Quote: Originally Posted by
PoliticalChic 
Quote: Originally Posted by
American Horse He dropped his ideals in the face of realilty and became pragmatic?
Greetings, AH.
Earlier you asked about the modern liberal.
Actually, I'd like to put together some thoughts on the differences between the liberal, the fellow traveler, and the true believer.
But for now, I'd like to know what you think of these:
1. A Liberals axiom is that harmony is natural, a misreading of human nature. It should be remembered that when Woodrow Wilson asked Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France, “Don’t you believe that all men are brothers,” Clemenceau replied “Yes- Cain and Abel.” The result of this belief is that country’s defenses are lowered by liberals, as represented by the Church Committee hearings, the Pike committee, the Torricelli Amendments, all of which tied the hands of the intelligence community, and made it necessary for the Bush Administration to use enhanced interrogation methods. And, of course, the liberal community raged that we were not treating terrorists like our brothers. To gain an understanding of human nature, consider reading The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris. Before I answer, I believe there are a couple of different liberal types. Those who are in the power game, striving to work their way up through the structure as "public service" a life long occupation in the system, and there are the "minions" (the minor players) who are simply "true believers", whose actions are mildly innocent, but they firmly believe their hearts are in the right place.
Naked Ape - Read it.
And I think most liberals understand human nature better than they let on, but to pretend otherwise is more useful. Thus they don't seem to have a clue about the power of "incentives." But this pretense is more useful to accomplish their goal, a large part of which is polarization, to act out on their initiatives and see where they lead. Since they are “the people” (in the embodiment of the Democrat party -"party of the people") they assume they will always be in power to fix things to their will later. To not seem to aim for harmony would disable their projection that conservatives are divisive; thus their position that Republicans, the embodiment of the conservative creed, are, in the main criminals, criminalizing their policies and actions.
Another charade; their policies allow them to work within the capitalist system to undermine it to their own benefit, to spread the wealth to their supporters. But notice that the GRE structure lends itself to confusion as to its pretext. The conservative has to keep hammering at that deception, lest it be lost on the ordinary person living out their busy lives.
They know that people will behave in their own best interests; and believe it firmly. That’s why they are always complaining that Republican minions vote against their own best interests when they vote in favor of business, both small and large. Its anomalous that certain people would not cheat or use intimidation if it enabled them to gain their goals with its use.
To pretend that utopia is an attainable goal is the only way to drive the “true believers” amongst them to follow using their passion of frustration as a politically uniting force. If it were not attainable, they would direct their passions (of frustration) to otherwise practical attainable goals. Although most liberals are doing fine they spend a lot of their passion in defense of the underprivileged, or the deprived, or the underdog, a noble cause, which wins hearts and minds. Their efforts are generally macro instead of micro; focused on this or that element of humanity instead of the individual who must instead be clumped together as “losers”; thus Algore or Biden, or any liberal gives only a pittance to charity, because it is more useful to transfer wealth on a grand scale to the needy.
Of course they do, because it keeps their issues to the fore. They enjoy the fight. Notice they are always “fighting for” something. Words pass for accomplishments; issues resolved are issues lost.
Quote:
6. For liberals, feeling passes for knowing. We see this in the oft-repeated claim that the use of “torture” techniques has been a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. Where is the proof of this claim?
For liberals, taking guns away from lawful citizens is tantamount to solving the crime problem. Feeling passes for knowing.
And this passes for logic, while the conservative idea of letting everyone have arms seems irrational to them. The proof is in the pudding. Just the knowledge that everyone in town could possibly have a concealed weapon is a deterrent against using a weapon for crime in that town. The natural inclination, then, would be to take one’s criminal inclinations to a district where weapons were prohibited, leaving everyone unguarded.
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7. Liberals are childlike in their view of the world. If only we destroy our nuclear weapons, so will our adversaries. Senator Biden, who is today our vice- president, and was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, once advocated a complete on ban covert action. Former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli thought that the CIA should not associate with unsavory characters. Thus our intell community is blindfolded.
This follows the same pattern of taking guns away from lawful citizens, or perhaps police going under-cover to reveal the plans of the enemy; the danger of becoming them. But that childlike view passes for logic to their minions.
In tandem to your Naked Ape mention I recommend
The True Believer for an understanding of the nature of mass movements (Eric Hoffer). It is eye opening.