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The demon in liberalism
The Washington Times ^ | July 14, 2019 | Daniel Pipes

Posted on 07/15/2019 3:14:15 PM PDT by TBP

Now, along comes Ryszard Legutko, a Polish professor of philosophy and leading politician, with a better answer. His book, translated by Teresa Adelson, “The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies” (Encounter), methodically shows the surprising but substantial similarities between Soviet-style communism and modern liberalism as defined by Sweden or the European Union or Barack Obama.

First, the ideologues retreat into fantasy which they fervently try to impose on unwilling subjects. Communists make colossal efforts to convince their vassals that they prosper far more than those wretches living in capitalist countries; liberals turn two genders into 71 or make immigrant crimes disappear. When things go seriously wrong with their projects, both respond not by rethinking their premises but illogically, by demanding the application of ever-more pure communism or liberalism. They rely heavily on conspiracy theories: Communists blame capitalists and liberals blame corporations — for example, to explain away San Francisco’s having America’s most property crimes or why “Seattle is Dying” from an epidemic of vagrancy. Second, when dissidents inevitably appear, communists and liberals alike do what’s necessary to repress their opinions. Put differently, both are prepared to coerce their benighted populations “into freedom,” as Mr. Legutko puts it. This means, of course, controlling and even suppressing free speech. In the communist case, government censorship offices exclude anything negative about socialism, with doleful consequences for anyone who persists. In the liberal case, Internet providers, social media giants, schools, banks, ride-share services, hotels and cruise lines do the dirty work of de-platforming critics who engage in what’s called hate speech, which might mean outrageously asserting that there are only two genders. Of course, Islam is a treacherous topic: One can get fined for wondering if the prophet Muhammad was a pedophile or go to jail for a cartoon.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: communists; danielpipes; elites; elitism; elitists; fascists; ilhanomar; leftism; liberalism; liberals; michigan; minnesota; progressives; progressivism; rashidatlaib; ryszardlegutko
As David Horowitz says, "Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out."
1 posted on 07/15/2019 3:14:15 PM PDT by TBP
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To: TBP

More readable. Sorry about that.

Now, along comes Ryszard Legutko, a Polish professor of philosophy and leading politician, with a better answer. His book, translated by Teresa Adelson, “The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies” (Encounter), methodically shows the surprising but substantial similarities between Soviet-style communism and modern liberalism as defined by Sweden or the European Union or Barack Obama.

First, the ideologues retreat into fantasy which they fervently try to impose on unwilling subjects. Communists make colossal efforts to convince their vassals that they prosper far more than those wretches living in capitalist countries; liberals turn two genders into 71 or make immigrant crimes disappear. When things go seriously wrong with their projects, both respond not by rethinking their premises but illogically, by demanding the application of ever-more pure communism or liberalism.

They rely heavily on conspiracy theories: Communists blame capitalists and liberals blame corporations — for example, to explain away San Francisco’s having America’s most property crimes or why “Seattle is Dying” from an epidemic of vagrancy.

Second, when dissidents inevitably appear, communists and liberals alike do what’s necessary to repress their opinions. Put differently, both are prepared to coerce their benighted populations “into freedom,” as Mr. Legutko puts it. This means, of course, controlling and even suppressing free speech. In the communist case, government censorship offices exclude anything negative about socialism, with doleful consequences for anyone who persists.

In the liberal case, Internet providers, social media giants, schools, banks, ride-share services, hotels and cruise lines do the dirty work of de-platforming critics who engage in what’s called hate speech, which might mean outrageously asserting that there are only two genders. Of course, Islam is a treacherous topic: One can get fined for wondering if the prophet Muhammad was a pedophile or go to jail for a cartoon.


2 posted on 07/15/2019 3:15:47 PM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: carriage_hill

Ping.


3 posted on 07/15/2019 3:27:16 PM PDT by lightman (Byzantine Troparia: The "praise choruses" of antiquity.)
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To: TBP
I'm reading this one now. Excellent book so far. The Demon In Democracy is conformity and the concomitant threat of the individual's very existence. And this:

...the ideologues retreat into fantasy which they fervently try to impose on unwilling subjects. Communists make colossal efforts to convince their vassals that they prosper far more than those wretches living in capitalist countries; liberals turn two genders into 71 or make immigrant crimes disappear.

It is, in effect, a mass hallucination that everyone is forced to validate, or else, and the accompanying conviction that it is the duty of the state to enforce it. Jumping off a cliff and pretending you can fly is bad enough, if self-correcting, but insisting that everyone else do the same and having the state push them over if they object is the very essence of a progressive utopia. Avoid at all costs.

4 posted on 07/15/2019 3:36:00 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks TBP.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. -- H. L. Mencken
The 'almost' part is wrong. -- SunkenCiv

5 posted on 07/15/2019 3:36:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: TBP
or make immigrant crimes disappear.

