For the left, ideology has replaced reality

Robert C. in Nashville writes:

Sheriff Dupnik offered no evidence to suggest why the Tucson massacre was caused by a certain group, namely conservatives, or, more to the point, by those who do not believe as the left believes. For leftists, any disaster will do for which to blame non-leftists.

When one reaches a conclusion without evidence, one is in the realm, not of police work, but of ideology. Ideology allows one to claim to see, to understand, and to be able to blame without evidence. In that world, falsification requirements are unneeded and no proof is required. All events are understood as further evidence of the correctness of the ideology. Indeed, in the minds of believers, to require evidence before making a claim suggests that the investigator may be an apostate. To the believer, the unfounded accusation itself is offered as a testimonial of belief to other fellow believers.

I am reminded of the global warming advocates, for whom colder weather, far from causing them to question their ideology, became yet another proof of its truth. This makes perfect sense in a world where every weather phenomenon is yet another effect of global warming. In such a world, facts become not just impossible as a basis to rebut a belief, but irrelevant.

For the leftist believers, right-wing hatred and bigotry is the cause of all bad and unexpected things. The shooting of people by a crazy person is thus immediately adjudged to be motivated by right-wing hatred and bigotry. The hatred and bigotry is not just an all-purpose explanation, but a sort of crime in itself that is worthy of the relentless attention of Morris Dees.

The left considers conservative thought to be nothing but hatred and bigotry. That way, they do not have to consider conservative positions on their merits or as substantive. The refusal of the left to acknowledge conservative thought as even existing, enables them to describe every bad thing that happens as caused by conservative hatred and bigotry. The closest that the left comes to acknowledging that conservative ideas may even exist is when the left speaks of “divisive rhetoric.”

I am reminded of your powerful observation that conservatives do not have a clue about any of this, as shown by the way they reduce their objections to the left to being against “political correctness,” instead of saying they are against the relentless dedication of the left to the deconstruction and destruction of the West.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 10, 2011 05:13 AM | Send