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Leftist Organizations Are Not What They Seem
The CDC is, in theory, a non-political federal agency with the sole purpose of tracking and studying infectious diseases. Many people, however, have started to wonder if the CDC is not simply what it appears to be. Its response to COVID seemed to have more to do with political concerns than scientific ones, and whispered suggestions that perhaps the CDC is not just a neutral health agency have gone from conspiracy theories to reasonable questions. But still, it’s just a health agency, right? Even thinking that it may have ulterior motives feels a little strange.
The FBI is, in theory, a non-political federal agency with the sole purpose of enforcing federal law. Many people, however, have started to wonder if the FBI is not simply what it appears to be. Its endless investigations of Donald Trump (while it found no problems with the actions of various Clintons and Bidens) seemed to have more to do with political concerns than legal ones, and whispered suggestions that perhaps the FBI is not just a neutral law enforcement agency have gone from conspiracy theories to reasonable questions. But still, it’s just a law enforcement agency, right? Even thinking that it may have ulterior motives feels a little strange.
Our educational system is, in theory, a non-political complex series of organizations with the sole purpose of educating our children. Many people, however, have started to wonder if our educational system is not simply what it appears to be. Its endless efforts to indoctrinate our children (teaching them what to think rather than how to think) seems to have more to do with political concerns than educational ones, and whispered suggestions that perhaps our schools are not just a neutral educational system have gone from conspiracy theories to reasonable questions. But still, it’s just an educational system, right? Even thinking that it may have ulterior motives feels a little strange.
Our news media is, in theory, a non-political private industry with the sole purpose of informing our citizens about current events. Many people, however, have started to wonder if our news media is not simply what it appears to be. Its careful selections of which stories to cover (while presenting everything from a leftist viewpoint) seemed to have more to do with political concerns than informational ones, and whispered suggestions that perhaps our media organizations are not just a neutral news media have gone from conspiracy theories to reasonable questions. But still, it’s just news media, right? Even thinking that it may have ulterior motives feels a little strange.
I’ll stop because I’m getting bored, and you probably are too. Copying and pasting an entire article is boring – I feel like Joe Biden in college. Or Joe Biden in law school. Or Joe Biden in Congress.
Dang! There I go with the repetition thing again! Sorry!
But my point is that leftist organizations such as the CDC, the FBI, our educational system, our news media, the CIA, social media, the entertainment industry, most large & powerful corporations, and so on and so forth – all these organizations have a very interesting feature in common:
They are all not what they seem.
They are all simply leftist organizations, which exist to promote leftism. But none of them acknowledge that basic fact about their very reason for being.
Conservatives have The Hoover Institution. Leftists have the CDC, the FBI, the educational system, the news media, Hollywood, social media, and so on. None of which are ostensibly leftist organizations – they’re just the good guys.
I wonder how that power struggle will turn out?
The CDC pretends to be interested in our health. The FBI pretends to be interested in federal law. Our educational system pretends to be interested in educating children. Our news media pretends to be interested in informing the public.
And they do just enough of those things to provide cover for their true purpose: promoting leftism.
This is a reasonable tactic if you know that you’re on the wrong side of the argument.
If you thought that you might possibly be on the right side of the argument, then you would openly stand up for what you believe in. Only if you know that you’re wrong would you go to such great lengths to hide your true purpose.
If you know that any time someone challenges you to debate the issues, that you will lose decisively, then you plan from the outset to deflect criticisms.
C’mon, man! You can’t criticize the CDC – they’re trying to protect us from disease! You can’t criticize the FBI – they’re trying to protect us from criminals! You can’t criticize the educational establishment – they’re trying to educate our children! You can’t criticize the news media – they’re trying to inform the public!
So any criticism of leftism is automatically and instantly converted into an attack on benevolent organizations. An attack on America itself, really.
And leftists don’t have to do anything. Their cover provides them complete protection. They’ll never have to debate policies. Debates that they know they would lose. They just sit back and allow the opposition to destroy themselves by attacking school children or whatever.
Conservatives view this as underhanded and devious.
Leftists, however, view the same behavior as virtuous. When even the CDC understands that all that really matters is leftism, then they must be just wonderful people.
So there is no pressure from fellow leftists to change this behavior. And it’s working – leftists now control nearly every important American organization – so why would they change?
So it won’t change. Republicans can’t debate policy with Democrats. Republicans can only attack school children. That is their only recourse, to attempt to slow the advance of leftism.
Democrats know that they will lose every debate, because a long history of the results of leftist governments varies from disappointing to horrifying. So they prevent those debates from happening. By deflecting criticisms to ostensibly neutral and benevolent organizations. Which means that even if Republicans wanted to debate policies, they simply can’t. Which means leftists win the only way they can – by forfeit.
Leftism is the most destructive force on the planet over the past couple hundred years, at least. So leftists must hide behind organizations that appear nice. You nasty Republicans wouldn’t stoop so low as to attack nice benevolent organizations, would you? After all, us leftists are all about peace and love! Really!
It may sound devious to you. But it sounds virtuous to a leftist.
And thanks to the success of this system, we have a lot of leftists. And we have a consensus among all those leftists that this behavior is virtuous. Which makes it virtuous.
