People who regard themselves as of the Right are displaying an insane and blinkered optimism that they are winning, and rolling-back Leftism.
This is because they do not understand what the Left is, in its fundamental nature.
If they did understand, those who proclaim themselves of the Right would realize that they are merely functioning as a subtype of the Left.
The political Right supposes that the Left is an ideology rooted in some principles. They believe that the Left IS these policies that I call the Litmus Tests: I mean things like socialism, feminism, antiracism, anti-antisemitism, the Climate Agenda.
In general terms, the self-identified Right define the Left in terms of Political Correctness, SJWs, Wokeness - and their manifestations in the mass media, law, employment regulations etc.
Because they suppose that the Left is an ideology of "Wokeness" the Right imagine that reversals of specific social practices and regulations represent a rolling-back of Leftism in their nation, or in the world.
When the Right sees such laws, fundings, rhetoric being undone; they think the Left is being defeated.
But this is completely wrong; because the Left is a negative ideology, an ideology of opposition, and none of the Litmus Tests are core features of Leftism - they might all, in principle, be undone and the Left still be as strong as ever.
All the Left ideologies are negative in form: the Left is (in various times and places) against many things (capitalism, the bourgeoisie, inequality, patriarchy, European people, Christians) - but is not in favour of any state of affairs as an ultimate and real goal.
In other words the Left is protean in nature, fluid, adapting - it is continually discarding old ideologies and taking up new ones.
The Left used to be in favour of economic communism - but not any more; in favour of native-born male industrial workers (the working class) - but not any more; in favour of equality of opportunities and unequal outcomes - but not any more.
Leftism can and does discard anything that is currently inexpedient; because there are an endless number of alternatives.
And there is in fact no coherent thing as "the Right"; because the Right is merely opposition to the various Leftist oppositions.
Leftist ideology is double-negative (i.e. against what they currently regard as bad things), the "the Right" is a triple negation (i.e. against those who are against what the Left currently calls bad things).
No wonder those endless essays striving to define the Right never gets anywhere!
This is why the Right is so wrong about the rolling back of Leftism. It supposes that the Left abandoning some of its recent woke agenda represents some kind of a defeat, but it is just the usual slippery shape-shifting of Leftism; which now has other priorities - especially war.
Since Leftism is fundamentally oppositional and negative - Leftism is essentially destructive.
War is very destructive; hence world war is perhaps an ultimate expression of Leftism.
(And it matters nothing that pacifism, anti-war, anti-violence; was one of the original roots of Leftism - from more than 200 years ago.)
War can give Leftism everything and more of whatever losses it may suffer from dropping a few strands of political correctness.
Just look at what the Leaders of Western nations are actually doing, where they are putting most of their effort - they are in practice (not in what they say, but in what they do over time) angling for more war.
Not to win a war, but for the maximizing the destruction of war: destruction of economies, societies, trade, positive national identities, of nature (aka "the environment") - expansion of such negations as lies, resentment, and despair.
We are - and have been for a few years - seeing more and more wars, and what war brings. expanding and escalating the already existing World War with its multiple fronts - but especially in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
We can see the globalist totalitarian leadership class at work engineering wars all over the place; recently on the Asian Subcontinent. This isn't easy to do, there are plenty of people who don't want war - for obvious reasons. But that is what "They" are serious about.
Ultimately, of course, politics is downstream of the spiritual war of this world; Leftism is a tool of evil in its opposition to God and Divine Creation.
Yes, the sexual revolution was and is a deadly tool of corruption; but a self-righteous and hate-driven war of each against all would be deadlier still.
When the Right celebrates a few small "victories" (many of which turn out to mere words, and no substantive change; they miss that the Left now has bigger fish to fry, and other things it care much more about.
The woke agenda might be "forgotten" as thoroughly as the days (a century ago) when white European men were the Left's heroes! - but the Left is continuing to win, and win where it matters most.
And this will continue until those on the Right recognize that they are part of the problem, and repent.
5 comments:
Case in point: When you listed “antisemitism” as a litmus test, I wasn’t sure if you meant antisemitism or anti-antisemitism, since both have been “Left” positions.
@Wm - You are correct! but it was a typo - I have modified antisemitism to read anti-antisemitism.
Thank you for your thoughts, especially the last word, "repent". We need more of this
My first comment here. Bruce, what would be a couple of examples of conservatives repenting in accordance with your essay?
I enjoy your writing. Other than these few blogs I read, it seems impossible to meet intelligent men to converse with in real life.
@V - That's the problem. Repentance is always possible, apparently easy - but seems terribly rare.
Failing Litmus Tests seems like a door where you can go in and be welcomed, but then people refuse to come back out - presumably because that would mean admitting their error.
It is apparently terribly important to those on the self-identified political Right - always to have been correct about everything - in their own eyes and that of their community.
Presumably, that's why "Rightists" spend so much of their time engaged in (subtle or obvious) self-aggrandizement; and in calling others (who fail to live up to their stratospheric standards - i.e. who disagree with the word-of-their-Godlike-selves) idiots, retards, and other low status names.
If your primary concern is winning status games, then you are never wrong about anything - and can never repent.
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