The Psychology of Leftism

FascistPatriot · Mar 20, 2012

When I look at most people on the left I notice 2 recurring traits they share in common. The whole ideology of the left wing stems from feelings of inferiority and. By feeling inferior they begin to identify with and support the inferior. You can see this manifested in things like White guilt and feminism. Ted Kaczynski wrote a brilliant piece about all this that I encourage everyone to read.

1. Feelings of inferiority

By "feelings of inferiority" we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strict sense but a whole spectrum of related traits; low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, etc. We argue that modern leftists tend to have some such feelings (possibly more or less repressed) and that these feelings are decisive in determining the direction of modern leftism.

When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities and about anything that is said concerning minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftish anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the world "primitive" by "nonliterate." They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures are inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)

Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual white males from middle- to upper-middle-class families.

Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals) or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women, Indians, etc. are inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology.)

Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and as capable as men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear that women may not be as strong and as capable as men.

Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They say they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he grudgingly admits that they exist; whereas he enthusiastically points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the leftist's real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West because they are strong and successful.

Words like "self-confidence," "self-reliance," "initiative," "enterprise," "optimism," etc., play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is anti-individualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve everyone's problems for them, satisfy everyone's needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser.

Art forms that appeal to modern leftish intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat and despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone, throwing off rational control as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and all that was left was to immerse oneself in the sensations of the moment.

Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, objective reality and to insist that everything is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftish philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality. They attack these concepts because of their own psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify certain beliefs as true (i.e., successful, superior) and other beliefs as false (i.e., failed, inferior). The leftist's feelings of inferiority run so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and of the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual's ability or lack of it. Thus if a person is "inferior" it is not his fault, but society's, because he has not been brought up properly.

The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart, an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself.

Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or racists to abuse them, etc. These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they prefer masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.

Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the oversocialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm black people, because the activists' hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify race hatred.

If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to invent problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.

We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism.

2. Oversocialization

Psychologists use the term "socialization" to designate the process by which children are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning part of that society. It may seem senseless to say that many leftists are over-socialized, since the leftist is perceived as a rebel. Nevertheless, the position can be defended. Many leftists are not such rebels as they seem.

The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin. We use the term "oversocialized" to describe such people.

Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, guilt, etc. One of the most important means by which our society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of behavior or speech that is contrary to society's expectations. If this is overdone, or if a particular child is especially susceptible to such feelings, he ends by feeling ashamed of himself. Moreover the thought and the behavior of the oversocialized person are more restricted by society's expectations than are those of the lightly socialized person. The majority of people engage in a significant amount of naughty behavior. They lie, they commit petty thefts, they break traffic laws, they goof off at work, they hate someone, they say spiteful things or they use some underhanded trick to get ahead of the other guy. The oversocialized person cannot do these things, or if he does do them he generates in himself a sense of shame and self-hatred. The oversocialized person cannot even experience, without guilt, thoughts or feelings that are contrary to the accepted morality; he cannot think "unclean" thoughts. And socialization is not just a matter of morality; we are socialized to conform to many norms of behavior that do not fall under the heading of morality. Thus the oversocialized person is kept on a psychological leash and spends his life running on rails that society has laid down for him. In many oversocialized people this results in a sense of constraint and powerlessness that can be a severe hardship. We suggest that oversocialization is among the more serious cruelties that human beings inflict on one another.

We argue that a very important and influential segment of the modern left is oversocialized and that their oversocialization is of great importance in determining the direction of modern leftism. Leftists of the oversocialized type tend to be intellectuals or members of the upper-middle class. Notice that university intellectuals constitute the most highly socialized segment of our society and also the most left-wing segment.

The leftist of the oversocialized type tries to get off his psychological leash and assert his autonomy by rebelling. But usually he is not strong enough to rebel against the most basic values of society. Generally speaking, the goals of today's leftists are not in conflict with the accepted morality. On the contrary, the left takes an accepted moral principle, adopts it as its own, and then accuses mainstream society of violating that principle. Examples: racial equality, equality of the sexes, helping poor people, peace as opposed to war, nonviolence generally, freedom of expression, kindness to animals. More fundamentally, the duty of the individual to serve society and the duty of society to take care of the individual. All these have been deeply rooted values of our society (or at least of its middle and upper classes) for a long time. These values are explicitly or implicitly expressed or presupposed in most of the material presented to us by the mainstream communications media and the educational system. Leftists, especially those of the oversocialized type, usually do not rebel against these principles but justify their hostility to society by claiming (with some degree of truth) that society is not living up to these principles.

