The Illiberal Mind

Check out this video of a speech by Evan Sayet, who used to write for Bill Maher, on how liberals think. He makes some brilliant points. He is writing a book that I plan to buy.

His essential point, if I have it right, is that modern liberalism (which is as illiberal as any political movement in American history) is premised on not discriminating. They believe that one should believe in nothing and judge nothing. He does not say it, but the ruling philosophical premise of contemporary liberalism is subjectivism. What’s true for you might not be true for me -- anything goes.

Sayet’s most brilliant identification is that being indiscriminate inevitably leads the left to being on the wrong side. If not judging is good, then anyone who makes a judgment, they conclude, must be evil. If there are no standards, then anyone who maintains standards must be a close-minded, bad person. If all cultures are equal, then anyone who denounces middle eastern terrorists must be racist. If we can’t judge Saddam Hussein, then any country that invades Iraq must be doing it to steal their oil.

Sayet really makes you understand just how far gone modern liberalism is. My only problem with Dr. Peikoff’s opinion that the religious right is America’s most dangerous threat is that he doesn’t seem to recognize that the New Left is a greater threat than the Old Left. To hear him speak, today’s Democrats are the party of FDR’s New Deal. No, today’s liberals are something worse. They are working their way toward totalitarianism.