(...) one could also say the left is in the grips of a virus — a virus that attacks its brain cells and makes it incapable of ingesting real world facts and consequently of arriving at reasonable judgments.
(...)
The progressive virus is a religious virus. Political radicalism is an expression of the inability of human beings to live without meaning; it is the replacement of the hope for a divine redemption in a redemption by political activists, which inevitably leads to a totalitarian state.
(...)
The strength of the virus derives from the meaning it supplies to meaningless lives, and the consequent good feelings — intoxicated feelings of virtue and self-righteousness — experienced by the devoted.
And now... (emphasis mine)
The only way to defeat the left — and I have failed in twenty years of arguing this to persuade conservatives — is to turn the table around and attack their moral self-image. Leftists are in fact the enemies and oppressors of women, children, gays, minorities and the poor, and conservatives should never confront them without reminding them of this fact.(...)
Hmm... we're already getting there, by blogging about when Leftists are caught oppressing and discriminating against people, in the name of their bizarre, zealous, intellect-stunting ideology.
We see the Obama Regime doing this fast and furious, attacking all dissidents as "right-wing terrorists" and so on and so forth. They don't believe they're being hurtful. They actually believe that they're somehow "combating evil", that ordinary, dissident people are evil just because they don't quite share the Leftist ideology as we've seen evident in Obama and other Regime members such as the now-infamous Van Jones.
They tell themselves that they "mean well", and that "meaning well" excuses any and all wrongs.
And they're clearly wrong to engage in this self-and-mass-delusion. They need to be confronted with this truth. It will certainly hurt them emotionally and psychologically, but, hey, they're already inflicting all kinds of hurt on others! They must be made to feel the emotional pain they inflict on others... in order to empathize. They need to feel genuine empathy, not imaginary sympathy for folks who don't deserve it., like haters and murderers of all kinds, whom they delusionally believe are somehow downtrodden, oppressed, tyrannized, etc., by "the Right".
Leftists don't realize they're wrong and are being hurtful to others... because their own ilk, other Leftists, are constantly assuring, brainwashing, actually, them, into delusionally believing that they're "right" and "helpful" to the "less fortunate". Goebbels would marvel at this awesomely effective propaganda that afflicts so many millions and causes them to push for harmful policies to be implemented by ever-more-Left-leaning state apparati worldwide.
I know how Leftists think. Because I've been there, been one of the seemingly-helplessly brainwashed many, and have thought the way they think. I can recognize it just like that. And I know that they, like myself and millions of other former Leftists, can be helped to see the error of their thinking as it is today. Yes, it's possible to help Leftists, although it isn't all that simple, nor easy. But I'm learning more and more about how, both from research and from actual personal experience in having dialogue with Leftists, in which I simply point out obvious facts that give them pause and naturally make them think... for a while anyway, but in that time during which they were really thinking, something positive happened to them, and this positive thing will make it more likely that they'll think for themselves again in the future, for they've had a taste, and it was fascinating enough for them to want more of this thinking-for-oneself, especially when it's socially forbidden, taboo, to do so. But we all must patiently, gently try, try, try, over and over again, never giving up. Starting with those Leftists we know. Of course, always remember to make sure they don't feel pushed, nor imposed upon, else they'll just shut their minds again like bank vaults. Just stand with them, beside them, and observe the world together and share your observations, so that they may also suddenly see what you're seeing, both literally and with their minds' eye, and start thinking for themselves. Remember, pointing out that which is obvious, but which they amazingly don't notice, is the most effective way to jump-start their thinking.
I recommend Plato's "dialectic" method, which is, in abstract:
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, in that order.
It involves addressing a person's belief with respect to something (thesis), introducing obviously true information that challenges that belief (antithesis), and discussing it so as to gently encourage the other person to naturally think critically about that belief so as to come to an entirely new conclusion (synthesis).
One uses the dialectic in a friendly way, connecting comfortably with the person/persons who are afflicted by Leftism. They actually can think for themselves, but they do need some gentle motivation, something to pique their interest and curiousity, a little spark to ignite the ever-ready-but-waiting-for-a-spark-or-flame kindling to get that badly-needed fire going in their brains. I know... it happened to myself years ago, and continued to burn for years and years, ever-stronger, allowing me to shake off, one by one, my received delusions so as to see the real world more and more clearly over time. Indeed, when one begins to learn to think for oneself, the world actually seems and feels like it's changing, although it really isn't, for what's changing is that one's delusions are dissipating, replaced by lucid, orderly, structured cerebral processing and storage of externally-sourced stimulatory information. One gets the feeling of being in a different kind of place, yet in the same place, still. Kind of like when Neo was severed from the Matrix in the movie of the same name. The brain is the key to severance from imposed perceptual servitude.