Here is an illustration of the way in which the oversocialized leftist shows his real attachment to the conventional attitudes of our society while pretending to be in rebellion against it. Many leftists push for affirmative action, for moving black people into high-prestige jobs, for improved education in black schools and more money for such schools; the way of life of the black "underclass" they regard as a social disgrace. They want to integrate the black man into the system, make him a business executive, a lawyer, a scientist just like upper-middle-class white people. The leftists will reply that the last thing they want is to make the black man into a copy of the white man; instead, they want to preserve African American culture. But in what does this preservation of African American culture consist? It can hardly consist in anything more than eating black-style food, listening to black-style music, wearing black-style clothing and going to a black-style church or mosque. In other words, it can express itself only in superficial matters. In all essential respects leftists of the oversocialized type want to make the black man conform to white, middle-class ideals. They want to make him study technical subjects, become an executive or a scientist, spend his life climbing the status ladder to prove that black people are as good as white. They want to make black fathers "responsible." They want black gangs to become nonviolent, etc. But these are exactly the values of the industrial-technological system. The system couldn't care less what kind of music a man listens to, what kind of clothes he wears or what religion he believes in as long as he studies in school, holds a respectable job, climbs the status ladder, is a "responsible" parent, is nonviolent and so forth. In effect, however much he may deny it, the oversocialized leftist wants to integrate the black man into the system and make him adopt its values.

We certainly do not claim that leftists, even of the oversocialized type, never rebel against the fundamental values of our society. Clearly they sometimes do. Some oversocialized leftists have gone so far as to rebel against one of modern society's most important principles by engaging in physical violence. By their own account, violence is for them a form of "liberation." In other words, by committing violence they break through the psychological restraints that have been trained into them. Because they are oversocialized these restraints have been more confining for them than for others; hence their need to break free of them. But they usually justify their rebellion in terms of mainstream values. If they engage in violence they claim to be fighting against racism or the like.

We realize that many objections could be raised to the foregoing thumb-nail sketch of leftist psychology. The real situation is complex, and anything like a complete description of it would take several volumes even if the necessary data were available. We claim only to have indicated very roughly the two most important tendencies in the psychology of modern leftism.

The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism are not restricted to the left. Though they are especially noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today's society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous society. We are even told by experts how to eat, how to exercise, how to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.

Chelsea366 · Mar 20, 2012

And why should I listen to a guy named FascistPatriot on the psychology of the left?

FascistPatriot · Mar 20, 2012

Chelsea366 said: ↑

And why should I listen to a guy named FascistPatriot on the psychology of the left?

I always read opposing viewpoints. If you are truly confident in what you believe than reading criticism of these beliefs shouldn't be a problem.

Chelsea366 · Mar 20, 2012

FascistPatriot said: ↑

I always read opposing viewpoints. If you are truly confident in what you believe than reading criticism of these beliefs shouldn't be a problem.

I have no problem reading criticism, I just don't really care what the exact political opposite of me thinks about my psyche. Btw the guy he quoted was the Unabomber. I don't particularly care for an insane person's psychological analysis either.

Toast · Mar 20, 2012

Ladies and gentleman, Ted Kaczynski:

I don't read articles from people that have engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.

FascistPatriot · Mar 20, 2012

Chelsea366 said: ↑

I have no problem reading criticism, I just don't really care what the exact political opposite of me thinks about my psyche. Btw the guy he quoted was the Unabomber. I don't particularly care for an insane person's psychological analysis either.

Despite his crazy actions he was actually spot on about a lot of what he talked about when it came to society.

Chelsea366 · Mar 20, 2012

FascistPatriot said: ↑

Despite his crazy actions he was actually spot on about a lot of what he talked about when it came to society.

Weren't you just bashing Muslims for being crazy savage terrorists in another thread? Now you're posting the political viewpoints of a terrorist and claiming it to be something we should all consider?

bender · Mar 20, 2012

i have a question for you faschistpatriot.
why did you become a member of a website called josefvstalin.com? it dossent sound like your kind of place.

FascistPatriot · Mar 20, 2012

bender said: ↑

i have a question for you faschistpatriot.
why did you become a member of a website called josefvstalin.com? it dossent sound like your kind of place.

Actually I think Stalin was one of the better leaders of all time. I'm not a communist but he did turn his country into a superpower and successfully defended his people against the Germans. I think the he's been unfairly demonized by history and we focus to much on the bad he did and never the good.

Chelsea366 · Mar 20, 2012

If I want to hear a biased extremely right wing person or an insane person talk about the psychology of the left I'll go watch Fox News. Note we are all biased when talking about the opposite ideology.

