Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Western leftists adore right-wing religious extremists abroad
Jerusalem Post ^ | 8/2/'16 | Seth J. Frantzman

Posted on 08/03/2016 8:30:16 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last
PLEASE NOTE: I do not agree with everything the author says in this article--specifically his defense of secularism, his implied criticisms of Trump, etc. BUT--I am posting it because, despite its flaws, it is the best article on the phenomenon described I have ever read.

I myself have often pointed out that the Left abroad seems more like the "Right" at home than it does to our own domestic Left--the militarism, the social conservatism, the jingoistic nationalism, etc. vs. the pacifism and self-hatred of the domestic Left. It does almost seem as if the global struggle is indeed between two different "right wings" at times, with our Left on the side of the foreign "right."

With these flaws kept in mind, I hope readers will enjoy the insights he makes on this phenomenon. He's described almost perfectly what I've been clumsily trying to describe for years.

1 posted on 08/03/2016 8:30:16 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: hlmencken3; rmlew; Nachum; dervish; Yehuda; Ancesthntr; TorahTrueJew; Yomin Postelnik; ...

Ping.


2 posted on 08/03/2016 8:31:39 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Sof davar hakol nishma`; 'et-ha'Eloqim yera' ve'et-mitzvotayv shemor, ki-zeh kol-ha'adam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

They are allies because they have a common enemy, America.


3 posted on 08/03/2016 8:34:59 AM PDT by joshua c (Allah's paradise is full of mass murderers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

Because Western Leftists are closet Totalitarians....


4 posted on 08/03/2016 8:42:37 AM PDT by indthkr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator
I myself have often pointed out that the Left abroad seems more like the "Right" at home than it does to our own domestic Left

Sweden, Rape Capitol of the World and Land of Sitzpinklers, resembles our domestic "right"?

5 posted on 08/03/2016 8:53:02 AM PDT by Spirochete (GOP: Give Obama Power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

It might have been Florence King who said:
“It’s a sure sign you have invented your God,
when He hates the same people you do.”


6 posted on 08/03/2016 8:54:12 AM PDT by sparklite2 ( "The white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism." -Jonah Goldberg)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

Plenty of “progressive”, “enlightened” people found a lot to admire about the Nazis in the 1930’s. They haven’t changed much.


7 posted on 08/03/2016 8:59:23 AM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Spirochete
Sweden, Rape Capitol of the World and Land of Sitzpinklers, resembles our domestic "right"?

You misunderstood completely. Sweden represents the "Western Left," which is liberal and self-loathing. It is the totalitarian foreign Left that advocates social conservatism, patriotism, militarism, etc.

My goodness. How did you not get that?

8 posted on 08/03/2016 9:08:57 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Sof davar hakol nishma`; 'et-ha'Eloqim yera' ve'et-mitzvotayv shemor, ki-zeh kol-ha'adam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator
This entire phenomenon is what should be known as “locational liberalism.” Locational liberalism means you support liberalism only in one place, and support its diametric opposite somewhere else. The result is that there are basically two right-wing forces at war with each other in the West. One supports right-wing religious nationalist forces abroad, the other supports them at home. The West’s fragile liberal values which took 1,000 years to achieve by eroding the power of religion, nationalism, racism, xenophobia and chauvinism stand no chance against the competing forces of the foreign right wing, the internal right wing and the internal locational liberal who betrays them at home and supports them abroad.

The author seems to be saying that the only solution to this contradiction is replacing "locational liberalism" with a universal, global liberalism. So he correctly diagnosed the hypocrisy but proposes a completely inverted solution to it. Rather than trying to export "Democracy" and liberalism to the Third World, we should be countering multiculturalism and radicalism at home.

I would also say that the real reason that the Left supports ethno-nationalism (along with religiosity, social conservatism, and militarism) for non-western societies while condemning these things in western societies is that their real ideology isn't about love of social liberalism, but hatred for Western culture. Supporting multiculturalism and social radicalism at home helps rot America and Europe from within, while supporting ethno-nationalist Third World movements helps destroy us from without.

It's also interesting to see how the multicultural Left treats Russia. Because of residual love for the Soviet Union and Russia's antagonism with NATO, some on the American and Western European Left are still sympathetic to Putin. However, as far as most liberals are concerned, Russians are too white and too Christian for them to embrace as anti-western allies in the way that they embrace nationalistic African, Arab, or Meso-American strongmen.

9 posted on 08/03/2016 9:13:41 AM PDT by ek_hornbeck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

BTTT

Great post ZC!


10 posted on 08/03/2016 9:22:31 AM PDT by SirLurkedalot (My carry permit was issued in 1791. It has no expiration date.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator
"Why Western leftists adore right left-wing religious extremists abroad"

fixed.