During the era of the Soviet Union, this is one thing the Soviets never had to do. The fences and walls around the Soviet Union were designed to keep people in instead of keep people out. The whole Soviet Union was one giant prison camp. After the demise of the Soviet Union, it was revealed that parts of the German border had automatic machine guns installed which were triggered by people escaping.

Some of our brain dead liberals didn't seem to notice the difference and freely equated our walls with theirs.

As a child growing up in the 1950's the stark contrast was not lost on me. The Iron Curtain made a lasting impression on my psyche and established me firmly in the conservative camp.

6 posted on 07/15/2019 3:48:05 PM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: TBP

Heard it was demonic-rats. True to their father, the father of all lies!!!


7 posted on 07/15/2019 3:48:29 PM PDT by pilgrim
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To: TBP

David Horowitz’s comment has been my tagline for many, many moons...’cuz it’s true.


8 posted on 07/15/2019 3:50:41 PM PDT by newfreep ("INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT" - DAVID HOROWITZ)
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To: TBP

https://acton.org/research/lord-acton-quote-archive

Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism


9 posted on 07/15/2019 3:57:47 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge

And more from Lord Acton

Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

Liberty becomes a question of morals more than of politics.

Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.


10 posted on 07/15/2019 3:59:20 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: TBP

Socialists and communists almost exclusively rely on demonization of other ideologies to promote their own. They rarely if ever spend any time explaining how socialism and communism actually work.


11 posted on 07/15/2019 4:18:58 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Billthedrill

“the ideologues retreat into fantasy which they fervently try to impose on unwilling subjects”

Sometimes I think the masses are all too willing to accept the fantasy. The fantasy that Trump is racist, bigoted, sexist, etc., makes the masses feel good. They aren’t as rich as Trump and that he’s always in a “businessman” suit and he pompously fires people at will, irks them — it makes their accomplishments feel insignificant and it magnifies their own business failures or crushed dreams. So this is their way of lashing out.

I have people in my family like that, and they would love Obama because it made them feel like they are fair, open minded people and not racists.

This what Michael Moore proposes to the masses — that the American Dream is a crock, a fantasy and nobody can succeed. All it does is build up envy and resentment within the masses, so that a Donald Trump is despised all the more for fantasy qualities that he doesn’t have.


12 posted on 07/15/2019 4:31:09 PM PDT by BEJ
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To: leaning conservative; Billthedrill
The Demon In Democracy is conformity. says Billthedrill.
13 posted on 07/15/2019 4:43:01 PM PDT by aspasia
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To: TBP
In strolling about at LibertyFund.org I ran into Hayek today:

The main lesson which the true liberal must learn from the success of the socialists is that it was their courage to be Utopian which gained them the support of the intellectuals and therefore an influence on public opinion which is daily making possible what only recently seemed utterly remote.

14 posted on 07/15/2019 4:48:07 PM PDT by aspasia
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To: lightman

Good article, but here’s my take:

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State forces you to give one to your neighbor, shoots the neighbor
and forces you to milk them both, giving all milk back to the state.
The State gives you a cup of sour milk.

LIBERALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both cows, slaughters them for their own food,
and taxes you to death for worthless social programs, for having
the animals originally.

LEFTISM
You have 2 cows.
The State terrrorizes the animals until they can’t produce milk,
beats you and your wife to death, and puts your daughters & sons
into the Pedophile Nation, for the Epsteins, Weiners, Clintons etc.

PROGRESSIVISM
You have 2 cows.
Progs advocate for advancements in science, technology,
economic development and social organization, but they’re so full
of bullshit, nothing ever changes.
You still have 2 cows.

MARXISM
You have 2 cows.
The government takes both and tosses you into a hog pen, where you’re
devoured and never found.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you nothing.
They shoot your family and put you in a gulag.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, promises more free cows, lets you vote and gives you sour milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots your wife and kids.

ANARCHISM
You have 2 cows.
The State shoots the cows, you and your family.

CRONY CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
The State takes both, milks, slaughters them, and makes a tidy profit from the sale
of choice meat cuts and fresh milk.
You get some lousy hamburger and a jar of sour milk.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, hires a sub-contractor to milk the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

CONTEMPORARY WALL STREETISM
You have two cows.
You sell one, bundle the other with a goat, a mule,
and two dry cows.
You pile into the derivatives market, buy a Gulfstream
and when it all comes down around your ears...
You go to the government for a bailout.


15 posted on 07/15/2019 5:54:57 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: carriage_hill

Classic!

I expect to see that some Friday...


16 posted on 07/15/2019 6:15:39 PM PDT by lightman (Byzantine Troparia: The "praise choruses" of antiquity.)
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To: carriage_hill
Excellent🐂🐂
17 posted on 07/15/2019 6:27:39 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: TBP

They worship
Satan
What not to understand ?


18 posted on 07/15/2019 7:36:06 PM PDT by Truthoverpower (The guvmint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: lightman

Coming up in a week or so.


19 posted on 07/16/2019 5:26:57 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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