[Cap'n Tightpants]

Watch this, if you please, it's a video made by CARE Norway:



Opinions? Personally, the amount of emotional blackmail being pushed verges on being comical.

Oh, I do want to ask something. If a man and a woman are both drunk, why is the man automatically cast as the aggressor and the woman is the victim? How exactly does that work?

[subego]

Via greater physical strength.

[subego]

That video is pretty horrible.

Let me try to make one of the points with less blackmail.

I saw Carlin live once, and he ended his set with some pretty misogynist jokes. They were unquestionably jokes, though. It was a George Carlin show.

A shocking proportion of the audience were more "yeah... YEAH!" as opposed to "ha ha". Carlin... George ****ing Carlin started to get disgusted. You could see the pain on his face caused by people taking what he was saying seriously.

At some point, he just walked off stage. That was it. Show's over.

There are most definitely people who don't get the joke.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by subego 

Via greater physical strength.

That's not what I was asking at all. Both are drunk, both are into it at the time, later on the man is charged with rape. How does that work?

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by subego 

That video is pretty horrible.

Let me try to make one of the points with less blackmail.

I saw Carlin live once, and he ended his set with some pretty misogynist jokes. They were unquestionably jokes, though. It was a George Carlin show.

A shocking proportion of the audience were more "yeah... YEAH!" as opposed to "ha ha". Carlin... George ****ing Carlin started to get disgusted. You could see the pain on his face caused by people taking what he was saying seriously.

At some point, he just walked off stage. That was it. Show's over.

There are most definitely people who don't get the joke.

A lot's changed, even since Carlin died, more so since his prime. Also, I'd need to hear what's classified as a "misogynistic" joke, now that term is used for things that have nothing to do with women in general.

[subego]

I actually don't remember specifics about the routine. I was so taken aback by the audience reaction, and how Carlin walked off stage.

The one where I do remember was with Michael Showalter. The bit was about how he wanted to rape a woman with a sandwich for giving him a bad review. It came complete with descriptions of how disgusting he imagined her lady bits would be.

Similar to what I remember of the Carlin example, there was a segment of the audience who were like "yeah... YEAH!", when what was supposed to be funny was how awful he was being.

It was a little chilling TBH. I've heard people say they've gotten a similar scary vibe with Dice Clay.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

When did those happen. though? I'm not saying there haven't been some real nasty statements in the mainstream, by some rather famous people, but it's not something that's tolerated in day-to-day anymore.

[subego]

Mid-aughts, but the phenomenon on display was the frightening extent to which people can not get the joke. That this type of thing happens is one of the better points of the video. The nastiness quotient can be arbitrary.

And, I'm not trying to pin some ill intent on Showalter. He was funny (blew the doors off Michael Ian Black that night). That routine was funny. I laughed at it. The thing was, I got the joke. I can't say that for everyone else there.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

I understand, but there's a good bit of difference between a stand-up comedian and someone you know just being a nasty c**t. In fact, most major comedians are avoiding college performances now because of how obnoxiously PC they've become.

[el chupacabra]

… .

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Come to think of it, it probably does happen in Scandinavia now, but it isn't the native Scandinavians doing it.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

I understand, but there's a good bit of difference between a stand-up comedian and someone you know just being a nasty c**t. In fact, most major comedians are avoiding college performances now because of how obnoxiously PC they've become.

They're both sides of the same coin, the PC thing is just not getting the joke in the other direction.

What's notable here is how in both cases, you have people not getting these are jokes, even when the contract (social or otherwise) explicitly says "you are paying me to tell jokes... that's why both of us are here".

As something of a nasty c**t myself, I don't mind too much if someone thinks I'm being serious and gets mad. Worst case scenario, I let them stew in their own juices about it. If someone thinks I'm being serious and sees my nasty c**t behavior as some form of truth they can rally behind... that's actually scary.

[subego]

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

Of course, thats one of the faults of progressive, it doesn't teach to be on the defensive in life, it teaches here's an ideal, expect that you can do whatever you want and everyone else will behave and treat you to that ideal just because they should and it's the law. Then when a person gets raped... or something.... it's shame shame only on the rapist. Sorry but saying 'shame on the rapist' doesn't undo the person being raped. The damage is already done because the person was taught early in life to have an unrealistic sense of optimism rather than the realities & dangers of human nature.

