> Who exactly are you talking about?
It's very common in both alternative/anti-idpol left wing (stuidpol/Redscare) and contrarian/non-MAGA right wing subreddits.
He provided one of the best and most relevant-to-today critiques of the progressive virtue-signalling strain of American liberalism that's very popular today.
> What specifically from him do you like the most?
These three parts in Chapter 1 always stuck in my head:
- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM
- FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY
- OVERSOCIALIZATION
Copied the first 2 below:
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM
6. Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply troubled society. One of
the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism,
so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to
the discussion of the problems of modern society in general.
7. But what is leftism? During the first half of the 20th century leftism could
have been practically identified with socialism. Today the movement is
fragmented and it is not clear who can properly be called a leftist. When we
speak of leftists in this article we have in mind mainly socialists,
collectivists, “politically correct” types, feminists, gay and disability
activists, animal rights activists and the like. But not everyone who is
associated with one of these movements is a leftist. What we are trying to
get at in discussing leftism is not so much movement or an ideology as
a psychological type, or rather a collection of related types. Thus, what we
mean by “leftism” will emerge more clearly in the course of our discussion of
leftist psychology. (Also, see paragraphs 227-230.)
8. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we
would wish, but there doesn’t seem to be any remedy for this. All we are
trying to do here is indicate in a rough and approximate way the two
psychological tendencies that we believe are the main driving force of modern
leftism. We by no means claim to be telling the WHOLE truth about leftist
psychology. Also, our discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We
leave open the question of the extent to which our discussion could be
applied to the leftists of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call
“feelings of inferiority” and “oversocialization.” Feelings of inferiority
are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is
characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment
is highly influential.
FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY
10. 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.
11. 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.)
12. 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.
13. 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.)
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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. [1] 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
https://www.josharcher.uk/static/files/2018/01/Industrial_So...