When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds - Watch Out!
Lest We Forget? We Forgot. Now, Fascism Is Here, Once Again.
(Written by a veteran of the Left!)
With virtually all of the “left” and the liberals either silent in the face of an undeniable and blatant shift towards authoritarianism, or actively cheering for it, it is clear that both the liberals and the left have lost their minds.
Which makes me think of two strange oddities of left publications’ chosen names: Jacobin and The Young Turks. The Young Turks were a historical movement of violent, fanatical extremists, heavily funded by the elite of the British Empire, to destabilize and ideally collapse the rival Ottoman Empire, which it did, with marvelous success. The Young Turks were an echo of the Jacobins, who were the violent, fanatical extremists who took over the French Revolution after it had succeeded (the Jacobins were in reality counter-revolutionaries, as well as authoritarian zealots), and proceeded to launch the infamous Reign of Terror - which was not only a spectacle of atrocities on a grand scale, but which also guillotined all of the libertarian and democratic republican leaders of the revolution. They were so successful in their purge of all libertarian, republican and democratic leaders among the revolutionaries, that a power vacuum arose, which the dictator and self-proclaimed “emperor” Napoleon was quick to seize.
Considering that two of the most prominent news and commentary websites on the left today are named Jacobin and The Young Turks, makes one wonder a few things.
1. Are the writers and other contributors to these journals utterly ignorant of history?!
2. Do the presumably billionaire-funded publishers want to discredit the left, by associating it with its gravest mistakes from history?
3. Do powerful players seek to utilize naïve leftist, “progressive” and liberal groups to foster division and destabilization, in a classic game of divide and conquer, to advance their imperial strategy?
The answer to all three would seem to be, yes. I would say, if you are politically left, or a liberal, the last thing you should want, is to be associated with violent, fanatical extremists, or the names Jacobin or The Young Turks, which are precisely two such groups! How is this not patently obvious?
Then again, you would think that the rise of the Nazis and the Soviet Union never happened, with the zealous eagerness of the liberals and the left to repeat those grave mistakes of history, by repeating the slide into authoritarianism, as we are gleefully doing now.
I guess that an utter ignorance of history is nearly universal - including among “intellectuals”, journalists and activists of the liberals and the left. How very, very tragic, and sad. We can do better; and we must.
I will add one further note, which I have said before. The real left, the thinking left, has always been anti-authoritarian. Having any trace of confusion or ambivalence in that most critical regard, means you are radically out of touch with reality, utterly ignorant of history, anthropology, sociology and political-economy, and a danger and menace to society - no better than the far right, and perhaps even worse, because you are so damned smug in your presumed self-righteousness!
Learn your history, people, or be doomed to repeat it. And yes, we are repeating it now. This is Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union rolled into one big ugly ball of totalitarian dog vomit, which we are witnessing take over the world as we speak.
Fight the fascists! Not one another! And throw off any authoritarian tendencies you might have, as you would throw off shackles and chains, for that is precisely what they are - to us all.
Liberals and the left come out of a tradition of political philosophy that seeks to improve the human social condition, and that is not inherently a problematic attitude to take, if it is approached with a measure of caution, and above all, humility. But occasionally, the liberals and/or the left, lose their minds, and fall into a frenzy of messianic zealotry. That’s where we are now. Hold onto your hats, because the liberals and the left are on a bender. Things are going to get broken. People are going to get hurt. This is going to be ugly.
The billionaires who meet annually at Davos, at the World Economic Forum, who the leading business journal of the Western hemisphere, the Financial Times calls “the de facto world government”, have decided that freedom, constitutional democracy, national sovereignty and human rights are quaint notions, to be rid of. And the liberals and the left are cheerleading for the “new normal” of global authoritarian rule. They have lost their minds.
And yes, it is Remembrance Day. “Lest we forget”? We forgot. Now, we are facing fascism, as a result, once again.
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Addendum: The extended, two-by-four lumber up side the head version, for those who are a bit thick in the skull:
In case the picture is still not yet clear, for the 70% of the people who have now been deeply indoctrinated, and quite literally brainwashed, let me elaborate a bit further. And yes, the terms indoctrinated and brainwashed are absolutely accurate, and by no means any exaggeration. I cannot do justice to the danger we are facing - words are inadequate at such times.
We know from history, that there have been periods when the people descend into a mass psychosis - meaning, to be precise, a state of mass delusion, and a dangerous dissociation from reality, frequently marked by paranoia and misplaced rage. That is precisely what is happening now. Fear has made them lose their minds. They have quite literally been frightened out of their wits, and scared senseless. They have been terrified into a state of mass irrationality. That is a dangerous thing, particularly when it happens to a whole society.