I think this is too far in the other direction.

Someone who lets down their defenses to their detriment should feel shame?

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by subego 

They're both sides of the same coin, the PC thing is just not getting the joke in the other direction.

What's notable here is how in both cases, you have people not getting these are jokes, even when the contract (social or otherwise) explicitly says "you are paying me to tell jokes... that's why both of us are here".

As something of a nasty c**t myself, I don't mind too much if someone thinks I'm being serious and gets mad. Worst case scenario, I let them stew in their own juices about it. If someone thinks I'm being serious and sees my nasty c**t behavior as some form of truth they can rally behind... that's actually scary.

I've long since been at the point where I can't be bothered to care if someone takes offense over benign comments, there are far more important things in this world to give a **** about. I'm still trying to figure out how, if both a man and a woman are drunk, and both are into having sex at the time, later on the man can be charged with rape. How does that work? Are we just supposed to assume that men magically have more control of themselves when they're intoxicated, or that women are to be treated like children unless they're completely sober?

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

That's not what I was asking at all. Both are drunk, both are into it at the time, later on the man is charged with rape. How does that work?

In a situation where its that simple and that even, then clearly this is unfair. You could argue that this should be much more difficult to prove than it is but since that would make it much easier to get women drunk and rape them, perhaps this is simply a matter of providing a strong disincentive.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

I'll simply have to keep looking for a reason, then. I do believe it's inexorably (and subtly) tied to this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...y-science-too/

[el chupacabra]

… .

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Since my daughter first learned to walk she's been taking martial arts (wing chun), when she gets a little older she'll also take jiu-jitsu, and later she'll finish with Krav Maga. Ultimately however, the most important thing she'll learn is to never leave herself vulnerable, because avoiding a situation entirely is the best way to be safe.

[subego]

I'm all for teaching my daughter Soviet ass-kicking techniques, but I can't help but notice the part where daddy subego never needed to learn those as a component of safe socialization.

I may even use that dichotomy as evidence of how men are shitter than women.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Pretty sure it's Israeli. Anyway, I sincerely hope she never needs any of it, but I want her to learn for the same reason I carry a firearm in public, you hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

[subego]

Shows what I know.

[el chupacabra]

… .

[Waragainstsleep]

It disappoints me that you don't see anything wrong with taking the attitude that women should be taught behave certain ways or do certain things as precautions to protect themselves against rapists as essentially the primary way to stop it from happening.

You frame it as a simple practicality like the precautions one has to take when one lives in Bear country or out among the various predators in Africa. Perhaps you think its like getting your shots before you go to areas where Malaria or other diseases are common.

The difference is that you can't negotiate with Bears, Lions or Malaria. Putting the burden onto women to protect themselves or deny themselves the same freedoms that most men enjoy without the fear of rape is just another type of blaming and shaming the victim. You're really not far from covering them up head to foot except their eyes and refusing to allow them out without a related male chaperone.

I understand the tendency towards practicality, but what disappoints me is that you seem to show very little ambition to fix the problem rather than work around it. Unfortunately fixing the problem means changing the way that men think and behave. Perhaps you are just defeatist in this regard though you probably call it old-fashioned. Sometimes progressivism happens for good reasons. Women should be every bit as free to wander the streets drunk, naked and alone at all hours without being raped or molested. Its important to at least aspire to that for them and to try to better ourselves so that our daughters might have that freedom and safety.

[el chupacabra]

… .

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Unfortunately fixing the problem means changing the way that men think and behave. Perhaps you are just defeatist in this regard though you probably call it old-fashioned. Sometimes progressivism happens for good reasons. Women should be every bit as free to wander the streets drunk, naked and alone at all hours without being raped or molested. Its important to at least aspire to that for them and to try to better ourselves so that our daughters might have that freedom and safety.

