The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

How Leftists ‘Think’

Posted on | January 16, 2017 | 2 Comments

Among the dishonest tactics of rhetoric routinely employed by the Left is the False Analogy, “Trump is Hitler” being the latest variation. Scarcely a year ago, the esteemed voices of liberal media were assuring us that Donald Trump was a bumbling idiot who could not possibly win the Republican nomination. Once he did win it, however, the same esteemed voices assured us that the bumbling idiot Trump was doomed to be defeated by the Glorious Leader of the Democratic People’s Party. As soon as this prediction was proven false, and Trump was elected president, the esteemed voices of liberal media hit the panic button: “TRUMP IS HITLER! FASCISM IS ON THE MARCH!”

In what sense is Donald Trump comparable to Hitler? Or why is Trump — who was supposed to be such an incompetent dimwit that he couldn’t be taken seriously — now suddenly analogous to the totalitarian who rose to power in Germany after he spent 12 years turning the once-obscure Nazi Party into a disciplined instrument of his will? Trump has not organized a mass movement with Stormtroopers and goosestep marches, he has merely run a winning campaign for a president, being elected to chief executive of a constitutional republic. Only because the Left has been so eager to expand the power of the federal government, and has spent the past eight years building a Cult of Personality around President Obama, whom liberals praised for his habit of governing by executive orders, can Trump’s presidency be imagined as anything like a dictatorship.

It is simple work to point out how Trump is nothing like Hitler, and therefore no serious person could believe such a thing, but this does not prevent liberals from suggesting it, and why? Because the bogus Trump-is-Hitler analogy helps inspire fear of the Republican president.

The circularity of liberal logic makes it fun trying to distill their arguments to the form of a syllogism. Who can’t spot the error in this?

Premise A: Vote Democrat because
Premise B: Trump is Hitler;

and therefore

Conclusion: Vote Democrat!

At some level, liberal ideology is simply partisan prejudice, and any expectation of logical coherence is doomed to be disappointed, as liberals will defend anything Democrats do while condemning Republicans for doing the same thing. It isn’t even necessary for a Republican to do anything in order for liberals to condemn him; the mere fact of his being a Republican means that whatever he does is wrong, ergo, vote Democrat!

Donald Trump has not even taken office yet, and has therefore committed no official act as president for which he can be condemned, but liberals aren’t letting that get in their way, are they? Because it is so easy to show what’s wrong with the Left’s modus operandi, the Left seeks to avoid any situation where they might be find themselves compelled to defend their claims against informed criticism. Their preferred venues are academia (where leftists get paid to lecture ignorant teenagers) and the broadcast media, where the message is controlled by editors and producers whose job is to make every story conform to the approved political narrative.

We are not supposed to notice this, just like we aren’t supposed to notice the word games involved. Try to pin down the Left, and you’ll find them doing a variation on the “clown nose on/clown nose off” trick, by which they avoid responsibility for their own ideas:

So the tautology

  • “as we can only think in words, we think in words”

becomes, clown nose on,

  • “as we can only think in words, words mediate our interaction with reality”

which with the addition of some baggy pants, floppy shoes, and a seltzer horn, becomes

  • “as words mediate our interaction with reality, words create our reality.”

which of course is logically equivalent to

  • “reality itself is nothing but words.”

And boom, you’re a Social Justice Warrior.

You should read the whole thing at Rotten Chestnuts.

 

Category: Intellectuals

Comments

2 Responses to “How Leftists ‘Think’”

  1. He was Hit in the Head with a Brick | Regular Right Guy
    January 17th, 2017 @ 4:44 pm

    […] How Leftists ‘Think’ […]

  2. News of the Week (January 22nd, 2017) | The Political Hat
    January 22nd, 2017 @ 3:22 pm

    […] How Leftists “Think” Among the dishonest tactics of rhetoric routinely employed by the Left is the False Analogy, “Trump is Hitler” being the latest variation. Scarcely a year ago, the esteemed voices of liberal media were assuring us that Donald Trump was a bumbling idiot who could not possibly win the Republican nomination. […]