A very special philosophical episode of Freep Impact

On Free Republic, there is a vanity section, where posters may create posts that link nowhere and instead just share their thoughts with other Freepers. Usually I skip over these because Freepers tend to write mini-novels in there, but sometimes the derpiness makes it worth it. Here is one such post, entitled "The Fear and Self-loathing of Liberals"

I've often pondered what makes a liberal, a liberal. They tend to do so much damage throughout history and are incredibly difficult to defeat. Figuring out what makes them tick would seem to be priority number one. As I thought about it recently I came to a revelation that others have discovered but never fleshed out to my satisfaction. That revelation is that liberals fear and loathe their own humanity. Liberals loathe their own humanity because well, being human means being naturally flawed or seemingly so. I personally think that if we weren't flawed there wouldn't be any real challenges in life in exceling beyond our limitations.

Liberals apparently can't handle these innate flaws that come with being human and deep down that hurts their pride. They are mortified when they look inward, when they feel racially insecure, or think a sexist thought or feel a need to be greedy. They loathe themselves because of these all too human feelings and because of their shame they feel they must stamp them out and control them in others. They have to feel like they are above their human emotions so they can feel worthy of praise. Liberals fear being judged on their natural feelings.

Liberals don't understand that regardless of the past, that they are no better than their ancestors deep down, that controlling ones negative tendencies gives one character and strength. Ignoring that we are flawed and taking away others' choice to control their own bad behavior leads to a society that lacks self-control and builds resentment and actually encourages bad behavior.

This bad behavior originates because of this lack of self-control and because the aura of "holy purpose" liberals give to their crusades. One need only accuse someone of not being a convert the the liberals' "religion" of political correctness and you risk ostricism in various spheres of life. And so the free-thinking man or woman, where all innovation springs is handcuffed and gagged. Scientific and economic advancement stagnate as a result.

This need to control and regulate, however, leads to a type of totalitarianism that more cynical people would harness to enrich themselves in both wealth and power just for that purpose. Totalitarianism is begun by the well-meaning liberal and then they, being unsophisticated in human nature because they won't look inward, are then manipulated by the more cynical and ambitious among us. This is how freedom ends. I think it's happening now.

Here are some replies:

Yes, there is certainly something wrong with liberals, and I believe clinical depression may be a root cause. But it goes far beyond that. Look, for example, at public policy and the so-called "culture war".
The differences in the way liberals and conservatives reach conclusions comes down to far more than simply differing opinions - - it actually comes down to entirely different thought processes. Conservatives tend to think linearly: “If this, then this”; “Here is what was attempted, here are the results”; “Based on experience, this works and this does not work”. Etc.

Liberals do not think that way. Liberals are easily conned, easily manipulated, and utterly unwilling to admit when they are wrong. (Their obsession with constantly attempting to elicit “apologies” from Republicans is an offshoot of these strained thought processes.) Liberals, when confronted with bare-bones truth that contradicts their irrational world view, will scrunch their eyes shut, shake their heads, and chant “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah” until whatever truth it is they find offensive “goes away”, rather than revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to a truth that is slapping them in the face. They simply do not have the capacity to revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to the truth before their very eyes if that truth contradicts the foundation of the beliefs they irrationally hold onto as a weapon in the constant struggle against their own insecurity.

Certainly, there are notable exceptions such as David Horowitz, PJ O’Rourke, Bernie Goldberg, Michael Medved and others who were smart enough to lift themselves out of the mire of self-loathing liberal stupidity but these folks are, unfortunately, rare exceptions.

Being an unabashed liberal is a matter of character (or more accurately, lack of character). Liberals are generally humorless and bitter because, you see, everybody else is (richer, happier, luckier, prettier, fill-in-the-blank) than they deserve to be and that is just not “fair”. (Words like "fair", and phrases such as "social justice", are common favorites used by liberals.) Liberals are social duds who are either chronic malcontents or simply that guilt-ridden subset of white liberals who feel that their own good fortune (and by extension the good fortune of others) is somehow undeserved. In any event, liberals usually see themselves as "victims". They always see anybody beneath their station as "victims".