Someone's drinking the rad-fem kool-aid. Men aren't the problem, assholes are the problem, and they can come in both genders (or 3,4,5 or however many there are now). In Knoxville, not some great metropolitan area, just backwoods Knoxville, in the last 6 months nearly 20% of sexual assaults against women were perpetrated by other women. However, if you read the new feminist manifesto that isn't possible. Why is that? Because it isn't about sexual desire, it's about power and control, and the protection against that is learning how to not let yourself be manipulated. In fact, men are nearly 2x more likely to be attacked in your scenario than women. Yeah, that's something else that the radfems don't talk about. The fact is, it's a 1000x more likely that a wandering, drunk naked woman will be covered with a man's coat and escorted home without being molested. But no, no, we live in a "rape culture". Pfftt.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

Have you ever traveled to a dangerous neighborhood, or an undeveloped country? If so were you not taught at some point to act a certain way to avoid being beat up, robbed, or abducted / held for ransom? This kind of awareness and caution is a very normal part of my life so it seems very strange to me that people would think any other select group should be exempt from this - especially that such a thing is even possible. I'm not going to go to such a place and let my guard down just so I can tell the person who inevitably abducts me that what he's doing is wrong and that he should educate himself. It wont work. This is the world we live in. Those who don't adapt will get the stick whether it's fair or not.


Yup, kind of (those shots dont actually work as well as you might think actually). Though I dont think those practicalities are simple to adhere to. There are places in the world where people are on the constant watch for predators, as well as snakes and deadly arthropods invading their house. Some places also have a real rape problem people must be alert for. The solutions aren't simple. But they figure out how to survive it. Life is tough, and Im fine with that, because every place has its issues and there's usually a way around them with personal choices.


You're making the mistake of thinking ALL people can be negotiated with. Or that all people can be educated into moral behavior.
When I bring up human nature it doesn't mean Im relegating people to the level of lions... entirely.
But there exists a certain component of ancient, primal, hard coded, savage nature in us that many of you seem to completely dismiss in these arguments. In some people it's the dominant state of mind and can't be controlled with cheesy videos or education. For these people, women, and perhaps all of us need to be on the defense.

Maybe it's that you think humans have an infinite potential to evolve more civilized, intelligent behavior. I happen to believe people are evolving to be less intelligent due to a lack of selection pressure.


What freedoms have I suggested they be denied? Teaching our daughters self defense isn't a burden and isn't intended to be mean to them. It will lead to many other good things. They will be healthy, fit, able to perform various sports & fun activities into adulthood. It can lead to a disciplined, structured lifestyle where life long friendships are formed. It beats spending time playing ipad, video games, watching TV, and listening to their parents complain about how everyone else in the world should be. Many kids will go off 1st chance they get trying to get laid at party, club or whatever - because it's what all their friends are doing - because it's what their parents have done and continue to condone. Responsible sex for most teens is an oxymoron. As a society we teach a completely confusing hypocritical double standard to our youth.


Thats because in societies like ours I view the problem as fixed. With a few outliers that will always exist... This is as good as it gets. I dont believe in perfection. This is a major point with me, because I believe the quest for perfection to be one of the most dangerous things in this world. Especially at the rate people want to push forward with theory based changes to make it happen. On the other hand Im highly ambitious about fixing the problem in places (ie Africa) where there is great room for improvement. I volunteer my personal time and resources to fighting sex trafficking and breaking up the industry of underage prostitution which in large part exists to serve America's proud, refined, gentlemanly, heroes, over seas. Which brings me to another point.... One of my family members was gang raped by such "heroes". She got a lot of money out of the settlement but the heroes never went to jail, and to this day people who dont even know them say "thank you for your service!". For what part of the problem still exists in this country, it happens, that one of the most admired groups of people are some of the worst offenders, worldwide.

The UK and US aren't cultures of rapists. Everyone has already been taught & knows it's wrong. In this age where the knowledge of every genius that ever lived is accessible within minutes at your finger tips, if people aren't 'educated' yet about rape being wrong, then there is little more that can be done for such people.


I am defeatist when it comes to thinking we can suppress 100% of 100's of thousands of years of human nature.

It doesn't matter what it should be; it's not possible any more than a star trek society is possible. Nature has it, that drunkenness increases your probability of bad things happening to you regardless of how you think it should be.

