From William Butler Yeats’ The Second Coming:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.
Zizek also talks about this issue and asks:
Is this not a good description of today’s split between anemic liberals and impassioned fundamentalists?
The liberals of today have an aversion to reality, which means that the more you reflect their view of how things ought to be, the more they hate themselves. Boohoohoo, Julia Gillard didn’t give us gay marriage, so let’s vote in populist rightwinger so that we can be happy again, in our discontent. Liberals are vacuous idiots because reality is their enemy, but sitting on a cloud, playing a harp isn’t. Give them anything short of an opportunity to be the purist, whitest angels, and they will think you have short-changed them, which will make them outraged. Numbskulls.
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Yes, a lot of people project all sorts of their own constructs onto me. So to some I am a liberal, to others a monster, and so on. It seems to be never ending. Attention spans out there are extremely limited.
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I stopped reading a lot of liberal political commentary because most of it seemed to consist of constant, defeatist whining about the inevitable destruction of everything that they believe in.
I mean say what you will about conservatives and libertarians, but at least they’re willing to stand and fight.
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Thing about liberals is they don’t just make poor allies but really terrible ones. They think they are showing their acute moral discernment when they stab you in the back. They don’t grasp the practical consequences of this at all, or really believe that there will be any negative consequences if they get into their backstabbing mode. Very strange people. Don’t get too close.
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“I stopped reading a lot of liberal political commentary because most of it seemed to consist of constant, defeatist whining about the inevitable destruction of everything that they believe in.
I mean say what you will about conservatives and libertarians, but at least they’re willing to stand and fight.”
– Yes. Oh yes. This is so true. People complain about the administrators taking away all of their power to make decisions and then overwhelmingly vote to hand over all of the power to the administration. Their explanation is that it’s useless to fight anyway.
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You don’t know any leftists, O commentators?
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I tend to distinguish between leftists and liberals.
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One doesn’t have to fit the American or even Australian conventional categories.
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I really like the “even Australian” part. 🙂 Great sense of humor you have.
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I keep forgetting one is supposed to have English speaking points of reference. But here’s an interesting anti-left screed by Frei Betto, whom I have not figured out, and I have not figured out what to think of Liberation Theology beyond mistrusting anything Christian. http://www.contrainjerencia.com/?p=71473
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“In this case the left has the quick help of their peers: the obsequious silence, to pretend that nothing happened today for you, tomorrow for me).”
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(or commenters, I am not sure of my English today)
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My favorite (kind of) exchange:
“Steve Sailer: Have you ever noticed that basically everything you are supposed to believe in these days — feminism, diversity, etc. — turns out in practice to just be another way for hot babes, rich guys, super salesmen, cunning financiers, telegenic self-promoters, and charismatic politicians to get even more money and power?”
Commenter (called Thursday): We are in a weird moment. I don’t think that people are being cynical or insincere when they affirm liberal sentiments. It’s just that feminism, diversity etc. conflict so much with reality that they simply can’t be put into practice. So, if you’re a liberal pol, you buy off a few interest groups and loot the store.
On the other hand, conservatives sometimes get into power when the liberals screw up too badly or get too corrupt. But any actual solutions that could be implemented would involve contradicting the public’s basically liberal sentiments. So, your might as well loot the store.”
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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