2007-04-07
Left-Wing Mindset
There is a great video here (45 minutes long) containing analysis of the left-wing mindset. Maybe a transcript will eventually appear here. It is stuff like this that interests me the most. I try to bring it all together when I find it. These things all contain snippets of the answer, but I haven't found a single narrative that I actually agree with. This one is no different. Some great ideas, but he spoils it with anti-abortion and pro-abstinence rants. I wish Republicans would refrain from that. All it does is scare people to vote for the Left.
He brings up a great point that on 9/11 he found out that these anti-Americans really were sincere that they hated America. But personally I think he missed it. It was the Iraq war that showed that, not 9/11. I don't remember Australians opposing the Afghan war, except for the usual ratbags that come out. It was the Iraq war that brought the left-wing out. And I was shocked to see ordinary Australians spewing vitriol about America and not a word against Saddam, or China or Russia.
Yes, Yank-bashing and indeed Pom-bashing is par for the course in Australia. I can especially remember the America's Cup. After Australia broke the longest winning streak in sporting history, the America's Cup was held in Australia. The US won the right to challenge, and the other countries involved tried to help Australia beat off the challenge. The Americans actually complained about this, saying that it was breaking with tradition, and that traditionally the challengers united against the current cup holder. As an Australian, I thought this was bizarre logic from the American team - the tradition has ALWAYS been EVERYONE AGAINST AMERICA!!! America, due to its size, keeps winning all these things like the Olympics due to sheer weight, and quite frankly, everyone's sick of it. So any chance to stop America from winning a game is welcome. However, I never expected, when it came down to the wire, for anyone to have any other response to an attack on America other than to fiercely defend it. They're not just friends, not just innocents, they're our MATES. Our ALLIES. An attack on one of our allies is a direct attack upon us. Or so I thought.
His theory is that the left-wing are locked into a 5 year old mentality about how wonderful the world would be with the UN looking after everything and no more war. Actually I can understand that mindset too. And unlike my Republican allies, I actually do want to reach something similar to a One World Government - along the lines of the European Union. Actually in those political tests, I come out as a centrist, not right-wing. I share the left's dream. Hell, I even share MARX's dream of "from each according to their ability". The difference is that I recognize that that can be done in the capitalist environment, and that it shouldn't be forced on people, and that we should lead by example instead. I have spent my life trying to lead by example. I have spent enormous amounts of time writing no-strings-attached public domain software, to try to lower the cost to business. Quite frankly, I believe I have succeeded in being a better communist than any communist, and a better Christian than any Christian.
One point he brings up is that the left has taken anti-discrimination to mean we can no longer discriminate between good and bad, and that all viewpoints are equally valid. An example is "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter". So the media won't even call the head-choppers terrorists. Even though they clearly aren't fighting for freedom - they're fighting to install some sort of theocratic dictatorship.
And once again, we find that the split is even within a family. He is complaining about his own sister and his cousin! I would like to see much more analysis along these lines though. What causes people from the same family to go down these diametrically opposite directions on such a fundamental issue?
One point I think he makes is that the left-wing hold their positions not because of some critical analysis that they have done, but via some other process. And because of this, it is not possible to reason them out of it. They will instead keep their closely-held opinions, and even when they make a feeble attempt at justifying them, or providing a counter-argument, they don't really care if they lose. They have no intention of letting their worldview shatter. There's bound to be a good reason to justify their position, even if they can't think of it themselves, and even if they've never heard of it from someone else. He didn't say all that, that's just my extension of some stuff he did say.
But where the hell are the professional psychologists that should be doing this stuff? I really want to get a discussion going between this guy, and Second Draft, plus I wish I could get some of the old commenters from the Iraqi blogs back, and I want to be able to stop them from coming up with American-specific crap and anti-abortion crap. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't anti-abortion either and gave a great speech at the last Republican convention. In fact, all those speeches were astounding. You can find the transcripts here but it would be good if the video were made available on youtube. I saw the videos when they were on C-Span.
|
He brings up a great point that on 9/11 he found out that these anti-Americans really were sincere that they hated America. But personally I think he missed it. It was the Iraq war that showed that, not 9/11. I don't remember Australians opposing the Afghan war, except for the usual ratbags that come out. It was the Iraq war that brought the left-wing out. And I was shocked to see ordinary Australians spewing vitriol about America and not a word against Saddam, or China or Russia.
Yes, Yank-bashing and indeed Pom-bashing is par for the course in Australia. I can especially remember the America's Cup. After Australia broke the longest winning streak in sporting history, the America's Cup was held in Australia. The US won the right to challenge, and the other countries involved tried to help Australia beat off the challenge. The Americans actually complained about this, saying that it was breaking with tradition, and that traditionally the challengers united against the current cup holder. As an Australian, I thought this was bizarre logic from the American team - the tradition has ALWAYS been EVERYONE AGAINST AMERICA!!! America, due to its size, keeps winning all these things like the Olympics due to sheer weight, and quite frankly, everyone's sick of it. So any chance to stop America from winning a game is welcome. However, I never expected, when it came down to the wire, for anyone to have any other response to an attack on America other than to fiercely defend it. They're not just friends, not just innocents, they're our MATES. Our ALLIES. An attack on one of our allies is a direct attack upon us. Or so I thought.
His theory is that the left-wing are locked into a 5 year old mentality about how wonderful the world would be with the UN looking after everything and no more war. Actually I can understand that mindset too. And unlike my Republican allies, I actually do want to reach something similar to a One World Government - along the lines of the European Union. Actually in those political tests, I come out as a centrist, not right-wing. I share the left's dream. Hell, I even share MARX's dream of "from each according to their ability". The difference is that I recognize that that can be done in the capitalist environment, and that it shouldn't be forced on people, and that we should lead by example instead. I have spent my life trying to lead by example. I have spent enormous amounts of time writing no-strings-attached public domain software, to try to lower the cost to business. Quite frankly, I believe I have succeeded in being a better communist than any communist, and a better Christian than any Christian.
One point he brings up is that the left has taken anti-discrimination to mean we can no longer discriminate between good and bad, and that all viewpoints are equally valid. An example is "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter". So the media won't even call the head-choppers terrorists. Even though they clearly aren't fighting for freedom - they're fighting to install some sort of theocratic dictatorship.
And once again, we find that the split is even within a family. He is complaining about his own sister and his cousin! I would like to see much more analysis along these lines though. What causes people from the same family to go down these diametrically opposite directions on such a fundamental issue?
One point I think he makes is that the left-wing hold their positions not because of some critical analysis that they have done, but via some other process. And because of this, it is not possible to reason them out of it. They will instead keep their closely-held opinions, and even when they make a feeble attempt at justifying them, or providing a counter-argument, they don't really care if they lose. They have no intention of letting their worldview shatter. There's bound to be a good reason to justify their position, even if they can't think of it themselves, and even if they've never heard of it from someone else. He didn't say all that, that's just my extension of some stuff he did say.
But where the hell are the professional psychologists that should be doing this stuff? I really want to get a discussion going between this guy, and Second Draft, plus I wish I could get some of the old commenters from the Iraqi blogs back, and I want to be able to stop them from coming up with American-specific crap and anti-abortion crap. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't anti-abortion either and gave a great speech at the last Republican convention. In fact, all those speeches were astounding. You can find the transcripts here but it would be good if the video were made available on youtube. I saw the videos when they were on C-Span.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 12:44 
