Leftist

In the 1920s, the Oregon legislature passed a KKK-supported measure which prohibited public school teachers from wearing religious clothing;[1] the ACLU opposed repealing the law in the 2010s.[2]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a progressive Democrat.

Leftist refers to someone on the Left side of the political spectrum, such as a particularly liberal member of the American Democrat Party, a member of the British Labour Party, a member of the Canadian Liberal or New Democratic parties, a progressive, socialist, Democratic Socialist, or (to the far Left) a Communist. A Leftist supports collectivism, more government control of the economy, direct government control over social policy (although there were some leftists, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, and Noam Chomsky who adhered to a purely anarchistic view of the world), including federal control over education at all levels, lower military spending, censorship of religion, a living constitution, same-sex "marriage", a more unisex society, globalism, transnationalism, feminism, the homosexual agenda, anti-Semitism, racism, support for Islam, genital mutilation of children,^[3] taxpayer-funded abortion, and sometimes even taxpayer-funded terrorism^[4] and censorship of Christianity and social media in the public arena. Some leftists even want a totalitarian one-party world government.^{[Citation Needed]}

Origins of leftist ideology[edit]

French Revolution[edit]

Capture of the Bastille

See also: Secular left, History of Atheism, and French Revolution

During the French Reign of Terror of the early Enlightenment, the Left attempted a de-Christianization movement to replace the "reactionary" worship of God and replace it with the worship of national patriotism, or the Patrie. Many churches were closed and either converted into Temples of Reason,^[5] or otherwise demolished outright under the order of Jacobin leader Maximilien de Robespierre under the pretense that their design was "undemocratic."^[6] The Left even formed a new calendar secularizing Christian holidays. This calendar was short-lived though and was never accepted in the rural, more religious parts of France.

The term Left has its origins in 1790s, when in the French revolutionary parliament the representatives for the socialists sat to the presiding officer's left.^[7] In addition, it was also stated that the left-wing had some origins in the Book of Revelation when Jesus Christ transfigured people on his right and left as sheep and goats, respectively.^[8][9]

19th century European leftists[edit]

Marx[edit]

Karl Marx

Karl Marx (May 5, 1818^[10] – March 14, 1883) was a bourgeois^[11] political pamphleteer,^[12] polemicist^[13] and propagandist,^[14] credited as co-founder (with Friedrich Engels) of communism^[15] and specifically of Marxism. Although Marx always considered himself an economist,^[16] "the Marxist system as a whole is not regarded as economics by the mainstream," according to Don Ross, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics.^[17] Ex-Marxist^[18] economist Thomas Sowell agrees:

William Coleman of the Australian National University actually goes so far as to identify Marx as an "anti-economist."^[20] Ross concurs, labeling Marx "the most influential anti-economist of all."^[21] Even Michael Harrington, a well-known Marxist,^[22] in his book, The Twilight of Capitalism, devoted an entire chapter to Marx "The anti-economist."^[23] Nevertheless, men and women of zeal, often well-meaning but without understanding^[24] of economics, ravaged the 20th century reifying Marx's anti-economics—in the process killing more people than all the century's wars combined.^[25]

Bakunin[edit]

Anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin critiqued prominent leftist theoritician Karl Marx in 1873 with these words,

"..if the proletariat is to be the ruling class, over whom is it to rule? ...the peasant "rabble" who, as it is known, does not enjoy the sympathy of the Marxists who consider it to represent a lower level of culture, will probably be ruled by the factory proletariat of the cities. Or, if this problem is to be approached nationalistically, the Slavs will be placed in the same subordinate relationship to the victorious German proletariat in which the latter now stands to the German bourgeoisie." ^[26]

It should be noted that Bakunin was also a leftist, and in fact, the only difference he had from Marx was the exact extent that they should get rid of government. In addition, he also declared regarding anarchism: "Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life--the passion for destruction is also a creative passion!"^[27] Richard Wagner also noted of Bakunin that “The annihilation of all civilization was the objective on which he had set his heart…. It was necessary, he said, to picture the whole European world - transformed into a pile of rubble.”^[28][29]

United States leftists[edit]

Main article: American liberalism

State planning[edit]

Debs for President poster, 1904

In the United States men such as Eugene Debs, Maurice Hilquit and Norman Thomas believed they could, by a gradual series of alterations in the structure of society, create a truly democratic world in which all people would enjoy not merely freedom, but prosperity. They believed this could not be achieved under the system of private property and profit. They advocated a gradual acquisition by the State of all the great utilities, transportation, communication, and basic industries such as coal, oil, and steel.

The dream of a cooperative commonwealth in which all would share equally in the prosperity created by an economic system owned by the people was the vision of Socialists. This in theory would end poverty, ignorance and crises. The idea was to nationalize banks, railroads, all means of transport, mines, and a few basic industries, but leave some factories, stores, farms, entertainment industries, etc., in the hands of private owners. The government would assume responsibility for making the economy work, for the well-being of all the citizens, their protection from the hazards of life, poverty, sickness, and old age. To make the whole economy work continuously without occasional boom-bust cycles, the government would create economic planning boards staffed by a bureaucratic class which would continuously study and observe the functioning of the economic system and make plans covering production, prices, distribution, financing, profits, wages, hours, etc. Thus there would be Planned Capitalism, with the State responsible for the planning and for ensuring the carrying out of its plans through great government bureaus armed with the necessary powers to enforce compliance.

