12-08-2022, 01:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-08-2022, 04:34 PM by Eric the Green.)
(06-16-2021, 03:40 AM)Captain Genet Wrote:Brower may be right about this. These days left-wing idiotism does abound, I must admit. I don't know if I would say that far-left communism is idiocy though; it's just bad theory. But it could be said that arguments for it are as rational as for other ideologies. Any ideology can be suspect just because it's ideology. Communism is worse because it is bad ideology.(06-15-2021, 08:59 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The skeptics have their value in debunking such nonsense as creationism, Holocaust denial, racism, and most conspiracy theories. The Howe and Strauss theory clearly is much more rational than any of the garbage that I enumerated in the previous sentence, but it still has gaps. Howe and Strauss connect far more things (maternal fertility, mass culture, crime rates, alcohol consumption, business formation, labor-management relations, patterns of personal and institutional investment, tax rates, and the character of political life.
100% agreement with all that. But are they as good as debunking left-wing idiotism?
But there's lots of conspiracy theory that infects the left these days. Such folks as fanatical "Bernie Bro" supporters of Bernie Sanders (I am a non-fanatical supporter of Bernie Sanders, although I don't identify with any "socialist"label), or other left-wing candidates, subscribe to such conspiracy theories as those directed at Hillary Clinton and her campaign, most of which are false. They may also subscribe to the JFK theory, especially when his death is ascribed to the CIA, FBI, the LBJ administration, and such other government agencies that the Left often criticizes, especially regarding US war policies. Another false left theory is to blame the US for all wars, including especially the Syrian Civil War. Criticism of US support for Ukraine's war against the Russian invasion of their country tends to be wrong, but I would not consider it irrational idiocy; I just disagree with most of it. But I consider that other idiocy may involve looking upon all government officials except those whom they support as corporate stooges; that is just as bad as the Deep State theory on the right-wing. I also disagree with Israel's policies, as do many on the Left, but those who become antisemitic because of Israel's policies I would put under the heading of irrational idiocy.