The Treacherous Culture of Liberalism

Culture:  “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group”    

                    ~Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

First let me clarify that when I refer to “liberalism” I am lumping together liberals, leftists, “progressives,” socialists and “democratic socialists.”  In the future I’m sure we’ll have to add more terms as those on the Left adopt yet more labels to avoid being tainted with the stink that becomes inevitably associated with their most recent label, but for the time being – and for ease of understanding – I’ll just lump them all under “liberalism.”

What is liberalism, really?  Forget your dictionary definitions.  Those haven’t been applicable for perhaps a century now, so let’s talk about reality.  Liberalism is a mentality.  It is a culture unto itself, quite distinct from Americanism, which Merriam-Webster’s defines as, “attachment or allegiance to the traditions, interests, or ideals of the U.S.”  Any assertion that today’s liberals have any “attachment or allegiance to the traditions, interests, or ideals of the U.S.” is laughable, to say the least. 

In my humble opinion there are two elements that distinguish liberals from other Americans.  The first is a shared immersion in adolescent thinking and behavior, a.k.a. the infamous “mental disorder of liberalism” that conservatives have long paid witness to.  The evidence is overwhelming.  We’re talking about adults who can’t grasp or won’t honor simple tenets of fairness, such as due process, as we saw during the Kavanaugh hearings farce, because liberals have no appreciation for what it means to the country to preserve that sacred tenet.  They cannot resist the impulse to follow what serves their own interests in the moment, regardless of what it means for themselves and everyone else in the long term, just like a child who runs into a busy street to chase a ball. 

Like children, liberals don’t engage in thoughtful debate.  Instead they play word games, they simply declare themselves the winner (Barack Obama:  “The debate is over!”), and they gang up on people like schoolyard bullies (just ask the kids of Covington Catholic).  They behave like high-schoolers in social cliques, ridiculing and ostracizing those who dare to be different, as when they marginalize anyone who challenges their beliefs on climate change and label them as “deniers” rather than respond respectfully to legitimate concerns and criticisms. 

The culture of liberalism has intensified in recent years following the election of Barack Obama, due to cleverly subtle messaging that has emboldened the Left and shown them that there is little consequence to openly spitting on the basic rules of our democracy.  It has become increasingly acceptable to engage in tantrums and violence when a liberal doesn’t get his way.  That’s what Antifa is all about, their laughable claims of fighting “fascism” notwithstanding.  Anymore it is an everyday occurrence to see news stories of people attacking others in restaurants – and feeling perfectly entitled to do so - or behaving outrageously on airplanes, with no regard for the harm or inconvenience to everyone else.  The epidemic of selfishness and self-centeredness is mindboggling.  The hostility and aggression are alarming.  And it’s all part of today’s culture of liberalism.

Then there is the ease with which liberals are persuaded to blindly embrace any cause that promises to gratify their insatiable need for attention and superiority, whether it be “climate change,” #MeToo, Colin Kaepernick’s anti-flag silliness, and whatever latest nonsense is being drummed into their impressionable brains by the leftists who now run our schools, universities and news media.  I could fill a tome with example after example to demonstrate how liberalism has turned adults into perpetual adolescents (and bratty ones at that), but to speed things up let me sum it up in three words:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

No one personifies liberalism’s further regression into infantilism better than this ceaselessly-yapping, cartoon character whose hubris knows no bounds.  The 29-year old democratic socialist possesses the typical leftist’s arrogance of believing that she’s smarter than anyone else who’s ever existed, as evidenced by her constant scolding and lecturing of those who have achieved far more in life than she has.  Her wisdom is superior to the brilliant men who authored this nation’s Constitution.  She knows more than tested economists.  And she’s smarter than all the PhD’s who dispute the so-called “consensus” opinion of the oh-so-conveniently-named bogeyman, “climate change.”  But isn’t that often the case with children, that despite having little life experience of their own, they always know better than the adults?  AOC is going to solve all of this country’s problems by simply tearing up the Constitution and handing out free money that she thinks she can rightfully take from whomever she pleases.  She is too dumb, the way a small child or an animal is dumb, to consider that all of these ideas she believes she’s discovered have long been tried, failed and rejected.  She thinks she can stick her hand in the fire and not get burned, because that’s how special she is.  That is the mentality of liberalism.

The second distinguishing characteristic of the culture of liberalism is the complete absence of any deeply held commitment to overarching principles.  Liberals like the protection of free speech, but only when the protection applies just to them, as evidenced by their repeated refusals to let conservatives be heard on college campuses and elsewhere.  They like due process, but only when it applies just to them (just ask Jussie Smollett, but first ask Brett Kavanaugh).  Bill Clinton did not need to set a moral example when he was president, but now Donald Trump does.  They are either obnoxiously gleeful or completely unphased at the unequal application of law for Hillary Clinton et al vs. Donald Trump et al.  Ditto for the media’s rampant bias for Obama (favorably) vs. Trump (negatively).  They swear on the Bible to uphold the Constitution, then spend their political careers trying to circumvent it.  Truth - a necessary element for a healthy society – only matters when it furthers their agenda.  They reject the principles of personal responsibility, and their cynical devotion to identity politics belies their phony claims of wanting “equality for all.”  I really cannot think of a single principle sincerely held by liberals that their own actions do not negate. 

So what we have now is a dangerously festering subculture of Americans with a child’s selfishness, absence of conscience and disconnection from moral principles; and yet these children can vote and hold powerful positions within our government.  America is truly in a scary place right now, and it will remain so and get much worse unless and until we can rid ourselves of the culture of liberalism.  Given all of the safety nets the Left has devised to ensure the culture stays alive, that’s going to require a miracle.  Let’s hope that miracle comes in the form of the Left’s own arrogance.

~CW

This post can also be viewed at the blog site, The Pesky Truth.