Its 5am so I'm not going to go point by point here but yes, I've been to Africa, I've driven through through some of the most dangerous parts of Johannesburg and I've stayed inside Safari parks in Botswana and in both those places you take precautions that you never need in the UK and much of the US. As you have come to conclude, I don't for a second condemn the practical approach to a real problem. I still have to take issue with your assertion that this is as good as it gets. It isn't and to believe it is, I just don't have the words for it. Likewise I don't expect us to suppress 100% of the urges and impulse control failures that are part of sexual assault, but we aren't at 99% yet. I don't think we're even much above 80%. We still have plenty of room to improve.

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

To me, for a man to call women s*, w*, b* etc, even in comedy, is like a white person using the n word. It's not appropriate. And for a women to joke about that stuff is like a black person using the n word. It's the complete opposite of helping their own cause. I make the personal choice to not talk like that and I didnt need education by such a video to come to this. I dont pretend that by not degrading people like this Im preventing my daughter from getting raped as in the made-up anecdote from the video. Instead I will take the teaching of self defense route.

It might be more about helping your granddaughter or great-granddaughter but since it costs nothing, couldn't you try both? Shouldn't you?


As for not being able to achieve a Utopian society, to eradicate 100% of rape-urges, or criminal tendencies etc, etc. All I hear is "We'll never be able to achieve that". There are never any reasons attached to these claims other than the implied: "That sounds really hard." You should be ashamed to think this way.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

Someone's drinking the rad-fem kool-aid. Men aren't the problem, assholes are the problem, and they can come in both genders (or 3,4,5 or however many there are now). In Knoxville, not some great metropolitan area, just backwoods Knoxville, in the last 6 months nearly 20% of sexual assaults against women were perpetrated by other women.

I call bullshit. 20%, my ass.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

However, if you read the new feminist manifesto that isn't possible. Why is that? Because it isn't about sexual desire, it's about power and control, and the protection against that is learning how to not let yourself be manipulated. In fact, men are nearly 2x more likely to be attacked in your scenario than women. Yeah, that's something else that the radfems don't talk about. The fact is, it's a 1000x more likely that a wandering, drunk naked woman will be covered with a man's coat and escorted home without being molested. But no, no, we live in a "rape culture". Pfftt.

I don't know if you're completely out of touch with reality, suffering from some kind of affluenza blindness, or if you're just an asshole trying to justify a status quo that suits you.

The stats you quote include non-sexual crimes like common assault and robbery/theft/mugging.
I can see muggers of either gender targeting men more than women either because its more gentlemanly or because they think men will have more cash.
Men are more likely to get in fights with other men when one or both is drunk. There is an increasing rate of drunk women getting into fights as well. All this will skew the statistics when lumped in with sexual assaults.

The fact remains if I passed out naked and slept in any city in this country, I'd probably be left well alone. Even if I was considerably more attractive than I am. If a woman did that I would expect her to suffer some form of sexual molestation at the hands of men. It recently happened to someone I know who was fully clothed in broad daylight. I'm not saying good samaritans don't exist, they do. In this case they caught the perpetrator and sat on him until police arrived. But if that had been me, they would have taken my phone and cash and left me well alone.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I call bullshit. 20%, my ass.

Couldn't care less.

I don't know if you're completely out of touch with reality, suffering from some kind of affluenza blindness, or if you're just an asshole trying to justify a status quo that suits you.

Ironic, given your own views on Islam.

The stats you quote include non-sexual crimes like common assault and robbery/theft/mugging.

I can see muggers of either gender targeting men more than women either because its more gentlemanly or because they think men will have more cash.
Men are more likely to get in fights with other men when one or both is drunk. There is an increasing rate of drunk women getting into fights as well. All this will skew the statistics when lumped in with sexual assaults.

Oh really? A rape epidemic — by women? Column

The fact remains if I passed out naked and slept in any city in this country, I'd probably be left well alone. Even if I was considerably more attractive than I am. If a woman did that I would expect her to suffer some form of sexual molestation at the hands of men. It recently happened to someone I know who was fully clothed in broad daylight. I'm not saying good samaritans don't exist, they do. In this case they caught the perpetrator and sat on him until police arrived. But if that had been me, they would have taken my phone and cash and left me well alone.