Borrowing from fascism[edit]

Benito Mussolini after gaining power

In the 1920s Benito Mussolini had adopted the Planned Capitalist State and gave it the name "fascism". Adolf Hitler adopted the same idea and called it National Socialism. Mussolini and Hitler both realized that a system which imposes a vast complex of decrees upon a people while subjecting them to confiscatory taxes to support the immense activities of the government cannot be operated except by an absolute government that has the power to enforce compliance. Prior to World War II, this type of system had spread all over Europe. For nearly 70 years all the countries in Europe, with Germany in the lead, had been experimenting with the idea of the welfare state, the State which attempts to provide its people with jobs and protection from all the hazards of life.

This system is the direct opposite of classical liberalism. It is the negation of the classical liberal philosophy which for decades has been fighting to emancipate the people from the tyranny of the all-powerful State. During the New Deal this doctrine became known in America as "liberalism". Liberals did not admit that it implied the restoration to the State those very powers which had been stripped from the State as the means of giving people freedom. They called it the planned economy. But it was and is fascism by whatever name it is known. Incrementally the government must be made stronger, and the rights of the citizens reduced.

Modern leftists[edit]

See also: Cultural Marxism and Long march through the institutions

Modern leftists in the United States have come under increasing criticism as advocates of thought control.^[30] Author David Limbaugh cites, "Consider the subjects of evolution, global warming, special rights for homosexuals and abstinence education. Consider efforts of the Left to silence conservative talk radio. Consider the mainstream media's arrogant denial of its transparent liberal bias, pronouncing itself to be above politics and inherently objective and its critics somehow skewed....Consider the leftist refrain that red state conservatives do not merely possess a different world view, but are not part of the 'reality-based community.'"

Gramsci[edit]

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was a lieutenant of Joseph Stalin who headed the Italian branch of the International Communist movement (Comintern). After several failed assassination attempts on Mussolini, Gramsci was imprisoned in 1926 until his death in 1937. While in prison Gramsci wrote his Prison Notebooks, speculating on the failure of violent revolution to materialize in Western Europe as Karl Marx had predicted. Gramsci's works are considered by Socialists to be foundational to modern public education and Cultural Marxism.^[31][32][33]

Gramsci's theory of "cultural hegemony" states that the ruling capitalist "oppressor" class uses cultural institutions, such as "traditional marriage," to maintain power. The "oppressors" develop a "hegemonic culture" using ideology unlike Socialists who use violence, economic force, and coercion. "Hegemonic culture" propagates its own values and norms so that they become "common sense" values and thus maintain the status quo. According to Wikipedia, this "Hegemonic power is therefore used to maintain consent to the capitalist order, rather than coercive power using force" as Marxism does "to maintain order. This cultural hegemony is produced and reproduced" by the dominant Christian oppressor class "through the institutions that form the superstructure."

Joseph A. Buttigieg, Pete Buttigieg's father, was a founding member of the International Gramsci Society and served as the executive secretary."^[34]

Leftism: Use of condemnation/mockery rather than reasonable argumentation[edit]

See also: Atheism and mockery

In a BloombergView article, Stephen L. Carter wrote about the Left:

Historically, atheists have skewed towards the left side of the political aisle (see: Atheism and politics and Secular left and Atheism and communism).^{[36][37][38][39][40]}

Although the secular left is known for ridiculing religion since at least the time of French Revolution (see: Atheism and mockery), the secular Left is known for its humorlessness when it comes to others mocking of its ideology (See also: Atheism and humor and Atheism and intolerance and Atheist hypocrisy).

Leftism and violence[edit]

See also: 2020 Leftist insurrection and Left-wing violence in the Trump era

Leftist ideology is known for its propensity to induce and inspire some of the most heinous and mindless acts of senseless violence, hate and murder.

• A Leftist deliberately swerved his pick-up truck to kill a Harley-Davidson motorcycle rider.^[41]
• Leftists defaced the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..^[42]
• Leftists tore down a statue to Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave.^[43]
• Leftists vandalized statues of Mahatma Gandhi in Washington, London and Manchester.
• Leftists defaced the statue of Winston Churchill in London who defeated Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
• In keeping with San Francisco values, leftists tore down the statue of Ulysses S. Grant who accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
• In Madison, Wisconsin, leftists tore down the statue of Col. Christian Heg, an abolitionist who gave his life to free Blacks from slavery. The same leftist homophobes nearly beat to death a homosexual Democrat state senator who witnessed the violence.
• In Boston, Massachusetts, leftists defaced the 54th Regiment Memorial to Black soldiers in the Civil War.^[44]
• In Seattle's CHOP zone, leftists shot three Blacks, killing two, one of them a child. The third survivor was also a child.
• In Atlanta, Georgia, leftists murdered an 8-year-old Black girl and a Black male adult as part of the Black Lives Matter protests.
• In St. Louis, Missouri, leftist murdered a 77-year-old retired Black police captain in retaliation for the death of George Floyd.
• In Oakland, California, leftists murdered a Black federal security policeman to protest police brutality against Blacks.
• In Washington, D.C., leftists defaced the World War II memorial to commemorate the soldiers who defeated fascism.
• Leftists are church burners.^[45][46]

The future of Leftism[edit]

See also: Decline of leftism and Decline of the secular left

See also[edit]

• Leftism and humor
• War on Freedom
• Peoples Temple Agricultural Collective
• Leftist chants
• Alliance for Global Justice

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• The Imploding Leftist Establishment, American Thinker
• V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.
• John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.), THE MOTIVATIONS OF POLITICAL LEFTISTS