After all, this is a democracy, right?
Published in General
No matter the ostensible purpose of the Leftist organization, it’s always about power. I’m reminded of National Education Association (NEA) General Counsel Bob Chanin’s farewell address during the 2009 NEA national convention …. “It is not because we care about children; and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child,” Chanin boasted. “The NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.”
That’s not a misquote. Let’s go to the videotape …
https://youtu.be/baM8N24K8kE
Oh. And don’t forget the IRS.
The best defense!
O’Sullivan’s First Law in operation.
Summarized: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing. I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. The reason is, of course, that people who staff such bodies tend to be the sort who don’t like private profit, business, making money, the current organization of society, and, by extension, the Western world. At which point Michels’s Iron Law of Oligarchy takes over — and the rest follows.”
Read the whole thing. If you haven’t before, it’s well worth it and you’ll bookmark it, too.
Leftists aren’t capable of understanding that leftism is different from virtue. Jonah Goldberg’s second book is all about this. This is how leftists can effectively corrupt institutions while conservatives can’t. When leftists obey their values, they make institutions they are in more leftist. When conservatives obey their virtues, they try to make the institutions they work in effective.
They are also OK with lying in a way I don’t fully understand. Like Obama lying about how he was against gay marriage or making stuff up about Trump.
Perhaps also The Righteous Mind by J. Haidt?
I think it’s interesting that progressives see the traditional media (NYT, etc.) as essentialy right wing.
Yup.
I think your analysis of the state of the union is completely objective, and exactly correct.
The problem with most of these organizations is that they are hybrids of corporate and state interests. Henry Clay’s American System on steroids. They have no corrective mechanisms for poor behavior. You can’t vote out the head of the CDC, yet they receive protection from the state that truly private entities do not have.
It’s a really big mess, and it’s the price we pay for decades upon decades of fostering civic ignorance.
And we can’t vote out a single one of the bureaucrats that run our lives on a daily basis.
Yet, you’ll get a blank stare if you mention the “administrative state”.
??? What? Please explain?
If you ask on Ricochet, it’s my impression that most people here believe the NYT (for eg) leans Left. If you ask progressives, or people on the Left, they’d say it leans Right.
But they’d say that about the Democrats as well. Do people here think the Republicans ever lean Left?
Republicans don’t lean left but they capitulate to the left. The mainstream media says that Romney is a racist monster and Romney doesn’t call them a bunch of overeducated fools. David Horowitz talks about this beautifully.
How is the NYT right wing? Exactly what policies does it advocate for that make it right-wing?
I think they see American Empire as a right wing project. Myself I think it’s more a unaparty deep state thing, but fwiw the NYT is generally supportive. Have they ever met an ‘intervention’ they didn’t like? (Probably, but they seem to support a lot of them.)
Didn’t the NYT dislike the Iraq war?
Interesting article on that:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/iraq-war-media-fail-matt-taibbi-812230/
Zafar, respectfully, I don’t want to have to stoop to reading rollingstone. What’s your opinion and why do you think that progressives think that the NYT is conservative?
Half an inch right of Stalin seems conservative to some people.
Why not? You stoop to reading me, after all. Your standards can’t be that high.
More to the point: the best way to understand what progressives think is to read what they write and listen to what they say. And not limit yourself to commentary from the Right about what progressives think. Imho you should make up your own mind.
I’m less dismissive of the NYT – but will say it has a very Establishment point of view. Which is, by definition, Conservative.
Or put it another way – since WWII the US has been a Right Wing country when compared to the rest of the developed world. An Establishment paper reflects that.
And what do you think of the NYT? Right or Left and why?
That RINO.
I think higher of you than any NYT column. Which… actually doesn’t mean much because I don’t respect NYT columns. Whenever you write anything. I need to think about it and explain why you are wrong. NYT columns I can ignore.
The Thomas Friedman rule.
I think Zafar is simply pointing out that this is all relative. Anyone who is to the left of The New York Times will of course view it as a right-wing organization. My sister considered Barack Obama to be too conservative. Which says more about my sister than it does Mr. Obama.
So Zafar makes a fair point – even though our media is very left wing, it is certainly true that there are many people even more left wing than that.
But that’s not really my point in the post.
Sorry.
Excellent observation . . .
This is Ricochet. My recent post on the emptiness of modern nihilism led to a 100 comment thread on Keynesian economics. That’s what makes this place fun – no apology necessary, of course!
I was just pointing out that your very fair point didn’t really impact the point of my post, and I wasn’t arguing your point at all.
I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “point” four times in one sentence before. Of course, that’s not relevant to the point of my comment…
I’m glad you pointed that out . . .
So to Zafar’s point, do leftist who think that the NYT is too right-wing know that they are radically left-wing? Or do they think that radically left-wingery is completely normal?
I presume that everyone thinks that their personal ideology is perfectly reasonable and normal.
Well obviously I am reasonable. But I can easily realize that normal people are not reasonable like me.
Libertarians and free-marketers typically realize that most people are not intuitively pro-capitalistic even though they individually practice capitalism.
But I notice that leftists assume that everyone is a leftist. Why?