Sad Radicals

Posted by Solver 5 years, 3 months ago to Politics
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The story of a former leftist radical.
“What is a radical community? For the purposes of this article, I will define it as a community that shares both an ideology of complete dissatisfaction with existing society due to its oppressive nature and a desire to radically alter or destroy that society because it cannot be redeemed by its own means. I eventually fell out with my own radical community. The ideology and the people within it had left me a burned and disillusioned wreck. As I deprogrammed, I watched a diluted version of my radical ideology explode out of academia and become fashionable: I watched the Left become woke.”

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SOURCE URL: https://quillette.com/2018/12/11/sad-radicals/


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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 5 years, 3 months ago
    Radicals, like all members of mass movements, are herd animals, followers who don't engage their intellect. The sad thing is that these dissatisfied creatures are not deprived or poverty stricken themselves, but are affluent enough to be aware of class and wealth differences. Although they will passionately refute it, the motivation behind their anger is jealousy. They have a need to virtue signal lavishly to fulfill their need to feel good about themselves, but don't have the wealth to do so, and are enraged that others have the wealth and power they want.

    As Eric Hoffer noted in his study "The True Believer," the precise ideology behind the movement is almost irrelevant, so long as it justifies the expropriation of wealth from non-members of the movement, and punishment for "crimes" which can be real or fictional. Violence by the members of these movements is portrayed as virtuous acts of "justice." The self loathing of these unhappy souls is replaced by elation over their perceived nobility in attacking the persons or property of the "enemies of the people."

    A member of the group wakes up to reality when they correctly perceive the group and its actions are at best pathetic, and morally questionable. The epiphany usually begins when they exercise enough thought to ask themselves "Am I truly satisfied with the results of our actions?"
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    • Posted by $ pixelate 5 years, 3 months ago
      Thanks for your thoughts on this. I was going to write something similar. These self-loathing creatures are caricatures of themselves. As Rand pointed out, it is often a hatred of the good for being the good.
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  • Posted by exceller 5 years, 3 months ago
    "Young adults often become radicals after they realize the immensity of the cruelty and malevolence in the world. They reject a society that tolerates such suffering. They sanctify justice as their telos. But without truth to orient justice, seekers of justice will crash and crash again into reality, and will craft increasingly nightmarish and paranoid ideological analyses, burning out activists, destroying lives through jail or abuse, and leaving the world an uglier, more painful place. "

    Correct.

    This is also an apt reply to the other thread "Why Millenials Want Socialism".

    The younger generation has not been around long enough to realize that socialist/communist societies are more cruel than capitalist societies ever can be.

    For the older generation it is pure ideology: the left repeats all the mistakes communism made, because they have no other choice. There in no genius mind to find a way out of the downward spiral and the slaves serving it see only their own, short term goals: which is power at any cost.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 5 years, 3 months ago
    Many phrases caught my attention but one that really caught my attention was the sick honesty of this one:
    "Because one’s good moral standing can never be guaranteed, the best way to maintain it is to attack the moral standing of others."

    And toward the end: "They reject a society that tolerates suffering."... but instead of vowing to alleviate suffering, they cause more of it for themselves and others.

    Their own sickness makes them sicker, their own ignorance makes them even more ignorant.
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    • Posted by 5 years, 3 months ago
      Here is another similar quote that describes the worldview of the radical left,
      “If a worldview treats all discordant knowledge as threat, then it is an ideology. Its adherents learn to see themselves as guardians rather than seekers of the truth. The practical consequences of such a worldview can be devastating.”
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  • Posted by jimjamesjames 5 years, 3 months ago
    “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” T,S, ELLIOT
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