Keith Thompson, an author who also blogs on Sane Nation (a website which, unfortunately, does not have a comments section), has a great story on the hypocrisy of the left.
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LIBERALS, HYPOCRISY & GUILT
An aquaintance of mine — who never misses a chance to rail against “greedy capitalists who destroy the environment for their own gain,” and for whom this particular complaint is only part of a far more encompassing critique of Everything American — has taken to investing in real estate, specifically two vacation houses. I teasingly pointed out that this acquisitive behavior of his seems to border dangerously on capitalism. Well, the only reason I bought the houses is because a ski slope is planned for the vicinity, which will make the properties much more valuable. That’s definitely capitalist thinking, I responded. Well, I don’t support the ski slope but since the project is unstoppable I might as well get my share of the profit.
Festive, yes? Well, here’s the clincher. My friend admits to being quite irritated by the fact that one of his brothers holds stock in Halliburton! He finds this unconscionable, because, you see, Halliburton is an evil corporate entity that rapes the Earth.
There’s more, of course, including documentation concerning how the saintly Michael Moore, that paragon of liberal, socialist, anti-capitalist virtue, despite having denied it, has bought and sold shares of the evil Halliburton.
Mr. Thompson’s conclusion is priceless:
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Oh, such fun to hate capitalism, while profiting from capitalism on the side. Nothing wrong from getting rich from the system you’re committed to destroying, I always say. But I digress. My capitalism-depising friend, who hates that ski slope but means to benefit from its development, might just as well buy a few shares of Halliburton stock, too. He’ll be in good company, given that he finds both Moore and Chomsky to be, um, men of integrity. Admirable, to boot.
Scratch the surface of the left’s hatred of all things American and it begins to appear that the depths of the left’s self-loathing might just be limitless. But of course it never feels really good, self-hatred. Best to keep sending the bile outward. Psychologists call the process “projection.” But let’s not get fancy. “Spewing” comes closer.
Evil Halliburton! Vile ski slope! Bad Dick Cheney! Stupid George W. Bush! I hate my dad even though he’s the one who made all the money that gave me the trust fund that allows me to send money to MoveOn.org to express my contempt for capitalism!
One (at least this one) does wonder about all of the socialists who were graduated from Harvard and Yale; having a daughter who is trying to get into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I happen to have some idea of what tuition and costs are for those particular schools. Just how did all of those anti-capitalists pay for their educations?
Mr. Thompson is a former liberal now in common sense recovery. Maybe that makes him like an ex-smoker, far more intolerant of smokers than those of us who never smoked; Mr. Thompson seems very highly attuned to the hypocrisy of the American left today. But he’s always worth a read.
- Take a close look at Haight-Ashbury today, and you’ll find the majority of the flower children have traded in the bell bottoms for Old Navy, Bill Blass, and the Volkswagen micro-buses for beemers, SUV’s, porsches, and Caddy’s. Gone are the symbols of the halcyon days of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and the holy grail for the left that Vietnam so distinctly, and reverently, was.
- Scratch the surface of the high hauteur, and breathless angst of a hard left Liberal, and what you’ll generally find is a person who cannot begin to segregate his/her personal issues from their politics, but never the less, in spite of the shallow ideological fecklessness and obsessions, somehow manages to find the time to take as big a bite of the apple as possible. Besides, at that age most of the guys just want to get laid, and you sure as hell don’t want to hang around with a babe thats against abortion.
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A delightfully cynical analysis !!
PS I have long found it interesting how Hollywood celebrities love to TALK like liberals, yet they LIVE like Republicans. They basically want to “Save the World” from the back of a Gulfstream …
As to the self-loathing of Liberals, and why the peculiar affliction is so resistant to self-recognition and correction, perhaps an examination of its amorphous nature can reveal the roots of the problem.
Self-loathing, though so obviously present is yet so distinctly at odds with the personal aggrandizement and inflated self-opinions of Liberals, that denial is the typical response.
Which leaves them stuck on the horns of a dilemma. Do they continue to live with their unsatisfactory illusions, or do they acknowledge distinctly “unliberal” motivations?
Greed and envy are at odds with self-aggrandizing Liberal pretensions, and are thus among the root causes of Lefty Hate. What we see, the projection of irrational hatred onto convenient scapegoats, is only the outward expression of the inability of Liberals to reconcile their aspirations with their ideology.
Dana, FWIT, MIT’s gradate programs are among the best in the world, but it can be a big mistake to assume the undergraduates there get top notch instruction. Often, the focus on advanced study means undergraduates get short shrift at major research institutions.
It was especially true at UC Berkeley, but not generally so at most other UC campuses while I was working in the systemwide administration.
A good alternative is to attend an especially good liberal arts school for the first 2 years and concentrate on the general education requirements which are transferable to MIT, or any other top school.
There’s nothing new here, there are long standing and well established routes into the top schools from specific undergraduate institutions. For example, transfer students from Pasadena City College into CalTech walk a well worn path. Many such relationships exist between local high quality undergraduate institutions and nearby top schools. A call to the admissions director will quickly identify the right places.
Good Luck