Thursday, June 03, 2010

What Leftists and Islamists are both lacking, is empathy for and adherence to the "Golden Rule"

Can We Coexist With The Left?
The American writer Lawrence Auster had a debate with his readers regarding the possibility of splitting the USA along ideological lines. According to reader Tim W, modern Left liberalism is a universal totalitarian ideology, not a “live and let live” concept. The goal of its adherents is a world government from which no one can escape. Leftists “need conservatives but conservatives don’t need leftists. To be blunt, they can’t let us go. We’d be happy to be rid of them, because to us they’re nothing but parasites and/or oppressors. But they can’t get rid of us because we do most of the work, pay most of the taxes, provide the stability and morality that allow their depravity to thrive with less damaging results. Furthermore, the white conservative population is the buffer protecting white liberals from the minorities.”

A number of commentators questioned the viability of such a political division. Muslims believe not only that Islam is the best religion, but that it is the only true religion and that all people must be brought into its fold. Likewise, Leftists sincerely believe that Leftism is the only valid ideology, and that the whole world must be brought under its heel. Just like the very existence of self-governed communities outside of Islamic rule is considered an intolerable act of aggression by devout Muslims, so the existence of self-governed non-Leftist communities anywhere, at least if they happen to be white, is unacceptable to Leftist True Believers. They don’t just want to rule themselves; they want to rule everybody else as well.

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In her book A God Who Hates, the Syrian-born ex-Muslim Wafa Sultan comments on the Islamic “culture of shouting and raiding.” She states that “My experience has been that two Muslims cannot talk together without their conversation turning into shouts within minutes, especially when they disagree with each other, and no good can come of that. When you talk to a Muslim, rationally, in a low calm voice, he has trouble understanding your point of view. He thinks you have lost the argument. A Muslim conversing with anyone else – Muslim or non-Muslim – cannot remember a single word the other person has said, any more than my mother could remember a single word of what the preacher in our local mosque said.”

Former Muslim Ali Sina notes that “there is very little difference between the Left and Islam. What is lacking in both these creeds is the adherence to the Golden Rule. Just as for Muslims, everything Islamic is a priori right and good and everything un-Islamic is a priori wrong and evil, for the Left, everything leftist is a priori oppressed and good.” Facts don’t matter. Lying about opponents and their intentions is so widespread “that it is considered to be normal.”

After it was revealed that much of the data regarding alleged man-made global warming was deliberately fabricated, which constitutes one of the largest and most expensive anti-scientific frauds in history, most of its Leftist backers continued as if nothing had happened. The fact that they had promoted outright lies and slimed their opponents based on these lies mattered little. They believe they had the right to do so, as long as their intentions were right. Muslims, too, are allowed to lie to further the spread of their ideology. This strategy is called taqiyya.

Just like Muslims, both national Socialists and international Socialists totally lack respect for Socratic Dialogue, the reasoned search for truth which has been a hallmark of Western culture at its best. This is why such a large percentage of Western converts to Islam are either neo-Nazis or Marxists: These groups already think a great deal like Muslims. Their creed is the Absolute Truth, which should rule the world and must be imposed on others by brute force if necessary. They consequently have no need for reasoned debate. Others should submit to their rule or be violently squashed.

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Let me add that I don’t think all Leftists have a well-thought-out plan to destroy the West. I have some in my immediate family, and they don’t think like this at all. They sincerely believe that what they are doing is the right thing. The hardcore ones who deliberately want to kill the West might be a minority, but at the end of the day this distinction matters little.

In many cases you can compromise, but in others you cannot. If somebody tries to poison you then you have to resist. It doesn’t matter in the long run whether those who do this do so because they deliberately want to kill you or because they are fools who accidentally kill you while intending to do something noble. The bottom line is: You die. You cannot be slightly dead, just like you cannot be slightly pregnant. If the Leftists and the Globalists have their way then our civilization will die, plain and simple. [...]

Our civilization, as we have known it, is dying every day. It's called change, and it's inevitable. All that we know is in the process of becoming something else. Fjordman, who wrote this article, is perhaps too pessimistic. Barry warns me that many of the writers at the Brussels Journal have Nazi sympathies. I can see that potential. The problem is, that any white person who sticks up for European culture can easily be called a Nazi, just to shut him up. But that doesn't mean that someone who sticks up for European culture is someone who wants to hate and exterminate other cultures. True multicultural tolerance would include European culture, not seek to destroy it. These are distinction worth making, for anyone who considers themselves to be a classical liberal.

If European culture is destined to be assimilated and become something else, so be it; those who make the most babies inherit the future. If America's complexion, and the complexion of the whole western world is destined to become something other than white, it matters little. What does matter to me, is the survival and advancement of the best elements of Western Civilization. Things like The Golden Rule, and Socratic thinking. Liberty and freedom, self-governance and sovereignty, the rule of law, not of kings or dictators. The Ideals set forth in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Such things hold no value for Leftists or Jihadists. Only their ideology matters, and they have no qualms about lying to advance their agendas. Even when they tell the truth it's like a lie, because they never ask themselves "is it true?". They only think "What do I need to say to get what I want?". The ends justifies the means. They often don't say what they mean, nor mean what they say. Thus neither Leftists or Jihadists can be trusted, because they have no respect for objective truth, and no respect for anyone who does not support their flawed ideologies. Muslims who practice taqiyya, are no different from Leftists who practice "the ends justify the means". Both believe they are allowed to lie to further the spread of their ideology. Both are liars of the worst kind.

I haven't much use for liars, of any description. This article does a good job of showing the dishonesty and intolerance of these extremist ideologies, that would use any means possible to impose themselves on others. I'm generally a pretty tolerant person, but I see no need to tolerate the completely intolerant. Tolerance is supposed to be a two-way street. I tend to be as tolerant of other people as they are of me. It would be unwise to be more so.


Also see: Islam's Nowhere Men


     

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