[SpyGuy]

Excellent article, although I wouldn't refer to the Leftists in government, academia, or the media as "intellectuals." To do so credits them with the ability for logical and rational thought--and they possess neither.

I would also make one other correction to this article: I'd change the statement "the fascism of the Nazis" to "the socialist fascism of the Nazis." The Left enjoys (wrongly) portraying the Nazis as right-wing extremists. The truth is that the Nazis were Leftists. It's important to educate the masses if we hope to turn the tide against those who would destroy us.

[The Great RJ]

Good point..many of the intellectual elite in the 1930's thought Hitler could be appeased away or posed no serious threat.

[feedback doctor]

This is a MUST READ!

I love the twist on the old commie line:
Communism has long been the "opium of the intellectuals".

Hence, my new tag line

[StriperSniper]

And, each time, which class of people in the West tended to side with these enemies of humanity, in thought, deed or omission?

Who? The intellectuals of the Left -- the folk who... ...find freedom ugly.

'Nuff said.

[rbg81]

Ayn Rand perfectly summarized the behavior of "boot licking intellectuals" in Atlas Shrugged. It was part of speech given by the Union Leader character (whose name escapes me at the moment). He was in league with the looters and explaining why they had nothing to fear from the "intellectuals". Like many themes in Ayn Rand's work (written in the 40s and 50s), it has proven accurate time and again.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Yet it was still thought rude in polite circles to call communism by its true name...and is today - Haynes and Klehr in their book In Denial outline in detail, some funny but most outrageous, how most of our current academic historians, for all their learning and accomplishments, continue to twist and turn to try to avoid coming to terms with the meaning of such documents as the Venona transcripts and such events as the disintegration of the USSR - an interesting read.......

[Billthedrill]

There's an old book - now - by a feller named Jacques Barzun, entitled House of Intellect that describes perfectly what happened to the intelligentsia. I'm paraphrasing and oversimplifying quite a bit, but what it seems to me to boil down to is a preference on the part of some very intelligent people for what makes sense over what is true. That leads to an overreliance on theory, and a subtle shifting from what is true to what is intellectually satisfying to what is emotionally satisfying. It is decadence in the precise sense of the word.