[nathanbedford]

Jason:

I think we are on the same wavelength. If you accept the distinction which I draw between leftist elites and their useful idiots, you, me, and the rabbi are in accord. The bulk of the left are as you described, self deluded, arrogant, petulant, and in deep denial. They are the dupes of The Frankfurt School whose baleful influence is far more persuasive than you accept and, paradoxically, so much harder to recognize because it has become the very fabric of our society.

Whether one examines radical feminism, hatred of religion, hatred of America or any of the other excressences of the left which were explicitly contrived by The Frankfurt School as tools for the destruction of Western democracy, one is forced to the conclusion, "there is no other plausible explanation" apart from a cold-blooded willingness to risk the caliphate (just as Mao was willing to risk Japanese victory and perpetual occupation of his country) for a greater chance to rule.

[justa-hairyape]

....a cold-blooded willingness to risk the caliphate (just as Mao was willing to risk Japanese victory and perpetual occupation of his country) for a greater chance to rule.

You might also find similarities in the French Revolution. The period in question was originally called the 'Reign of Terror'. A populace based revolution had just taken power from the long running French Monarchy. The French apparently were perhaps following the leads of the earlier failed English Revolution and the recently successful American Revolution. Unfortunately for the French, after their first successful Revolution, governance by the populace turned evil very quickly. One of the groups that participated within that 'Reign of Terror' was the Jacobin Club. It had a short life, but was perhaps the first leftist cabal. Even today the word Jacobin is still commonly known for leftist revolutionary.

[JasonC]

No, not just the bulk, the elite of the modern left is as I describe. And a big part of their problem is that they are conspiracy theorists chasing imaginary ideological boogeymen, which puts you and me less on the same wavelength than you might want, and you and them more on the same wavelength than you should want.

The insanity of the modern left is not a conspiracy, and no one is minding your imaginary control room. They watch insightful BBC documentaries about how the US went facist, rather than reading Adorno. They get their pop psychology from glossy magazines and self help books, not from reading Marcuse. The people reading Adorno these days are conservatives. Liberals could not get through Minima Moralia, it would make their head hurt and they do not remotely have the background required to understand a tenth of it. They don't know Gramsci either, you have to tell them who he was.

Parties and ideologies run on autopilot, as the disorder in the heads of the dons emerges in the world a hundred year later. If it were an intellectual debate it would be easy to discuss their sources with them, but they have no idea who they are. Not the bum at the bus station, not any imaginary rank and file, the elite, the MIT and Harvard grads with money and power.