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The two 'fatal flaws lurking in American leftist politics': a humble attempt to help Jordan Peterson with his challenge

By Izzy Kalman - posted Tuesday, 12 June 2018


But it's not.

The civil rights movement was not about combatting subjective harm. It was about objective harm, sanctioned and even perpetrated by no less than the government itself, with laws that discriminated against minorities, including women but especially Blacks. Thankfully, the civil rights movement has successfully led to the elimination of discriminatory laws.

With some possible exceptions, such as rights for gays to marry, the social activists of today are fighting for laws against subjective harm. They want the government to guarantee that people will not feel offended by anyone. The attempt to achieve an impossible goal is bound to cause more harm than good.

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Fatal Flaw Two: replacing might makes right with might makes wrong

In the lawless world of nature, might makes right. You can kill me and no one arrests you.

Civilization cannot function by might makes right, or we would suffer from unrelenting tyranny and bloodshed. The most basic feature of a civilized society is a legal justice system. It replaces might makes right with justice makes right. We take our grievances to a court of law, which applies principles of justice to determine guilt and punishment.

The Old Testament/Jewish Bible forbids judges from engaging in favoritism. They are to favor neither the rich/powerful person nor the poor/weak person. Sometimes the rich/strong person is the wrong one, and sometimes the weak/poor person is the wrong one.

Our natural tendency when witnessing a struggle is to side with the apparent underdog. As Wilt Chamberlain said, "Nobody roots for Goliath." Siding with the underdog is great in entertainment, but readily leads to evil when it becomes a policy in real life. Weakness makes right is just as arbitrary and amoral as might makes right. It makes it impossible to objectively judge between right and wrong. It results in unjust punishment in instances when the top dog is actually in the right, and it facilitates the unethical use of weakness to manipulate the system.

And herein lies the second fatal flaw of the left. It has replaced might makes right not with justice makes right but with might makes wrong/weakness makes right.

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Policies can only work if they operate in accordance with the laws of nature. Weakness makes right turns the entire natural order on its head. Feeling pleasure in power is useful not only for survival in nature but in civilization as well, as it drives us to strive for success rather than failure. In today's new order, we're expected to feel guilty about our natural instinct for power and to see weakness and victimhood as virtues rather than stations in life to avoid. Imagine what would happen to sports if the way to win a game is to lose. Well, the same thing would happen in real life.

The nature and harm of political correctness

The combination of these two flaws constitutes the essence of political correctness: The ultimate wrong is to offend the feelings of people with a status of weakness.

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This article was first published in Psychology Today.

[Author's Addendum. Please note: This not an anti-left or pro-right article. Society needs both a right and left wing for a healthy balance. This article is for the benefit of everyone, regardless of political orientation. The ideas presented here, though simple, are not widely known, but should be.]



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About the Author

Izzy Kalman is the author and creator of the website Bullies2Buddies.com and a critic of the anti-bully movement.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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