12 Unspoken Rules For Being A Liberal by John Hawkins | Aug 31, 2013
There may be no official rule book for being a liberal, but that doesn't mean there aren't rules. There are actually quite a few rules liberals go by and the more politically active liberals become, the more rigidly they tend to stick to their own code of behavior. These rules, most of which are unspoken, are passed along culturally on the Left and viciously enforced. Ironically, many liberals could not explain these rules to you and don't even consciously know they're following them. So, by reading this article, not only will you gain a better understanding of liberals, you'll know them better than they know themselves in some ways.
1) You justify your beliefs about yourself by your status as a liberal, not your deeds. The most sexist liberal can think of himself as a feminist while the greediest liberal can think of himself as generous. This is because liberals define themselves as being compassionate, open minded, kind, pro-science and intelligent not based on their actions or achievements, but based on their ideology. This is one of the most psychologically appealing aspects of liberalism because it allows you to be an awful person while still thinking of yourself as better than everyone else.
2) You exempt yourself from your attacks on America: Ever notice that liberals don't include themselves in their attacks on America? When they say, "This is a racist country," or ",This is a mean country," they certainly aren't referring to themselves or people who hold their views. Even though liberals supported the KKK, slaughtering the Indians, and putting the Japanese in internment camps, when they criticize those things, it's meant as an attack on everyone else EXCEPT LIBERALS. The only thing a liberal believes he can truly do wrong is to be insufficiently liberal.
3) What liberals like should be mandatory and what they don't like should be banned: There's an almost instinctual form of fascism that runs through most liberals. It's not enough for liberals to love gay marriage; everyone must be forced to love gay marriage. It's not enough for liberals to be afraid of guns; guns have to be banned. It's not enough for liberals to want to use energy-saving light bulbs; incandescent light bulbs must be banned. It's not enough for liberals to make sure most speakers on campuses are left-wing; conservative speakers must be shouted down or blocked from speaking.
4) The past is always inferior to the present: Liberals tend to view traditions, policies, and morals of past generations as arbitrary designs put in place by less enlightened people. Because of this, liberals don't pay much attention to why traditions developed or wonder about possible ramifications of their social engineering. Its like an architect ripping out the foundation of a house without questioning the consequences and if the living room falls in on itself as a result, he concludes that means he needs to make even more changes.
5) Liberalism is a jealous god and no other God may come before it: A liberal "Christian" or "Jew" is almost an oxymoron because liberalism trumps faith for liberals. Taking your religious beliefs seriously means drawing hard lines about right and wrong and that's simply not allowed. Liberals demand that even God bow down on the altar of liberalism.
6) Liberals believe in indiscriminateness for thought: This one was so good that I stole it from my buddy, Evan Sayet : " Indiscriminateness of thought does not lead to indiscriminateness of policy. It leads the modern liberal to invariably side with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success. Why? Very simply if nothing is to be recognized as better or worse than anything else then success is de facto unjust. There is no explanation for success if nothing is better than anything else and the greater the success the greater the injustice. Conversely and for the same reason, failure is de facto proof of victimization and the greater the failure, the greater the proof of the victim is, or the greater the victimization."
7) Intentions are much more important than results: Liberals decide what programs to support based on whether they make them feel good or bad about themselves, not because they work or don't work. A DDT ban that has killed millions is judged a success by liberals because it makes them feel as if they care about the environment. A government program that wastes billions and doesn't work is a stunning triumph to the Left if it has a compassionate sounding name. It would be easier to convince a liberal to support a program by calling it the Saving Women And Puppies Bill" than showing that it would save 100,000 lives.
8) The only real sins are helping conservatism or harming liberalism: Conservatives often marvel at the fact that liberals will happily elect every sort of pervert, deviant, and criminal you can imagine without a second thought. That's because right and wrong don't come into the picture for liberals. They have one standard: Does this politician help or hurt liberalism? If a politician helps liberalism, he has a free pass to do almost anything and many of them do just that.
9) All solutions must be government-oriented: Liberals may not be as down on government as conservatives are, but on some level, even they recognize that it doesn't work very well. So, why are liberals so hell bent on centralizing as much power as possible in government? Simple, because they believe that they are better and smarter than everyone else by virtue of being liberals and centralized power gives them the opportunity to control more people's lives. There's nothing scarier to liberals than free people living their lives as they please without wanting or needing the government to nanny them.
