The curious views of the Left on violence

As the various “Occupy” protests across the country degenerate into violence it is interesting to look at the views of “occupiers” about violence.

Several weeks ago, I heard on the radio a reporter asking people at an Occupy rally about their opinions on prospective cuts in the defense budget. To a person they were all for defense cuts ranging from drastic to total elimination of any defense budget by the United States. And as you read things that the occupiers write, they are strongly pacifist.

But you look at these protests, and they have a strong violent element, ranging from attacks on the police to fighting, rape, and even murder. Some may think this is too confusing to sort out. Are occupiers violent, or non-violent? Well, it all makes perfect sense if you understand how the Left thinks.

Everyone is born with a desire to be good and to be thought of as good. To many on the Left, their political views are a substitute for personal morality. They, personally may be greedy and selfish. But their political views are for redistribution of wealth, and thus they are good people. Personally, they may be prone to arguing and fighting, but their political views are pacifist, and thus they are good people.

You see, Leftism, or statism, is a religion. This explains why people on the Left are often impervious to logical argument. Cutting taxes may generate more actual revenue to the treasury as happened in the Reagan years. Pressuring people to get off the government dole may improve their self-respect. Continually taking more and more from producers to give to moochers may cause the economy to spiral down into destruction. But fixing any of these problems will not answer the need of the Leftist to deal with his own guilt. So you may as well speak to the wind as try to convince them that their policies don’t make sense. It isn’t about making sense, it’s about making them feel good. And if their policies fail, they double down all the more. For the sake of their own cravings for meaning in their lives, these policies have to work.


About mesasmiles

By Dr. David Hall. Dr. Hall runs The Website Factory, a digital marketing agency. He has had a long-standing interest in politics. As a college student he was Utah State Chairman for both Young Americans for Freedom and Youth for Nixon, and toyed with the idea of a political career.
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