You may expect it, but it's quite unlikely it would actually happen. The world you see is much more ****ed up than reality, and I blame the media and current wave feminist busybodies who spread huge amounts of bullshit. It's no small wonder that garbage like the "Gender Wage Gap" refuses to die, as well.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

The racism of the Progressive Left. It's real, and it's coming from deep within academia, no less.

Progressive Professor: If You are a White Male, You Don't Deserve to Live! | The PolitiStick
Dear White America

and segregation is officially well on its way back into society, I wonder if white people will get separate drinking fountains and told to sit in the back of buses?

Mizzou Protesters Literally Segregate Themselves Based on Race | Mediaite
White students barred from meeting at Ryerson University because they were not ‘racialized’ | National Post

[sscreener]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I don't know if you're completely out of touch with reality, suffering from some kind of affluenza blindness, or if you're just an asshole trying to justify a status quo that suits you.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Here's some state-funded segregation, enjoy. WTF is wrong with these people?

Oregon State University Holds Segregated Retreats | The Daily Caller

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

The racism of the Progressive Left. It's real, and it's coming from deep within academia, no less.

Progressive Professor: If You are a White Male, You Don't Deserve to Live! | The PolitiStick
Dear White America

and segregation is officially well on its way back into society, I wonder if white people will get separate drinking fountains and told to sit in the back of buses?

Mizzou Protesters Literally Segregate Themselves Based on Race | Mediaite
White students barred from meeting at Ryerson University because they were not ‘racialized’ | National Post

The "Progressive Professor" thing is satire.

It's satirizing a real person, whose opinions I can safely assume you do not share, but the speech referred to never happened. The blogs reporting on it missed the joke.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

It is? It's so hard to tell, given the way the radical Left acting these days, what with Jim Crow being reinstated and all.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

I mean, when you have "serious sociological research" like this: Carbon fiber masculinity: Disability and surfaces of homosociality - Goldsmiths Research Online

What. The. ****...

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

Ironic, given your own views on Islam.

Which views exactly?

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Which views exactly?

The false equivalence you were peddling, trying to compare modern Christians with Islam. So exactly who is trying to justify what?

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

The false equivalence you were peddling, trying to compare modern Christians with Islam. So exactly who is trying to justify what?

I compared them on a single issue. The degree varies but essentially its still blaming and shaming rape victims or potential victims instead of dealing with the perpetrators.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I compared them on a single issue. The degree varies but essentially its still blaming and shaming rape victims or potential victims instead of dealing with the perpetrators.

You mean blaming "potential" victims, a person's state of undress doesn't seem to have any bearing on the likelihood of being sexually assaulted. If you have data to the contrary I'd like to see it.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

You mean blaming "potential" victims, a person's state of undress doesn't seem to have any bearing on the likelihood of being sexually assaulted. If you have data to the contrary I'd like to see it.

I'm not the one trying to tell them how they should dress. Perhaps you should share this fact with Islam.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I'm not the one trying to tell them how they should dress. Perhaps you should share this fact with Islam.

I'm not either, but that is the new feminist line. It's amazing how much like Islam they're becoming.

[Chongo]

On a related note, the mayor of Cologne is basically telling the women to buy burqas.
Cologne Mayor: Women should be more careful after Muslim mass rapes, promises “guidance” so they can “prepare”

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by Chongo 

On a related note, the mayor of Cologne is basically telling the women to buy burqas.
Cologne Mayor: Women should be more careful after Muslim mass rapes, promises “guidance” so they can “prepare”

Was about to post this. "Prepare" for indoctrination, no doubt. WTF Germany, official gov't victim-blaming? It's mindboggling.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

[Chongo]

snip

[Chongo]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

It was more than Cologne.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

No, no! The narrative is that it's ALL men, now. Sure, this wasn't an issue before the migrants flooded the EU... but, you know, it's so unfair to point out that Muslim men are the problem.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

No, no! The narrative is that it's ALL men, now. Sure, this wasn't an issue before the migrants flooded the EU... but, you know, it's so unfair to point out that Muslim men are the problem.

This is quite a gem from the Vice article...

"Nobody's denying that people with immigrant backgrounds or of the Muslim faith are also guilty of committing sex crimes. But to act as if their cultural background has "programmed" them to do so, while making all sorts of excuses and downplaying the crimes of white Germans, will always be racist rabble-rousing."

Isn't that how rape culture works?

[Cap'n Tightpants]

They literally come from a rape culture. Sadly, I guess feminists eventually got what they were complaining about, and it's from the very people they tried to defend. Terrible irony, there.

[Waragainstsleep]

I heard the attacks were pre-meditated and co-ordinated. Its not just a rape culture, its a new kind of terrorism.
Its not a clever one either. This will get them all beaten to death by angry mobs much faster than planting bombs or shootings will.

[Chongo]

An interesting piece from The People's Cube. It looks like Ted K. hits close to the mark.
Interesting Thoughts on Leftism from the Unabomber

Comrade Stierlitz

Just for the hell of it, I decided on a whim to read Ted Kaczynski's manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future. Don't ask me why, even I don't know. I've always had this kind of "thing" with reading; I'll have the urge to buy a book or read a text and I don't know why, and when all is said and done there's always something in said book or text that I love.

I haven't read the entire thing yet, just started in fact, but from doing a bit of "thumbing-through" his thoughts may become more and more true as time goes on and totalitarianism, authoritarianism and tyranny become more apparent.

I found these very interesting thoughts about leftism by Kaczynski, right at the near-beginning. He goes on to tell a bit more in another section but I haven't put it here for interests of space and length. I particularly found paragraphs 12, 15, 18, 20 and 21 to be very true, but I won't bloviate about my opinions and thoughts anymore.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM

6. Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply troubled society. One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general.

7. But what is leftism? During the first half of the 20th century leftism could have been practically identified with socialism. Today the movement is fragmented and it is not clear who can properly be called a leftist. When we speak of leftists in this article we have in mind mainly socialists, collectivists, "politically correct" types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like. But not everyone who is associated with one of these movements is a leftist. What we are trying to get at in discussing leftism is not so much a movement or an ideology as a psychological type, or rather a collection of related types. Thus, what we mean by "leftism" will emerge more clearly in the course of our discussion of leftist psychology (Also, see paragraphs 227-230.)

8. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we would wish, but there doesn't seem to be any remedy for this. All we are trying to do is indicate in a rough and approximate way the two psychological tendencies that we believe are the main driving force of modern leftism. We by no means claim to be telling the WHOLE truth about leftist psychology. Also, our discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We leave open the question of the extent to which our discussion could be applied to the leftists of the 19th and early 20th century.

9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call "feelings of inferiority" and "oversocialization." Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.

FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY

10. By "feelings of inferiority" we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strictest sense but a whole spectrum of related traits: low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, etc. We argue that modern leftists tend to have such feelings (possibly more or less repressed) and that these feelings are decisive in determining the direction of modern leftism.

11. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights advocates have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftist anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the word "primitive" by "nonliterate." They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)

12. Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual, white males from middle-class families.

13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals), or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit it to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not suggest that women, Indians, etc., ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology).

14. Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong as capable as men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear that women may NOT be as strong and as capable as men.

15. Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he GRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the leftist's real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West because they are strong and successful.

16. Words like "self-confidence," "self-reliance," "initiative", "enterprise," "optimism," etc. play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is anti-individualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve everyone's needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his own ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser.

17. Art forms that appeal to modern leftist intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat and despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone, throwing off rational control as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and all that was left was to immerse oneself in the sensations of the moment.

18. Modern leftist philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, objective reality and to insist that everything is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftist philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality. They attack these concepts because of their own psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify certain beliefs as true (i.e., successful, superior) and other beliefs as false (i.e. failed, inferior). The leftist's feelings of inferiority run so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and of the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual's ability or lack of it. Thus if a person is "inferior" it is not his fault, but society's, because he has not been brought up properly.

19. The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart, an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. [1] But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself.

20. Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or racists to abuse them, etc. These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they PREFER masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.

21. Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principle, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the oversocialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm black people, because the activists' hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify race hatred.

22. If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to INVENT problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.

23. We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism.

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