10) You must be absolutely close minded: One of the key reasons liberals spend so much time vilifying people they don't like and questioning their motivations is to protect themselves from having to consider their arguments. This helps create a completely closed system for liberals. Conservative arguments are considered wrong by default since they're conservative and not worth hearing. On the other hand, liberals aren't going to make conservative arguments. So, a liberal goes to a liberal school, watches liberal news, listens to liberal politicians, has liberal friends, and then convinces himself that conservatives are all hateful, evil, racist Nazis so that any stray conservatism he hears should be ignored. It makes liberal minds into perfectly closed loops that are impervious to anything other than liberal doctrine.
11) Feelings are more important than logic: Liberals base their positions on emotions, not facts and logic and then they work backwards to shore up their position. This is why it's a waste of time to try to convince a liberal of anything based on logic. You don't "logic" someone out of a position that he didn't use "logic" to come up with in the first place.
12) Tribal affiliation is more important than individual action: There's one set of rules for members of the tribe and one set of rules for everyone else. Lying, breaking the rules, or fomenting hatred against a liberal in good standing may be out of bounds, but there are no rules when dealing with outsiders, who are viewed either as potential recruits, dupes to be tricked, or foes to be defeated. This is the same backwards mentality you see in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, except it's based on ideology, not religion.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/08/31/12-unspoken-rules-for-being-a-liberal-n1687730/page/full
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Really, Krakin, you can do much better than that.
1) You justify your beliefs about yourself by your status as a liberal, conservative, libertarian, independent, Membership in the Clergy, KKK, Sam's Club, human being not your deeds.
If you don't understand that people identify with a group by this point in life, you had probably ought to look around with a less judgemental attitude and look at what is, rather than what you paint people as. People are intrinsically sure of their own attitudes because the attitudes are the result of the accumulation of life experiences. Also, people tend to think dichotomously, meaning that if they did not think that they were right, they would, by dichotomous definition, be wrong. And that is not even addressing the shallowness of your assumptions that all people of any group think in the same exact way.
Bravo, Brolly!
I'm a moderate, and I find this offensive.
The problem with this entire article is that it is naively, if not intentionally, written from a strict conservative perspective for the sheer purpose of "singing to choir." The author makes absolutely no attempt to justify any of his particulars but instead strings together myths, lies and talking points.
Modern US liberals and conservatives align their groups differently. (see image below)
Unlike the conservatives who have abandon individual thinking for one strict massive group-think, liberals - which allow individual thinking, by their very nature tend to fragment into groups. There is no "one size fits all" descriptors you can use for liberals. The author here ignorantly and foolishly attempts to do that.
This is an "American Thinker" class article; meaning it is devoid of logic, intelligence and facts.
Krakkin
Interesting article
But I must point out that our liberal friends never generalize or stereotype groups of people or ideas they might hold
It seems to me that the rules are as applicable to some conservatives (and other groups) as they are to some liberals
I think you have ruffled a few feathers here
Barb
Or is it possible that when articles disagree with what "we believe or support" that we deem them to be steaming piles of excrement
I stand by the point that the attributes and tendencies cited above are just as true of some liberals as they are of some conservatives, of some libertarians, etc
Funny how introspection works....and sometimes doesn't.
RiO,
"But I must point out that our liberal friends never generalize or stereotype groups of people or ideas they might hold"
Change the never to sometimes, as you did in the second statement, and I will agree, as I do with the 2nd. Labels sometimes apply and sometimes don't. Generalizations, for the purpose of discussion, sometimes make things easier, and sometimes they get in the way. The use of absolutes in discussions should be avoided.
That said, the article tends towards the heaping pile more than the well thought out and accurate, because it is aimed towards attacking one group while letting the other group off the hook, and thereby discrediting its attempt at logical discussion.
Remove this from your seeded article.
I'm flattered that you deem me as something other than yourself.
I often visit articles like this as I have a fascination with authors/seeders who possess "minds" wherein complicated thoughts die of loneliness.
Also, point-of-personal-privilege -- you refer to me by name I am entitled to call you out.
Spikegary
Very true
Broliver
That was a little sarcasm which I thought would be transparent, my apologies that it was not
Of course it is sometimes as it is sometimes for all people regardless of political leanings
You assessment of this article is true from your viewpoint, I am somewhat ambivalent other than I would eliminate liberal and replace it with citizen and then the article is more true than false.
John Hawkins
Who he is.
DEFECATER-IN-CHIEF-OF-THIS-STEAMING-PILE-OF-SHIT
Just to be a PITA , I'm going to inform k rakkin that the above violates our rules of conduct . You really ought to remove that statement from the article . If you require more details just ask ...
Once again I offer krakkin info on the rules of conduct for the site . Contact me or any of the moderators if you want the details . Thanks J4T .
Thanks, Petey; much appreciated.
Unlike on the right where no such myopia exists
except throughout its ranks