The Heart of Darkness

I often probe the psychology of Marxists. I wonder what makes them tick. I find it hard to see things as they seem to, and so whey a piece comes along like Selwyn Duke's piece at the American Thinker entitled What Liberals Really Respect I take a few minutes to read what the author has to say.   Perhaps, I think, it will aid me in debates with Leftists and Marxists. Perhaps it will help me frame my arguments in terms they will understand. Alas, no, but it is still a good read. It explains why a fellow Democrat said admiringly of Bill Clinton "He's an unusually good liar." As a practitioner of that game, he was paying a complement to a master. Note that throughout, Mr. Duke uses the term "liberal" for people who are in fact Leftists (communist, socialist, or fascist) or just plain Marxists.

Let's allow Mr. Duke to explain his theory of why Leftists and Marxists are as they are:

In every civilization, you have, to use psychological terminology, well-adjusted individuals and dysfunctional ones. Of course, dividing people into two groups will always be problematic, as moral status is a continuum. As we walking, talking anachronisms like to say, we're all sinners; it's just a matter of degree. Nonetheless, some people do try to exercise virtue in their lives, while others are so immersed in vice that they could mistake it for virtue. However you characterize it, though, in our time, the dysfunctional vice-lovers are described by what is another lacking term: liberals.

Mr. Duke then goes on to explain with examples:

I remember another very liberal man I knew who, when explaining his desire to vote for Democrats in Florida, said that their opponents seemed "too honest." You may wonder why honesty, of all things, would turn anyone off. Is it that he suspected that those politicians' exuding of sincerity was artifice? This is often part of it, actually. You see, people tend to assume that others operate by the same principles they do (which is another reason why traditionalists can mistake liberals for normal); the man in question, for instance, is someone who at one time cheated a certain business I know of out of some rental fees while working on its grounds as an independent contractor. His justification was, "I deserve it." "Hey, everyone's got a game. So don't pretend to be a goody-two-shoes," the feeling-thinking goes. But there is more to it.

One time I read an internet posting made by a woman who had stopped renting to some Christians who had been tenants at her property. Her reason?

They made her feel bad about herself.

Duke goes on to explain with more examples how the Leftist and Marxists "think," and how that line of "thought" goes on to explain how they vote.  Towards the end, he makes a point that all Leftists are not so cynical, that there are the starry eyed waifs who truly believe what they are being told.  I have met these types too, but they worry me less.  Such people are likely to wake up one day and realize their mistakes.  When these people are good writers, as is David Horowitz, their conversion stories can be fascinating and instructive.  Never the less, there is one addition type not covered in this article.  That is the type that hates the human race: hates it with a vicseral hatred that can not be explained  You have probably seen or heard them railing about the environment, and how mankind is a cancer on the planet.  They too suffer from being godless, and being godless, therefore believe that they are all there is.  They also suffer from an overinflated ego that believes they have the power to change the climate.  They do not believe that the planet was created as a home to man, and therefore believe the environment is fragile. They are the ones who place a gnat's life over that of a man's, and advocate for abortion and euthanasia.  The unfortunate thing is these people are missing the plan that God intends.