it is the fault of its execution, because the plan is perfect.

6) Finally, their psychology is such that they must have some way of recovering from failure. That is, the day in which the world was supposed to end has come and gone. Now what? They cannot dispose of their worldview, so they go seeking yet another religion or philosophy that will appease their need for dichotomy.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-12-19 17:37  

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