Romulus211 · Mar 20, 2012

It's apperent that inferiority can lead to people being helpful in certain situation which is why low class people stick together but I think the left psychology comes from the human instincts of social interaction and pack mentality, the earliest hunter gathers were communes for the better sense of the word, but it all boils down to social responsibility and interaction.

Achtung Kommunisten! · Mar 20, 2012

I thought left-wing views stemmed from autism, but that's probably because i've read too many of Toast's posts.

Toast · Mar 20, 2012

Achtung Kommunisten! said: ↑

I thought left-wing views stemmed from autism, but that's probably because i've read too many of Toast's posts.

You're my favorite customer.

Imperial1917 · Mar 20, 2012

Toast said: ↑

Ladies and gentleman, Ted Kaczynski:

I don't read articles from people that have engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.

Toast, by this one post, you have swept away all my dislike for you and elevated yourself in my eyes.
Congradulations.

FascistPatriot said: ↑

When I look at most people on the left I notice 2 recurring traits they share in common. The whole ideology of the left wing stems from feelings of inferiority and. By feeling inferior they begin to identify with and support the inferior. You can see this manifested in things like White guilt and feminism. Ted Kaczynski wrote a brilliant piece about all this that I encourage everyone to read.

Nice job quoting a nut job.

Also, I am utterly certain that a quick google search will turn up a myraid of equally ignorant ravings about the right perspective including, but not limited to: they feel the need to make themselves look superior to compensate for certain... lackings.

Edit:
I would also remind you that the current trend is more to the left and might makes right.

Chives · Mar 21, 2012

FascistPatriot said: ↑

Despite his crazy actions he was actually spot on about a lot of what he talked about when it came to society.

Despite the direct contradiction there, I couldn't agree more.

Spartacus · Mar 21, 2012

I have a slight suspicion that this FacistPatriot character is just a troll. I think one of the commies in the forum is fucking with us.

Chives · Mar 21, 2012

Sparticus 1244 said: ↑

I have a slight suspicion that this FacistPatriot character is just a troll. I think one of the commies in the forum is fucking with us.

I should report you for slander!

Imperial1917 · Mar 21, 2012

Chives said: ↑

Despite the direct contradiction there, I couldn't agree more.

In order for FascistPatriot to actually be taken seriously, he will have to do at least one of two things:
1) Prove that he is an actual authority on psychology.
2) Provide any source that can be relied on.
Whereas this is a source full of persuasive arguments, its also full of **** since this man has no creditable background in the field, nor has he even provided one iota of credible evidence to his argument beyond vague critizims and allusions to authorities.
Basically, you have placed your faith in the ravings of a lunatic.
ANYBODY who has some basic knowledge of theories in psychology knows that there are alot of theories out there and not necessarily any overriding doctrine.
Placing absolute, blind faith in any theory is not at all a good idea.

P.S. He overgeneralizes and claims that political fields are indictitive of psychology, which is not a proven concept, nor does he provide any proof that it is true.

I'll take his statement line by line some other time.

Chives said: ↑

I should report you for slander!

Slander is defined as false statements that prevent a person from obtaining something palpitable by defacing them. That has not actually occurred.

FascistPatriot and your own actions speak for themselves, others are merely speaking their minds.

Chives · Mar 21, 2012

Imperial1917 said: ↑

In order for FascistPatriot to actually be taken seriously, he will have to do at least one of two things:
1) Prove that he is an actual authority on psychology.
2) Provide any source that can be relied on.
Whereas this is a source full of persuasive arguments, its also full of **** since this man has no creditable background in the field, nor has he even provided one iota of credible evidence to his argument beyond vague critizims and allusions to authorities.
Basically, you have placed your faith in the ravings of a lunatic.
ANYBODY who has some basic knowledge of theories in psychology knows that there are alot of theories out there and not necessarily any overriding doctrine.
Placing absolute, blind faith in any theory is not at all a good idea.

P.S. He overgeneralizes and claims that political fields are indictitive of psychology, which is not a proven concept, nor does he provide any proof that it is true.

I'll take his statement line by line some other time.

It's so easy for you to taught logic and reason in the face of real logic and reason.

Imperial1917 · Mar 21, 2012

Chives said: ↑

It's so easy for you to taught logic and reason in the face of real logic and reason.

I would reply to this, but I see nothing to reply to. The English is too poor for me to derive any meaning to counter.

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The Psychology of Leftism

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The Psychology of Leftism

FascistPatriot voted for Obama

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