Why liberals see normal people as Nazis

Writing at Oz Conservative, Mark Richardson makes a good argument about liberalism, that it claims to be liberating our “true” humanity by freeing us from socially imposed fetters, such as “gender,” but that, by doing so, it is actually taking our humanity from us. This, by the way, parallels one of Jim Kalb’s incisive arguments in his 2000 article, “The Tyranny of Liberalism.” Liberalism, says Kalb, claims that by getting rid of moral truth it is enabling us to have what we want; but, since what we really want is to live our lives in harmony with moral truth, liberalism is actually taking away from us the very thing we want.

Mark Richardson also has some observations on the aftermath of the Cronulla riots, particularly the attempt by the liberal media to attribute the riots to a neo-Nazi movement:

The Age article I cited above, in which two intrepid reporters tried to track down white supremacists in Melbourne, is particularly revealing. The journalists found a defunct post office box, a woman living in the country town of Shepparton and a man rumoured to be living in a Melbourne suburb. Not exactly a revolutionary force.

And yet we are supposed to take seriously the idea that such forces were responsible for an unprecedented rally of 5000 people at Cronulla and that the might of the Australian state should be mobilised to counter the challenge of the “far-right”?

It occurs to me that there is a complementarity between Richardson’ two blog entries. Among the “socially imposed” categories that liberalism wants to liberate us from are ethnicity, race, and nationality. From the liberal point of view, people who have been so liberated should not care if their culture is transformed, since all that people really care about and should care about is their own free and fulfilled self. People such as the Cronulla rioters who resist the disruption of their society by cultural aliens must be Nazis. In fact there are no Nazis, there are just thousands of Australians who are deeply upset and angry at the invasion of their country by hostile and often criminal and violent aliens whom the police do nothing to quell, who are changing the very feel and character of Australian life and turning Australians into strangers in their own land. The rioters of Crunulla were telling the liberals, “By taking away our historic society based on a common culture, ethnicity and race, a place which is ours and where we feel at home, by imposing these unassimilable foreigners on us, you are not enhancing our humanity, you are robbing us of the most basic human values. And we’re not going to take it anymore.” It was this spontaneous reaction of normal humans against the inhuman reconstruction of their society that the liberals label as “white supremacy” and “Nazism.”

Mark Richardson writes:

I was pleased to read your item connecting the liberal denial of gender to the denial of “ordinary” opposition to multiculturalism. This does help to explain the apparent irrationality of Australia’s political class, which is still obsessed with a “white supremacist” movement which hardly exists.

Yesterday, the editor of The Australian, Paul Kelly, in an article written in generally measured tones, felt that the situation required the following measure: “White supremacist cells need to be subject to the force of law. That means arrest and trial, the proper response in a multicultural society.”

Note that Kelly not only believes in the existence of white supremacist groups, he describes them as “cells” as if they are the equivalent of a terror organisation.

Here’s a note from the Swedish conservative who wrote to VFR recently:

Merry Christmas and Good Yule, Lawrence!

You asked me before how it is living in Sweden as a conservative, or should I say as a normal person. This blog entry (Why liberals see normal people as Nazis) describes exactly the experience. The media has been going on here for at least ten years like that, on that high pitch. Talking about far-right extremist cells etc., when it just about a handful of losers (any sensible person makes sure that he stays below the radar if he’d have any strong objections about multiculturalism). When I read in the newspaper, “Far-right extremists recruit young teenagers,” it’s like it was saying, “Satanists drinking blood.” Certain words make people stop thinking; make them turn on the reptile brain.

Cultural leftism is the nuttiest religion in the history of mankind, with no real world connection. These people are stark raving mad. With Christianity, my only issue is about the existence of God. But Christianity and I see the same world. However, with the prevailing Western religion of cultural leftism I have nothing in common, all their concepts are fantasy, and I have nothing in common with these complete lunatics who constitute the priesthood of the West. They belong in a mental ward, in fact they have turned my country and much of the West into a mental ward. Unfortunately, 99 percent of the Westerners are infected to a serious degree with this lunacy.

My reply:

Thank you, Merry Christmas to you.

Thanks for this comment which gives a vivid sense of your experience living in a realm that is much more PC than most Americans can imagine. This is something that is still sinking in for me, how in countries such as Sweden, Australia, France, and Britain, opinions that in the U.S. would be seen as merely conservative, and maybe just a bit beyond what is acceptable in the mainstream, are seen as Nazi-like.

May I suggest some ways to fight this. First, make good, logical arguments, not emotional arguments. Then, when you’re attacked, don’t defend yourself from the false attack, don’t say: “I’m not a racist, I’m not a Nazi,” which only grants the general legitimacy of the PC silencing campaign while saying only that you personally are not guilty. Instead, critique and challenge the attack on you and show its falsity. And then top if off by saying, “A country in which we are not allowed discuss the most basic issues facing our country is not a free country but a despotism.” In other words, put the left on the defensive. Show the true radicalness of what they are doing.

A reader adds:

Regarding your advice to your Swedish reader about facing the charge of racism from liberals, how about this as a response:

“By calling anyone who questions your basic assumptions a racist, in the long run you are only helping to legitimize racism in people’s eyes.”

As appears to be happening in France, where one-third of respondents are now ready to admit to being “racist.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 22, 2005 01:59 PM | Send