The Left’s Mandatory Intolerance of Empathy

 

Bill Maher has made a very successful career in show business with his particular brand of social commentary. He is viewed as an urbane intellectual with a cutting wit. He attempts to establish his dedication to independent thought with the title of his hit show, “Politically Incorrect,” but rarely deviates from modern leftist orthodoxy. Why, you wonder? If he’s as smart as he’s supposed to be (and I suspect he is), wouldn’t his comedy benefit from the occasional excursion into more controversial positions? Much of modern comedy is about making your audience vaguely uncomfortable and challenging their ways of thinking. Why doesn’t he do this to his mostly liberal audience? Why not occasionally challenge one of their assumptions? This is comedy, right? I’ll allow Mr. Maher himself to explain why he can’t do that.

In his opening monologue recently, when Mr. Maher told his mostly liberal audience, “Yesterday David Koch of the zillionaire Koch brothers died…of prostate cancer,” his audience applauded. You may find that amazing, but I suspect that Mr. Maher knew that that was an easy applause line. I find that amazing. Anyway, Mr. Maher continued, “I guess I’m going to have to re-evaluate my low opinion of prostate cancer…He and his brother have done more than anybody to fund climate science deniers for decades. So [expletive] him, the Amazon is burning up, I’m glad he’s dead, and I hope the end was painful.” Why such seething hatred? Because Mr. Koch and Mr. Maher disagreed about politics.

Well, some politics. They agreed on some political issues. For example, they both hated Donald Trump. They had other topics they agreed on. But they disagreed on some political issues, and for a modern leftist, that’s enough. They skip the political debate part. They go directly from disagreement, on any leftist issue, and move directly into vicious hatred of their adversary with no alternative but to destroy that person.

This demand for absolute conformity is not new. Modern leftists did not suddenly lose interest in debate and discussion. Think of history’s most famous leftists: Lenin, Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, and so on. None of them were known for being tolerant and open-minded, seeking consensus with their adversaries to solve problems. Those famous leftists would recognize Mr. Maher’s blatant lack of humanity or empathy to his adversaries. No disagreement can be tolerated. So we should not tolerate those with whom we disagree. If you acknowledge the humanity and the good intentions of your adversary, some might think that he has a point. And you lose your dominance.

Leftists want control. Those on the right want to leave you alone, and let you do as you please. But what if you do something that is wrong (according to the left)? That can’t be tolerated. Of course.

A defining feature of the right is a respect for other people and their ideas. The monarchs of 1700s Europe thought that giving peasants the right to vote in this new country was clearly absurd. Who cares what those provincial, uneducated people think? I’ll tell them what to think. They will not tell me anything. Who knows what silliness goes on their heads? They lack my intellect, education, and understanding.

Freedom of speech, and even freedom of thought, are threats to the left. Even respect for others, when you get right down to it. And the left knows it. So they tolerate no dissent. If you disagree with them about, well, anything, then you must be destroyed. And when you die a painful death, people will cheer.

Mr. Maher understands the left that he associates with. He knows how they handle disagreements. So do Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. So does Mitt Romney. Lifelong Democrat Donald Trump found out how he was treated when he abandoned the left. Even Robespierre figured out the intolerance of the left, at the end. Thomas Jefferson learned a lot from the French Revolution, as did many others.

In America, we use politics to settle our differences. Some places in the world use AK-47’s to settle debates. Here, we discuss, and we vote. Only if we respect those with whom we disagree can this system work. Because if your adversary is unworthy of your respect, or even your empathy, then why would you care what they think? Then, the only thing that matters is what you think.

Then, you applaud your adversary only when they die a painful death.

These are scary times.

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  1. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    We can’t hate blacks or gays anymore so we hate our political enemies. Humans need nemesi. We were born to hate.

    Where Is Thy Brother

    This is something I am very aware of. The obsession that  the New Left holds for calling people who disagree with them either Nazis or racists is beyond belief. It is about all they have, but they stick to it like glue.

    And their notion that the people from south of the border are a sacrosanct group of people is also beyond belief. It is at least beyond belief  for anyone of us in the Center who thinks that no group of newly arrived citizens should receive more than others do.

    I once sat in a meeting of a health council for a county in Northern Calif.

    It was right after the dot com bubble burst. The Golden State had gone from having so much tax revenue that no one knew what to do with it, to having none. So each month, another group of top officials for this or that agency showed up to explain some huge change.

    So one month, the people from the mental health services agencies showed up. There was no money for funding mental health services for the elderly. The audience and the council members’ reaction was nil.

    There was no revenue for mental health services for young families. The audience reaction was nil. Also there was no revenue to continue programs for teenagers and young adults, as far as mental health. Again, no response from the council members or the audience.

    Then the officials mentioned that there was no revenue for the latino community in  terms of mental health services. All of  sudden, there was a huge reaction. This was a travesty! How could the county and state overlook the poor and deserving hispanics? Didn’t they deserve mental health services?

    That was over 15 years ago, and it has only gotten worse. And if you question the insanity of this, you are of course a racist and White Supremacist.

    • #31
  2. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Jeff Hawkins (View Comment):

    But the microcosm was a facebook conversation between a person I had lent rent money to who blew it on other things (20 minutes later, status update “Republicans are heartless bastards”) and another friend who I helped pack to move because her husband had left her and no one wanted to “get in the middle of it” about how they always knew I was a terrible person after I expressed support for the Tea Party.

    I don’t think my other friends would save me from the mob either, and that thought gives me nightmares.

    A funny teacher of mine said, “Make an ass of yourself and people will ride you.” If you lend money to irresponsible people they won’t pay you back. 

    With respect and compassion to your circumstances, the Bernie Bros I work with are incredibly nice and decent people and they don’t want to cheer anybody’s death. The Bill Maher types are few and far between. Most of this country is filled with well meaning dudes who don’t read or think deeply about anything. 

    • #32
  3. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    And their notion that the people from south of the border are a sacrosanct group of people is also beyond belief. It is at least beyond belief for anyone of us in the Center who thinks that no group of newly arrived citizens should receive more than others do.

    The reason that lefties believe that people from south of the border are a sacrosanct group is because they view them as poor useless brown victims that can be remolded by glorious white lefties.

    • #33
  4. Ilan Levine Member
    Ilan Levine
    @IlanLevine

    Oh, he does at times puncture some sacred cows of today’s left. But his ‘wit’ too often is pretty ugly and cheap.

    • #34
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