7 Comments

A reasonable person could not logically disagree with anything you wrote here. But we are no longer dealing with reasonable people. Everything I have believed for two years is becoming todays science. But they only believe their sources. Who are all democrat elitists. When I bring up the 17,000 doctors and scientists who signed a petition against the insane mandates, they sneer at such a “low” number! And many of these doctors have been successfully treating Covid since late 2020. They yell it’s only horse medicine. These doctors are all quacks and Trumpers. Factually I cannot think of one thing that democrats (our Left) have gotten right in the last 12 years. Putin and his Chinese buddy have to be rejoicing that these woke fools are in charge of the West.

Expand full comment

Hi Greg, Really appreciate your perspective, as a fellow Humboldtian. Is there a place where I can email you?

Expand full comment

To paraphrase Bastiat, "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of people, they enact laws to authorize it and invent a morality to justify it." It's so much easier to behave unjustly towards someone if you can first convince yourself that they're bad.

Expand full comment

Greg, I think of Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter many times when I read about the liberal mentality. His book The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness describes the liberal thought process as well as any author I have read. The book is a real page turner, especially if you have a psychology or political science background. John H. Painter wrote a wonderful synopsis of Rossiter's book, which is a pretty accurate summary of the book's contents. While there are sixteen more, here are the first ten of Rossiter's beliefs about liberals, be they radical or benign:

1. Traditional social ideals are outmoded and not currently applicable.

2. Governmental direction is better than citizens taking care of themselves.

3. Ordered society’s best political foundation is centralized government.

4. The primary purpose of politics is achieving an ideal collective society.

5. Individual’s political significance is from his collective membership.

6. Altruism is a virtue of the state, embodied in government programs.

7. Sovereignty of individuals is diminished in favor of state.

8. Rights to life, liberty, property yield to state’s collective rights.

9. Citizens are like children of a parental government.

10. Individual's relation to government should resemble that to parents.

From my perspective, being rather simple minded, liberals are those who fail to achieve responsible adulthood, yet want to run everyone else's lives. Also, simple mindedly, I feel that there are very few, if any, benign liberals today.

Expand full comment