Nazis XV: Deep attitudes of the Left

A natural approach in a comparisons of Nazis with (other) Leftists is to find a definition for “Left” and see how the shoe fits. Unfortunately, this is virtually impossible, as directly or indirectly mentioned in other entries of this series. However, we can look at some criteria that are common or very common fits for the Left, less common elsewhere,* and play in well with at least some notable divisions, including the divisions between current Republicans and Democrats in the U.S., the old U.S. vs. the Soviet Union, Libertarians and classical Liberals vs. Socialists and “social” Liberals, and the Swedish Moderaterna** vs. the Swedish Social-Democrats.

*But note that I do not claim that they would be the sole realm of the Left.

**At least in the incarnation that I knew well three decades ago. I am not up-to-date in detail, but do note that they have since begun to support Gender-Feminist reality distortion, which is a very bad sign.

Consider:

1. Collectivism over individualism:

   Virtually without exception, Leftism demands that the individual and his rights be ignored in favor of the (real, alleged, or misperceived) good of the collective. The main variations seems to be in whether the push for the collective is honest or merely used as an excuse in a manner similar to “Animal Farm” and in how the preference is phrased (e.g. “for the good of the people”, “for the good of the proletariat”, “for the good of Germany”, “for the common good”, “for the public good”*).

   *In some of these cases, it might be argued that we do not see a juxtaposition of individual vs. collective but of individual and some “higher cause” or other not-necessarily-collectivist concept. However: (a) The implicit intent in Leftist propaganda is typically of a collectivist nature, even if more indirectly. (Contrast this with a more medieval “for King and Country” or a more religious “for the glory of God”.) (b) To the degree that the collective misses the point in any specific Leftist case, the larger and more abstract issue of violating the rights of the individual in favor of something else remains.

   This, of course, even if the individual is a member of the favored collective—if he is not, e.g. because he belongs to the wrong class, he might lose all rights already on this count. Which leads us to:

2. Extreme “us vs. them” and “oppressor vs. oppressed” thinking:

   Attempts at this are so ubiquitous in Leftist thinking and propaganda that, I suspect, it is less a matter of an honest conflict and more of a deliberate search for a “them” in order to successfully convince the weak-minded that their support in an important fight is needed. Find a Leftist group and there will be a “them”—only who “they” are is to be clarified. (The capitalists, the bourgeoisie, the educated, the Jews, the Whites, the “cisgendered”, …)

3. Equality of outcome over equality of opportunity:

   Less common than the other items, but still quite common and of particular importance with an eye at the current U.S. and its highly destructive politics, Feminism in most of the Western world for several decades, and the far Left at more or less any time and any place.*

   *The matter is complicated by at least two issues, both of which I will ignore below: Firstly, the Left is divided between two main camps—those that openly demand equality of outcome and those who merely claim that equality of outcome is proof of inequality of opportunity. The latter need further subdivision into those who are honest-but-wrong and those who are dishonestly trying to hide their true opinions. Secondly, some groups, especially on the Old Left, seem more intent on equality of outcome on the individual level, while others, especially on the New Left, seem more focused on equality of outcome on the group level.

   This is made the worse by the often very one-sided takes on equality of outcome, where privileges, rights, duties, whatnot are often selectively counted only to favor the in-group. For instance, Feminism is notorious for demanding any right that a man might have for any woman, while not taking up duties in a corresponding manner and not offering female rights to men in exchange. A particularly perfidious case, a horrifying intellectual fraud, is the Global Gender Gap Report/Index, which is systematically made to only count “in one direction”,* leaving the nominally ideal score of 1** virtually unreachable (giving a convenient excuse to claim that “there is still much work to be done until we finally have equality”), and making even a far lower score a strong sign that equality, had it been measured fairly!, has already been reached. (Sweden, e.g., is rated at a mere 0.822 for 2022, despite, by any reasonable standard, being a country which favors women over men. With Afghanistan at 0.435, a first approximation of a corrected index might give equality at (0.435 + 0.822) / 2 = 0.6285 instead of 1. Substituting a less extreme low ranker than Afghanistan might increase that by another tenth.)

   *In at least one case, life expectancy, women must have an outright advantage (!) of 6 percent for “equality” to hold.

   **As I read the page, the highest reachable score would actually be an absurd 0.9949, but this construction would be so absurd that I cannot rule out a misstatement. Either way, the other absurdities involved ensure that no country is even close to either of 0.9949 and 1.

4. A “the end justifies the means” attitude:

   As I have noted on countless occasions, this attitude (with various variations, including “holier than thou” high-horsing) is extremely common on the Left—and because “we” are the good guys, we are allowed to lie, cheat, steal, defame, … in order to win. The other party? Does not even have the right to speak and should crawl back under its rock in shame!

   (As I have also noted on countless occasions, methods matter more than opinions and “evil is as evil does”—but the typical Leftist is too stupid to understand such a basic principle.)

(Note that this list does not include a great number of connotations of other types, e.g. a Leftist preference for propaganda over argumentation.)

This leaves us with three slam-dunk matches for the Nazis, with uncertainty only on the “equality of X” debate. Here I would need to do more legwork, but I note a current impression that (a) the Nazis allowed for more personal success, but (b) this success was contingent on being a good tool for the cause—any individual success was not there for the individual, but for the cause.

Excursion on Menschenverachtung:
With some hesitation, as this might partially be a matter not only of my connotations of the Left but also of this concept, I would add sheer Menschenverachtung, which seems to be a very often recurring issue with the Left, including the old Communist dictatorships, and which many Germans would immediately and primarily associate with the Nazis.

The literal meaning is roughly “contempt for humans” or “contempt for humanity”, but what lies behind it, at least in my associations, goes far beyond that.* This includes a common disregard for the rights of humans (sometimes even a denial that humans have rights that a Libertarian or classical Liberal, as well as many Conservatives, would see as given), a view of humans as nothing but tools (including, in a political context, as voters and tax payers, whose sole reasons to live is to keep a certain party or politician in power and to fill the governments wallet for the benefit of this party/politician), a view of humans as sheep to be guided, the assumption that the broad masses are too stupid to be allowed to make decisions for themselves** or even to form their own opinions***.

*I make no secret of a low opinion of humanity and most humans of my own, but I differ very strongly in what comes after, what conclusions I draw, what limits I suggest, etc.

**Without a doubt, the broad masses are deeply stupid—but not so stupid that they should be treated as children with regard to their own lives. This to be contrasted with my own repeated claims that the broad masses are too stupid to be allowed to force their will upon others. There simply is an enormous difference between making (potentially bad) decisions for oneself and making them for others. I note further that most politicians are highly unimpressive, themselves, when it comes to intelligence and understanding of topics like good governance. For many or most, their presumption to lead amounts to the blind leading the blind—or, worse, leading the seeing.

***Very similar: I might consider most humans stupid, but I respect their right to form their own opinions—possibly, the most central single right there is.

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