The Left, Political Correctness and Cult Behavior

Frontpage ^ | April 10, 2017 | Carl Lasner

[detective]

Michael Savage famously said that liberalism is a mental disorder. I think it is more precise to say that liberalism is a cult. Isolation, threats and routine shaming all serve to silence cult members who cross them, exactly as happens with political correctness. The dreaded label of racist or bigot chills most opposition. Those closest to you will ostracize you for expressing an incorrect view, exactly as in a cult. Eventually, the inclination is to censor what you not only say but what you think. Most people upon being intimidated will rein in their perceptions and even their curiosity because the pain of social isolation is so terrifying. And as in a cult, there is a reflexive herd effect in which an almost unanimous consensus sees the offender as crazy or beyond the pale. It is far easier to create a new world in a void created by the silence of political correctness.

I heard David Horowitz state recently that political correctness serves to bring conformity, a lockstep in behavior. While that is clearly true, my belief is that conformity is a symptom and the disease is far more insidious. I think the primary purpose of political correctness is to corrupt character. When I read Solzhenitsyn, one of the most chilling aspects of the gulag was the practice of forcing someone to agree with behavior that the targeted person knew was wrong. Self awareness of participating in a lie would cause that individual to feel compromised morally and to therefore lose the will to resist. For me, this is evil at its essence -- a human being submits to self betrayal and can no longer feel worthy to fight back. 

[detective]

Political correctness is a tool for liberals to arrest debate, questioning and criticism. Political correctness is a strategy for suppressing not just freedom of speech but all individual freedom.

[Red Badger]

big·ot
noun
noun: bigot; plural noun: bigots

a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.

“don’t let a few small-minded bigots destroy the good image of the city”

synonyms: chauvinist, partisan, sectarian; More
racist, sexist, homophobe, dogmatist, jingoist

“he comes off as a naïve, close-minded bigot”

Origin
late 16th century (denoting a superstitious religious hypocrite): from French, of unknown origin.

[spirited irish]

Political correctness-—a psycho-spiritual tool wielded by the depraved human predators for four primary purposes: capture of human wills for purposes of domination, degradation, and evil

[IrishBrigade]

These are the ones most likely to resort to name calling and intolerance, often after pointing out how judgmental anyone is who disagree with them.

in all fairness, it must be pointed out that this behavior is not limited to the progressive left...

[Snowybear]

I’ve likened it to Scientology. Both are obstinate in their beliefs and if you disagree you are ridiculed and disconnected.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Political Correctness is the occult manner by which fascism is being made palatable to presumably anti-fascists. The feudal globalist Nazi “New World Order” have near-identical aims as the Gaia worshiping globalists Marxists- world government. Leftists are blind to their enabling of the Nazi Internationale via their mania for victim identification and pathological quantities of empathy.

[mrsmel]

“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” ― Theodore Dalrymple

[detective]

“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” ― Theodore Dalrymple

Excellent quote.

I enjoy the writings of the British physician with the pen name Theodore Dalrymple.

[GOPJ]

We don’t hold a candle next to liberal name calling and intolerance... they wrote the book.

[generally]

Thanks for that post and thanks for posting the original article.

This is well worth reading.

I particularly like the way the author explains the four different types of liberals. It helps to explain to many conservatives why not all liberals are evil. Some just need to have their eyes opened. They are swimming in a sea of toxic information (MSM) and if they ever looked outside that echo chamber and considered alternate ideas and opinions and saw the many facts that the liberal media suppresses, they might modify some of their views.

[sphinx]

That’s a great quote. Do you have the source?

[GOPJ]

Theodore Dalrymple

[mrsmel]

Yes:) Theodore Dalrymple

[mrsmel]

He has a column at Takimag that is pretty good.

[mrsmel]

Liberals may not be evil, but the vast majority of our opponents aren't liberals, they're leftist, and leftists are almost irredeemably evil. Witness the college students who not only oppose dissenting views, they don't want to allow them to even be heard, and they don't want to hear the opposing views themselves. They don't even want to defend their beliefs. There's a reason for that, whether most of them consciously realise it or not. The reason is that somewhere in a tiny part of their minds, they understand that their beliefs are indefensible. They also realise that they're hypocritical, and they're afraid of having that pointed out, though they're shameless in practicing hypocrisy. They just don't want anyone who is potentially unaware of that, to have it brought to their attention.

[Fred Hayek]

Cult conditioning

[mrsmel]

Their leadership and their propaganda arm (the msm) are even more shameless. They don’t care if their hypocrisy is pointed out, if they have power. Most of their causes aren’t really the reason for their avowed positions, they’re simply a means of attaining and maintaining power.

[mrsmel]

I’m not certain that they even care if they “convert” all people to their side, as long as they can stop them from voicing dissent. Eventually, prevent them from even thinking dissent, ie thoughtcrime, the better to control society. If they can’t convert everyone, they can at least beat them down so much, through shutting down free speech, that it won’t matter if people really agree with them, and if enough people are cowed into silence and/or apathy.

[Hiro Protaginast]

“These are the ones most likely to resort to name calling and intolerance, often after pointing out how judgmental anyone is who disagree with them.

in all fairness, it must be pointed out that this behavior is not limited to the progressive left...”

Kind of like the Cult of Trump.

[mrsmel]

I have yet to hear of any of the “cult of Trump” ( and I myself hate cults of personality, especially in politics, where politicians have real power over our lives and our nation and policies), shutting down any leftist speakers and denying them freedom of speech in a public venue where they were given a platform by the pertinent institution. If that had happened, we can best believe that the msm would've pounced on it. Even Liberty University respectfully gave Sanders a platform and listened to him, and allowed him to say his say without disruption.