Insight Into the Mindset of the Left

The worldwide connectivity of the Internet provides a method of communication that far surpasses anything previously available to mankind. I was reminded of this recently after I posted this on SDA. A friend of a friend on Facebook (FB) wrote it, had her picture taken with it, and posted it publicly on her FB Wall. She had about 460 friends on FB, almost all of whom she knows personally. So her initial audience was rather limited. But after I reposted it, it got a whole lot more views. Then an SDA reader referred it to James Delingpole of the Telegraph in the UK. He reposted it and now it's starting to go viral! Of the hundreds of comments on Delingpole's blog, this pair by reader "tayles' were especially interesting:

tayles @ 10/31/2011 11:11 AM
Brilliant. Sums up the lefty mindset perfectly:

1. Identify a 'bad thing'.
2. Completely ignore whether its 'badness' is unavoidable or is outweighed by its benefits.
3. Get indignant.
4. Decide that people who don't share your outrage are evil, stupid or shamefully indifferent.
5. Wallow in how principled and righteous you feel.
6. Propose some alternative to the status quo that superficially appears clever and caring, but which won't work, will have disastrous secondary effects, and will require a police state to enforce.
7. Watch journalists, poseurs and inadequates support your 'cause', and badger the government into making it public policy out of fear of looking 'nasty'.
8. Behold as society unravels.

tayles @ 10/31/2011 01:33 PM
People on the Left think in terms of 'solutions' rather than processes. For instance, they think the solution to the problem of poverty is to give money to poor people. Someone on the Right would want to know if this solution would work in the long-term, what it's costs and benefits were, and what unintended effects it might have. They don't ask these things not because they don't care, but because they do care and they just want to take the most sensible, mature course of action, even if it prolongs someone's suffering in the short-term. But to someone on the Left, even to ask these questions is to delay the alleviation of someone's plight. And that's not the kind of thing they want on their conscience.

Redistribution of wealth might have some unpleasant secondary effects, but those are things that happen somewhere down the line. They are not an immediate consequence of giving poor people money, so they cannot be directly attributed to the person who endorses such a policy. Alleviating someone's suffering by giving them money, on the other hand, is a direct effect of such a policy, so its benefits are felt more keenly. The Left's perspective is essentially one that doesn't consider costs, or believes they can be made to disappear if we show sufficient will and compassion. Such an outlook can be attributed to a number of things, but its effects are unfailingly disastrous.

Incidentally, the original author of the message will be appearing on Roy Green's show this Sunday, November 6th at 3:05pm ET / 2:05pm CT / 1:05pm MT / 12:05pm PT. You can listen in here.