In this world, there are people (most people, in fact) who look at all other people as their equals in every way, as people who are capable of realizing their personal aspirations and doing the right things, as people who should be treated as equals. Alternatively, there are people who look up adoringly at people they view as somehow better than themselves. These are the same people who look loathingly down on other people they view as their lessers. Guess which kind of people liberals tend to be?

Interestingly, true liberals are often physically slow and unathletic. They were picked last for playground basketball games. They have no interest in competetive sports, especially team sports. “Competetive sports” is, in fact, very much an alien concept to them. To be blunt, true liberals (genuine socialists) are almost always clumsy oafs.

Additionally, true liberals are humorless. Seething, deep seated anger causes an entrenched bitterness that ends up defining them. The evidence of this abounds and can be seen on certain TV stations every day. The liberals have no Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter or Mark Steyn or Howie Carr or Dennis Miller or Ronald Reagan. They have Keith Olbemann and Helen Thomas and Ed Shultz and Lawrence O'Donnell and Barack Ubama.... there is simply not a lot of laughter there. Liberals, in fact, despise laughter. (What's there to laugh about? Look at all the suffering people in this horrible, unjust world.) True liberals don’t “get” jokes, even if they chuckle as if they do. (Test this for yourself - - try to tell a true liberal a joke. For additonal laughs, ask the liberal if he/she/it has a good joke.)

Liberals can appear to be normal people and are often able to handle their jobs and academic endeavors competently. They can usually fake normal socialization with other people, even if their self-centeredness prevents them from ever establishing true friendships. Liberals do not have true friends, merely acquaintances who can be used in some way, especially to affirm their own crazy political notions.

It is their sociopathic selfishness that is the most troubling thing about liberals. They see absolutely no problem with walking into the polling place on election day and voting for big government to confiscate more money - - from their neighbors! Normal people would view this behavior as boorish and rude, but liberals apparently convince themselves that they are somehow accomplishing something; perhaps the exercise soothes their irrational guilt under the tragic misbelief that they are somehow “helping” others (using other people’s money, of course), notably, “the poor”.

So, by voting for thuggish big government to take more money from their neighbors in order to enable their Democrat politicians to buy the votes of society’s losers, bums, and parasites, liberals feel better about themselves. (Don’t ask me about this mindset - - figuring out liberals would best be left to a team of very good psychiatrists.)

Anyway, I believe that the percentage of true liberals in this country is actually very low - - far less than a typical Democrat election-day turnout would indicate. The rats run a good con and there is no shortage of fools littering the countryside (not to mention the concentrated Democrat parasite nests known as "cities") who will continue to buy into the con.

Think about this - - how gullible did you have to be in 2008 to fall for a campaign that could have been formulated by a boardwalk psychic; a campaign based primarily on two essentially meaningless words, “hope” and “change”, words that sound so... positive... and that allow the smiling, naval-gazing listener’s imagination to turn them into whatever he or she wants? Unfortunately, in today’s soundbite world such a campaign can be (and was!) successful. And so we ended up with “community organizer” Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Pray for America. In less than one year we shall see if Americans are insistent on committing national suicide.

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You make some good points here. I would add that many liberals recognize (on some level) that the utopian perfectibility they crave so much is not possible by human effort alone, yet at the same time their ideology prevents them from (a) accepting that weakness and working with it or (b) acknowledging that moral standards come from outside human reason. So, they turn to institutions and causes, sometimes embodied in individuals (e.g. Obama) but more often existing as vagaries like “society” or “the global village” that they can ostensibly use to supersede flawed human effort. Perpetually larger and more powerful governments are a natural outgrowth of this tendency: if God is out of the equation, in other words, then Uncle Sam is the next best thing.

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"Liberals don't understand that regardless of the past, that they are no better than their ancestors deep down..."

That struck a chord with me. It has been my experience with liberals that they have this (unfounded) sense of superiority. They seem to think they are smarter than their predecessors and contemporaries. This in spite of absolutely no supporting evidence. (other than self-agrandising and mutual admiration societies)

In fact, a case can be easily made that liberals are in fact not as smart as other people, past or present. For you liberal lurkers out there I'll spell it out: don't confuse education and technological advancement with basic intelligence.

In general, liberals tend to have several fundamental failings. They ignore the lessons of the past. Probably due to that self-serving attitude "Things will be different now, we're so much smarter/evolved than they were..." They fail to recognize their own limitations. This is particularly dangerous when they start thinking they should make decisions for the rest of us. They fail to acknowledge human nature. Their ideas and ideals, while stunningly beautiful in theory, fail just as stunningly in the real world, and always will. Finally, they have a remarkable capacity for self-delusion. Everything I've just written is obvious, yet they refuse to see it. Amazing.

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My idea is that today’s liberal generation is to a large degree solipsistic. I think this is a result of television, whereby all events are subsumed into ones own psyche. Thus each person sees the world as a realm under his or her own control, and stands ready to pronounce judgement and prescription for it. I came to this idea from contemplation of the language habitually employed, which always has a cosmic cast. “We should” or “It should” do or be thus and such, as though the speaker had, as I say, a cosmic perspective. One rarely hears anyone speak in terms of their own interest, presumably because these interests are felt to be largely satisfied. I’ve come to think that it will be quite a shock when this ceases to be the case.

*

There are creatures in our country that walk around in human suits. They can speak our language and have studied our culture. Though they imitate humans, they do not like humans. This is because they are extremely narcissistic. These creatures feel that humans detract from them. Humans steal their living-space, recreation, food, sexual partners, wealth, power and attention from them. Knowing their own inadequacies, these creatures fear that they can never compete fairly to achieve their desires. With concern for only themselves, they feign compassion for others to mask their motives. “Look at this lovely noose,” they tell humans. “Wouldn’t this world be a better place if you and your children were gone? Of course it would. Here, I’ll help you put the noose around your neck and kill your children.” The creatures are known as liberals/socialists/progressives/communist/Nazis/Statist.
- blueunicorn6 (April 01, 2011) (minor edits)
BTW - please never call them liberals.

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"Most liberals I know have an exaggerated superiority complex."
Yes socialist absolutely do. Look at the Global warming argument it assumes we are gods that we can unwillingly and willingly control the earths environment.
If you try and explain to them that we are not gods they look at you like you're crazy.

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I think what goes along with this is imbalance in their childhood. Parents have two basic tools to guide children: the carrot (rewards/praise/etc.), and the stick (punishment). When parents don’t balance those two tools they can easily wind up with kids who grow into liberals.

If you only use the carrot approach, you wind up with a selfish, self centered, egotistical brat. If you only use the stick approach you get basically the same thing only with more of a rebelious approach to life.

I know in my own life, my older brother got too much punishment from my Dad (who, because of always working, was rarely home) and then got too much carrot from my Mom to make up for the punishment from my Dad. As a consequence he rebelled at everything that my Dad stood for.

One of the things that has kept him in the liberal camp is that he never became a Dad himself. (That and going to college and now teaching college.)

So I guess one of the causes for liberals being unbalanced is because they were raised that way.

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The liberal mind has rejected God, rejected the fact that we all have a sinful nature (original sin). The liberal has set himself up as God (or the state or whatever he uses as a moral equivalent to God) so he can decide for himself what is moral or what is not (or the state or whatever “lawgiver”). To the liberal man is perfectible through education and mental discipline. And usually they think of themselves as “born-again” or perfected when they come to believe the religion of liberalism.

The liberal (commie/marxist/nazi/statist, etc) is unsaved!
Granted there are so called liberal Christians, however I’ve found that usually they have fallen away from the whole idea of “sin”. That can be a topic for another day.

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Liberals embrace and live the Seven Cardinal Sins: wrath (always feel offended), greed (always scheming for OTHEE PEOPLE's MONEY), sloth (unathletic oafs), pride (so much better than all the "little people", lust ( in all its illicit manifestations), envy (of everyhting they don't have cuz "but I DESERVE that! not her!), and gluttony (always over-doing everything).

It is really as simple as that.

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"For you liberal lurkers out there I'll spell it out: don't confuse education and technological advancement with basic intelligence."

I'm in absolute agreement with that. I've thought the same thing myself.