I am speaking primarily of the liberals and the left here, because they are leading the charge to the insane asylum; but the greater majority of people, across the political spectrum, are now delusional, and dissociated from reality. Sane minds are few - maybe 10-30% of the population, depending on your social circles, or less; but most of them are remaining silent, out of fear of the fascistic and delusional, hysterical horde. They instinctively know the dangers of mass psychosis. It is written in our DNA, in our ancestral memory. It says, “Watch out, when this happens!” But some few of us must speak - or it is over the cliff, into the madhouse below, that we all must go, cheering hooray, or shrieking righteous rage, all the way.
The liberals and the left believe they are being virtuous and noble, heroes and martyrs. What they are, is deeply delusional. They are being played like pawns, in a great game of empire, by oligarchs who care nothing for humanity, or the Earth, but who care only about power. Yes, the elite have become deeply corrupted, and the polls show that the vast majority of people agree with that assessment. But suddenly, in 2020-2021, the skeptical liberals, and the anti-establishment left, became the cheerleaders for neo-fascists and the corporate oligarchy which controls it! Again, they have lost their minds. It is maybe best described as Stockholm Syndrome. The people have been so traumatized that they have identified with their captors.
This is what is known in social psychology as mass psychosis, and yes, it does happen periodically throughout history - and it is happening now.
(Look up the term menticide, along with the terms, witch trials and Inquisition, because we are now reenacting those horrors, or are about to, once again.)
I could see a pogrom coming, except that that is not where the misguided rage, hatred and paranoia are being directed, so far. The mood in the air seems to me to be eerily similar to what you’d expect at a KKK rally, right before a mass lynching. But again, that is not where this misplaced rage and fear is being directed, for the moment. What the mood of the hour is most like, is that of the Inquisition. The heretics are about to be burned alive at the stake, and the hysterical mob will cheer in psychotic delight, the moonlight and firelight dancing across faces contorted with madness.
(See the paintings of Goya, for a depiction of what mass hysteria truly means - and yes, again, it does happen, and it can happen again. In fact, it is already happening now.)
But what the present mood most resembles, is the atmosphere preceding a fascist purge. And the liberals and the left are cheering it on.
At present, though the misguided rage could easily spread to other targets (China or Russia, for example, meaning risk of nuclear war, or to Jews, blacks, immigrants, whites, straights, gays….just about anybody, at this point); and it always does spread, historically, once this kind of mass hysteria and misdirected rage breaks out, and begins to take over; but currently, at the moment, the venom and the hatred are being directed at the unvaccinated - the ones who refuse to conform or obey, and who question our holy creed. It is both reminiscent of the Inquisition, and the burning of the heretics, and at once, also of the hour before a fascist purge.
Whenever a group of people are demonized and dehumanized, great atrocities always follow. Mass incarceration, prison camps, genocide, war and mob violence, are all within easy reach, once you begin to demonize any group of people. And it is happening again.
We have seen this before in our history. It can happen again, it has to be repeated. And given that we are now, already, walking - nay, running - down that same dark path, toward authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and fascism, anything is possible. We have unleashed the madness within. The pent up frustrations of decades of suffering and injustice are being focused like a laser beam of hate on those who refuse to comply with authoritarian measures - and so, we scream, in response, the authoritarian measures must be intensified! We have begun down the road to mass insanity, and we are already a frightening way along that path. Turn back now, I urge, before it is too late.
In 2006, I wrote that the USA is a powder keg, and could explode into civil war, virtually at any time. At that time, people scoffed and laughed. Now, recent polls show 70% of Americans fear civil war could break out, and over 50% are preparing for it. But when I warned of the direction we were heading, that was 2006, when things were tranquil and calm, by comparison to today. That was before the 2008 economic crisis - which, by the way, I predicted, while everyone was saying that things are just rosy, and will remain rosy. That was before Occupy, and before Black Lives Matter. And it was before the madness of the Branch Covidians, who, under the spell of covid-1984 propaganda, are now poised to tear the flesh from the heretics, before our very eyes, or at least round them all up, and put them in prison camps - for the sake of public safety, of course.
Remember that the Jacobins, who were responsible for the Reign of Terror, called themselves the Committee of Public Safety. Does that sound eerily familiar? It should.
We are on the brink, either of an explosion into civil war, or, as horrible as that would be, something even worse. Saner heads must now prevail, or we will soon enter another nightmare period of our history.
Do not say you weren’t warned.
J. Todd Ring,
November 11, 2021
Proud anarchist, left libertarian, and above all, staunch advocate for freedom, human rights, and constitutional democracy. (And no, that is no contradiction, but an intelligent separation of long term ideals, and immediate and present foundations, which cannot be lost, lest we are driven back, quite literally, into the dark ages.)
Further, highly relevant reading, from the brilliant young Canadian historian, Matthew Ehret: