July 23, 2023

Do leftists believe what they say they believe?  And if not, how would we know?

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On key issues, the evidence shows that their positions cannot be taken at face value.

In “Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model”, David Horowitz quoted an SDS radical who wrote, “The issue is never the issue.  The issue is always the revolution.”  In other words, when the left picks an issue to demonstrate on, the issue itself is seen as a step to bigger goals.

Let us look at a few such issues.

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While many undoubtably believe in the dangers of man’s contribution to global warming, consider Christine Stewart — former Canadian environment minister — who said, “No matter if the science is all phony, there are still collateral environmental benefits. … Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.”

So if you were to debate Christine Stewart on E.V.s or wind turbines, for example, you would not persuade her, because you would not be arguing against “social justice,” which is the deeper issue.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, admitted that the true motivation behind her Green New Deal, which proposes transitioning the U.S. economy away from all fossil fuels in ten years, is to overhaul the “entire economy.”  Note that AOC didn’t call the Green New Deal the “Socialist New Deal,” even though the Green Party site says it is a “major step towards ending unemployment for good and a tool to fight the corporate takeover of our democracy and exploitation of the poor.”

Sometimes the deeper agenda reveals contradictions.  For instance, Jane Fonda, a famous (and very left-wing) actress, said this:

[L]et us commit to freeing ourselves, our country and its institutions from white supremacy, the enabler of climate destruction. And let us all work to truly understand why the two are inseparable.

Jane conveniently ignored the fact that China, which is certainly not run by white men, is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases today.  Pointing this fact out to her would get you nowhere because of a deeper worldview.  (Jane also once said, “If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist.”)