GROUP IDENTITY OBSESSION

At one time Leftists (and others) would condemn racism because it �categorized� people. Treating people as instances of some group to which they belonged rather than as individuals was widely seen as a VERY bad thing. Today that seems to be all turned around. Hatred of Israelis and Jews generally once again seems to have become de rigeur among many Leftists. Why?

One one level it is easily understood: Hitler was a socialist so it is surely no surprise that modern-day socialists should share his views.

It goes deeper than that, however. Leftists now LOVE categorizing people -- as long as the category is one that can be seen as at a disadvantage in some way. It does not even have to be a minority category. In most countries there are slightly more women than men but almost every Leftist will tell you that women everywhere are �oppressed�. Middle-class white males of Anglo-Saxon ancestry living in the �Western� world seem to be just about the only category that cannot be classed as �oppressed�. THEY are the universal ENEMY!

Enormously crass and silly though this all is, it seems to be taken as gospel by many members of the selfsame �enemy� class -- as long as they are also Leftists, journalists, university professors, mainstream clergy etc. Such people seek credit for themselves by treating all others outside their own self-proclaimed group as being especially privileged. Yes. Being in an �oppressed� class is seen by such people as earning the �oppressed� ones great advantages. It is, for instance, a �hate crime� to speak any ill of any member of such a class, but if you say exactly the same thing about any member of the �enemy� class, that is NOT a �hate crime�. THAT is fair comment!

Such Leftist gyrations would once have been called double standards, prejudice and discrimination. Leftists are such moral and intellectual dwarfs that they simply replace hatred of blacks with hatred of whites.

Needless to say, this apparent self-loathing tends to be greeted with considerable glee by most of those upon whom it confers advantages. Why would it not? So we have a modern-day equivalent of a class-war or race-war which, as usual in such wars, is focused on just one enemy. But unlike most such wars, most of the attacking is being done by people within the �enemy� ranks! Fortunately, however, it is only a verbal and financial war. If it were a hot war the traitors would have to be shot!

It probably would be helpful, however, if the war-mongers concerned were seen for what they are -- People who foster intergroup hatred to serve their own self-glorifying ends. They are the modern world�s equivalent of the racists of the past.

They would of course totally reject any parallel: They would say that racists sought the destruction of others whereas they want to foster harmony and help others. But hatred, prejudice and discrimination are strange tools to use if you really want to help others and foster harmony. Welfare programs, for instance, do not require those helped to be members of some �victim� class. Welfare can be targeted simply at need (e.g. level of income). So in the absence of any need for all the hatred, prejudice and discrimination, its widespread use by Leftists surely tells us yet again what is really in their hearts.

And, after all, Leftists have always loved �groupthink� (to use Orwell�s famous term) and rejected the primacy of the individual so it is rather surprising that they ever rejected racism at all. That phase in their history would now however seem to be coming to an end -- showing that their opposition to it was only ever yet another attempt to gain kudos for themselves.

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DOUBLE STANDARDS FOR ISRAEL TOO

Quoted from Eric Hoffer, writing in the LA Times of 5/26/1968 but still relevant today:

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.

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EXCOMMUNICATING HITLER

A little while ago, Gareth Parker noted that I had blogged on the historical evidence showing that Hitler was a Leftist. He then added his own comment to the effect that Leftists had long ago �excommunicated� Hitler. I thought that this was an excellent turn of phrase: Excommunicating your brother does not make him any less your brother. It just means that you do not acknowledge him as such.

Gareth�s post did however cause a minor storm at Mental Space -- a Leftist blog complete with Stalinist iconography. They did not like my history lesson at all. The main thrust of their response does however seem worth a comment: It was claimed that it did not make Hitler a Leftist when he called himself a friend of the worker etc. It was pointed out that conservatives also claim to be friends of the worker etc. And that is true. Conservatives do claim to be good for the worker (and for others) in the long run.

But show me one conservative who claims to be a SOCIALIST friend of the worker! Hitler�s party was a �Socialist Workers Party� (�Nationalsoziaslistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei�). How anybody can get anything but Leftism out of that escapes me.

Even the fact that Hitler added the word �National� into the name of his party does not bar it from being Leftist. There are several member parties of the Socialist International that have the word �national� in their names to this day.

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SMOKING

The estimable Peggy Noonan has given an interesting dissection of Liberal motivations in her article on the �persecution� of smokers but I cannot agree with her conclusion that smokers have the right to impose their foul smells on others. As a libertarian, I am perfectly happy for smokers to practice their vice among consenting adults in private but it seems to me a serious and totally unnecessary attack on the right of others to breathe unpolluted air if they smoke in the presence of nonsmokers. Just this once, I think that the �liberals� have got it right.

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KRUGMAN ON THE MEDIA

Vin Ferrari has a fascinating piece on the latest Krugman diatribe in which Krugman implies that it is wrong that the political Right should get ANY support for their views via the media!!! Phew!! Welcome back, Stalin.


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