11 posted on 08/03/2016 9:25:35 AM PDT by TexasGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator

It’s something of a stretch to call any religious fundamentalist/theocratic government “left wing,” at least by the standards of the western left.


12 posted on 08/03/2016 9:27:56 AM PDT by ek_hornbeck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: indthkr

That’s the only thing that makes sense. They don’t care the form of power. Just that it’s total power. Be it with transgendered bathrooms or stoning homosexuals. It’s all about the power to do so.


13 posted on 08/03/2016 9:31:25 AM PDT by Wyatt's Torch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

Funny stuff. In essence, he’s saying that the Western Left engages in mass cognitive dissonance. They just simply aren’t sane.


14 posted on 08/03/2016 9:38:04 AM PDT by afsnco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: afsnco

It’s only cognitive dissonance if you believe that the Left’s real agenda is promoting social liberalism for its own sake. It isn’t. Their agenda is destroying America and European countries. This means supporting multiculturalism and social liberalism domestically while supporting nationalism and social conservatism among racial minorities at home and enemy nations abroad. From that angle, their strategy makes perfect sense.


15 posted on 08/03/2016 9:43:43 AM PDT by ek_hornbeck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator
It is the totalitarian foreign Left that advocates social conservatism, patriotism, militarism, etc. My goodness. How did you not get that?

Okay, Totalitarian Left vs Liberal Left, in the same context that American liberals (self-loathing Liberal Left) claim Nazis are (militant Totalitarian Left) are "right wing".

16 posted on 08/03/2016 10:01:28 AM PDT by Spirochete (GOP: Give Obama Power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Zionist Conspirator

The author is mostly clueless: He loathes the right, wherever it’s found, says that Chavez is a right wing militarist only pretending to be on the left... but the one true thing the author says is that the left in this country supports factions abroad that are fundamentally totalitarian and oppressive to gays and women, and which do not believe in the left’s values... so true.


17 posted on 08/03/2016 10:27:37 AM PDT by ladyrustic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ladyrustic
The author is mostly clueless: He loathes the right, wherever it’s found, says that Chavez is a right wing militarist only pretending to be on the left... but the one true thing the author says is that the left in this country supports factions abroad that are fundamentally totalitarian and oppressive to gays and women, and which do not believe in the left’s values... so true.

As I said, he gets many things wrong, but his description of the Western Left's pathology is spot-on.

18 posted on 08/03/2016 11:20:50 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Sof davar hakol nishma`; 'et-ha'Eloqim yera' ve'et-mitzvotayv shemor, ki-zeh kol-ha'adam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ek_hornbeck
The author seems to be saying that the only solution to this contradiction is replacing "locational liberalism" with a universal, global liberalism. So he correctly diagnosed the hypocrisy but proposes a completely inverted solution to it. Rather than trying to export "Democracy" and liberalism to the Third World, we should be countering multiculturalism and radicalism at home.

You're both wrong. The only answer is the One True G-d and his Laws universally applied.

I wouldn't expect a "palaeo" to understand.

19 posted on 08/03/2016 11:22:24 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Sof davar hakol nishma`; 'et-ha'Eloqim yera' ve'et-mitzvotayv shemor, ki-zeh kol-ha'adam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Spirochete
Okay, Totalitarian Left vs Liberal Left, in the same context that American liberals (self-loathing Liberal Left) claim Nazis are (militant Totalitarian Left) are "right wing".

It looks like you're bound and determined to not get what is in black-and-white right in front of your face. Nevertheless, I will make one more attempt to explain it to you. After this, you're on your own.

"Western Left" means homosexual, "transgender," gun-hating, pacifist, flag-burning, "multiculturalist" pot smokers.

"Non-Western Left" means fanatical goose-stepping ultra-nationalist militarists in Beijing, Caracas, Moscow, Pyongyang, Havana, Hanoi, etc. They don't smoke pot. They are armed to the teeth. They teach love for the "socialist motherland." They are quick to react to any perceived insult to the national honor. And if somebody gets in their way (moslems, homosexuals, what-have-you) they kill him. They will kill whole populations and outlaw the same islam our domestic Left is currently in love with.

"Non-Western Left" also currently includes fanatical fundamentalist hierocratic islamic countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the various moslem terrorist organizations.

NOW--"Western Leftists" want to turn their own countries into puffs while supporting and having sexual fantasies about ultra-nationalist military strongmen in other cultures. They're hippies but they cheer when Non-Western Left countries murder their own "hippies." They're freaking hypocrites, just like they are when they idolize Black Fundamentalist Protestants who speak sub-standard English but hate the guts of white Fundamentalist Protestants who speak sub-standard English.

If you don't get it now, then you never will.

20 posted on 08/03/2016 11:31:48 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Sof davar hakol nishma`; 'et-ha'Eloqim yera' ve'et-mitzvotayv shemor, ki-zeh kol-ha'adam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson