OpEds—Gates of Lefty Hell: The Keepers and Smashers

By Diane Gee

Sure, they are for women’s rights.  They post a ton on legalizing pot.  They hate Republicans, and are anti-war.  They don’t much like fracking, and will sign any cause d’jour that comes by, with little or no due diligence.  The Kony thing comes to mind…But given hard evidence of the feedback loops that have our planet racing to an irreversible ecological change, which will be absolutely unable to sustain human life?

They have to deny, obfuscate, or sing la-la-la with their fingers in their new age ears saying things like (and I quote)

Yes, education / knowledge of what is happening is vital. So too is understanding that our whole solar system is under going a ‘climate change’ phenomenon. You can verify that on space / solar dedicated sites.

Ummm, WHAT? Let me define some terms for you.

Climate is the pattern of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these variables over shorter periods.

I hate to break it to you, but the solar system has no “climate.”  And your seminars and crystal waving prayer sessions are irrelevant.

Truth is subjective…..

Sack cloth and ash with the sign of its the end of the world … I simply don’t subscribe to.

And “vision” at this point, like Truth, is very subjective.

Hear no evil much?  There is nothing subjective about the North Pole now being underwater, nor 200 species a day becoming extinct.

…there is always the possibility of changing what it is causing this crisis. To point and say science has confirmed out extinction … I have a valid right to question that. What is science one day…. in the shadow of new discovery becomes obsolete the next day.

Ok, rather strange arguments, but just as effective as a right-wing bible thumper in shutting down any intelligent conversation on climate change.  “God said he wouldn’t flood the Earth again, so don’t worry!”  You know, its all good.  Don’t worry, be happy.  New age-ism is just as ideologically blind as their biblical counterparts.  There secular counter-parts are the “science will find a way” people, that truly cannot grasp the idea od “tipping points.”

Because in America, neither the Right nor the Left really wants to hear bad news.  Or bad TRUTHS.

Inevitably, someone breaks out the “community” argument in the Land of the Gatekeepers.  This is always the BEST way to shame a Liberal into shutting up.  You know, its divisive to say anything I don’t want to hear.  It makes me huuuuurrrt!  So, stoooooppppp!

So, when presented with something as emotionless as a series of links to hard-core Scientific Studies, you end up with this:

…we don’t feel like flipping out this morning.

Looks to me like there’s nothing anyone can do about it, based on the science articles provided, so why work yourself into anger and isolation?

I experience it as being pushed or hammered instead of understood and respected as another person who understands we’re all in this together.

You see, to not be isolated, to not be a “buzz-kill” the feel-good lefties tell you to please, please not expose them to things like science, math and facts. Dino-riding Jesus Christ might say the same thing.  Have we become a nation of children?  Where even the self-proclaimed left uses emotional manipulation to end any serious discussion of science?  Or is it that we have seen too many post-apocalyptic movies and magically think we will be fine?

This seriously came out of a leftist’s mouth.

…it dawned on me that I’d be one of the people making cockroach stew out in the woods somewhere taking care of little kids.

There’s a big difference between extinction and evolution.

I wish everyone had read Ishmael because it provides an anthropological framework to discuss Leavers, Takers and Civilization as we know it, or Mother Culture. The thing is that the TAKERS are toast, and although they’ve toasted the planet like we know it – once all that has passed, there will still be Leavers (sort of like tribal peoples) and there will still be this planet.

Won’t look like it does now, but it can still be beautiful.

The world becomes a super heated, waterless barren waste, and it will still be beautiful?  We can evolve past it in 30 years?  What the Fuck?  Thank the ever-loving Flying Spaghetti Monster, there are still those on the Left with the wits to point out:

The takers will have food and water in their bunkers, power, grow lights, they’ll be cooler deep in the Earth. WE will not survive. If we are the tribal people, we will not be making cockroach stew. There will be NO cockroaches. There will be no water.

I guess if you cannot fully deny, then head meets sand is the next best scenario. Or run off and write ill-written, semi-legible screeds on “doomers” and the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure.  Its kind of what my late husband used to say about why the 60’s failed…. too many were there for the party, too few brave enough to make real changes when the going got tough.

And yeah Near Term Extinction  says things are going to get tough really fucking soon.

I find it equally distressing that MSNBC’s talking heads are apologists for Obama and his very right-wing tenure in office.  Mother Jones would be projectile vomiting at the Obama worship her namesake now employs.  She, unlike Obama, was an actual Socialist.  A true Leftist.  But trickle down ignorance has become a flood, mirroring itself in the blogosphere.

Obamabots may be the worst of the Gate Keepers, but they certainly are not the only enforcers of the status quo.

I walked very late into a discussion on Socialism, under a post about Socialism on a supposedly Liberal FB Page.  It ended with me being told, both publicly and in private message, not to talk about Socialism, because it was “too upsetting and divisionary” among the page’s leftists.

It ran a similar gamut to the above climate change, starting from a place of gross ignorance, and ending in the place of emotional manipulation to stop the conversation from taking place at all.

The very 1st reaction?  Pure ignorance.

…if I want to have my own business where I trade services for money that enables me to have a comfortable life – does that make me a clanging cymbal shit head? Back before Walmart, when we had town squares with Mom & Pop soda shops and hardware stores, was that inherently evil? If Mom & Pop were in the Klan, maybe it was evil – but that’s Mom & Pop, not Capitalism as an economic system. And where does that leave family farms?
I don’t get it how I suck balls and should be sent to hell just because I would like to have my own business. Can’t there be people who make a few bucks and take care of the community? If I made a few bucks without raping people and the planet, and contributed to the care of the community – how does that make me shit?

Note the IMMEDIATELY hostile language.  No one called anyone a shithead, or said suck balls.  Of course, when you try to point out that Socialism won’t hurt them, they ignore it.  Even when its NOT about them making a few bucks more than everyone else?  To them it is.

I tried to explain:

Socialism does not mean anything in terms of your personal property. Or your small business or farm. No one is going to take away your creativity or chance to be innovative. If you hire 10,000 workers though? They become partners rather than tools. Socialism says you want your whole community to do well, not just you; conversely that they also look out for your interests.

What it does do is Nationalize NATIONAL assets. Power/Utilities, health, education, as well as sets tax rates and wages.

What it does do is stop mega-corporations from exploiting the labor and allows the workers themselves to “own” what they produce – think profit sharing with the bonus of voting on what is made and how.

Individuals who operate within our system aren’t inherently evil, but there is certainly room for education towards a better tomorrow for everyone.

The idea is that I don’t deserve a better quality of life because I have a high IQ than a person who is challenged. We both deserve nice homes and vacations. The idea is that if I am particularly cutthroat, I don’t get to drive everyone else out of business and hold a monopoly on an item – making them lose their businesses and homes while I dine on caviar on my personal jet – it is that we work together to make all businesses mildly profitable and no one goes without.

This was met with personal insults, and being told “labels are divisive.”  No, actually differing economic theories are divisive, especially capitalism that creates class war and abject poverty.

Then the real truth comes out, like most upper class leftish people, they talk a big game, but are terrified of losing their privilege. They are winners in that class war.

I have to say that it hurts my feelings to hear that people like my father are corrupt to the core. My dad is an entrepreneur in America – ergo: a capitalist. It’s not fair to say that he’s corrupt. Or that I’m corrupt to the core just because I think that most balanced systems are eclectic in nature.

The emotional manipulation to shut down the discussion happened faster than a “Yo Momma” jibe in a rap dual.  You see, if they make it personal about their Daddys?  They expect you to not speak of Socialism again.

Then straight out of the Commie McCarthy Era propaganda machine?  A leftist said this with a straight face:

Yea, kinda difficult to be told your creativity is shit… and everybody is creative.

Note, no where in the discussion had any Socialist addressed creativity.  But the underlying fear that economic equity would lead to personal conformity just reared its tiny head.

Apparently the Left believes that Socialism will take away their small farms and business, make us all automatons in grey, and steal our imaginations!  Our creativity will be gooooonnnnneee!  See what we are up against?

Then they resort to the “its not the system, its the greed” meme.  Because Capitalism served them well.  They have spent a few years in Europe on their parent’s dime.  Or Daddy bought them an upper-side NY flat.  Or they like their McMansion. Or their Trust Fund income…

When people make blanket generalizations, they often step on toes. While I can accept that many people believe capitalism is inherently predatory, I maintain that heartless greed is at the root of the problem. Not some theory.

Some people believe?  Some?  No, darling predatory IS what Capitalism does.  It extorts the most value it can from underpaying workers, or for the raw materials, so it can make profit off of the end product.  It IS inherently predatory.  One person has to be underpaid for another to be overpaid.

Proof positive of the quip, “The Left is Center, the Center is Right, and the Right is Batshit Crazy.”

When simple definition of terms fails?  Again, emotional manipulation.  From a suicide threat “Talking about socialism makes me want to kill myself…” to this tripe from the person who made 70% of the comments – effectively saying, over and over, anyone who espoused the idea Socialism is good was trying to “dominate her and the conversation”:

The issue I have with conversations like these is not whether or not we label each other a socialist or a capitalist. My issue is that many conversations seek to dominate, (snip – women mostly) …the need to dominate a conversation breaks community.

Sell socialism all you want – as far as I’m concerned, all this is distraction from the real issue of building community and healing each other and the planet.

It’s like nobody even hears me.  And I have that right – no matter which one of you dominates the conversation

Its like a dominatrix bitching because her sub cries too loud.  Seriously?

After the suicide comment, which has since been removed?  The admins came in and said it was harmful to the feelings of “community” to speak further on the subject. As I said above, this is always the final card in the faux-left deck.  Stay within happy-feely centrist memes, or you are breaking the community up!  Now that?  Is enforced conformity, indeed, and illiberal to the max!

Its the Greed, not the “ism” became law of the land of leftiness, their brand, anyway. Economic theory hurts their little heads more than the looming extinction of the planet.  Even if Eco-socialism could save them?  They would refuse to even hear of it.

Talking about Socialism is bad, gotcha… it makes the limousine liberals cry.  They use passive/aggressive bullying techniques, put words never spoken in people’s mouths, then gang up on whomever speaks inconvenient truths.

The Left has been effectively kettled, corralled if you will, by both the keepers of the gate and the smashers of the gate.

One makes us look foolish, and feeds the 1% who would have unbridled power if the government was crushed.

The other makes sure we don’t work for a government more in favor of the working class.

Its a fine mess, and I have no idea what the fuck to do about it. Its the Gates of Lefty Hell.

So, I guess I will continue to be the whisper in the field speaking truth to power about the environment, about empowering people to create a system that is fair and sustainable, and hope someday?  They will hear.

_{ABOUT THE AUTHOR}

_{Diane Gee’s protean output includes the editorship of two busy political venues, starting with her personal blog, The Wild Wild Left , a Facebook group, Links for the Wildly Left, and a weekly radio program. Despite all this, she still finds time to live life to the fullest, run a household, keep the finances above water, and raise a young son.}