Lazy, Lying, Vicious Leftists on Facebook
October 20, 2015
by William P. Meyers

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I am a leftist. I am not perfect. But when I argue for my causes, I try to be factual and tell the truth. On specific issues I am willing to go against the leftist grain, which of course does not endear me to ideological leaders. Also, I try to debate to get to the truth, not to win.

The behavior of my leftist friends on Facebook is making me sick lately. Mostly this is the pro-Sanders people right now. Many of my friends have been revealed as lazy, lying and vicious. That is how I like to think of Republican propagandists and the lame-brained citizens who fall for their faked facts and flaky reasoning. I am disappointed by my friends, and hope they will come to their senses soon.

Allow me to get specific.

First, this bad behavior should not reflect on Bernie Sanders himself. While I disagree with him on a few things, like Palestine and gun control, I would say he more reflects my views than anyone else in the U.S. Senate, including Hillary Clinton when she was the Senator from New York State.

Bernie followers have whipped up online hatred of Hillary to an astonishing level. The Republican attacks on Hillary, going back to when she tried to reform health insurance back in the early 1990's, pale by comparison. Charts fly around Facebook that purport to show that Hillary (who Republicans have accused of being a communist) is really a Tea Party Republican.

It is pretty easy to find out that Hillary has roughly as good of a record on helping low income children, healthcare, labor legislation, human rights including gay rights, and the environment as Senator Sanders does. She has a far better record on women's rights.

So how is the hatred fanned? The main technique is a classic one. Go through both candidates' voting records and statements. Instead of doing an honest comparison, cherry pick votes and statements to make your candidate seem good, and opponent bad. The interesting twist of the Senator Sanders propaganda is usually a third column indicating Mrs. Clinton's votes are the same as Jeb Bush's or Republicans in general. Strange, since Jeb Bush was never in Congress, and so never voted on the issues. In the U.S. Senate Hillary voted with the Democrats on almost every vote.

In my experience leftist organizers are ultra-competitive, probably because resources are scarce. Thus backstabbing, lying, and maligning have become integral parts of leftist culture. The professional lying practiced by Lenin and Trotsky in particular drive a win at any cost culture that would be right at home in Goldman Sachs or Silicon Valley.

But it's not just Hillary leftists are lying about. Yesterday I saw an attack on Ben Carson. It was a made-up, false quote attributed to Doctor Carson. Now I don't like Dr. Carson, as I made clear in Thinking About Ben Carson as President. But I find plenty to criticize in Carson's statements about issues (Carson has no voting record; he can't even be bothered to run for a school board, despite how much he has benefited from a public education). Sadder still, were the comments on the propaganda. It was so astonishingly racist I felt I had been time-warped back to the Old South. These comments came from people who would never put up with racist attacks on a Democratic Party candidate. They are black-lives matter types.

I've seen similar false-flag attacks on Donald Trump, but since he is a king of falsifiers, I'll shut up and get to the point.

Facebook is largely a narcissism test. Social media are not an overall improvement in political communications over traditional media. Hate-driven politics is consuming the left, and that will attract and anchor people who enjoy hating. Any short term gain for Sanders based on hate will have long-term negative effects for the progressive movement.

I believe in a left based on love.

How can the left avoid becoming the mirror image of the haters in the Tea Party?

Acknowledge: its complicated. Politics, economics and culture are filled with gray areas and contradictions. Read something longer than a Tweet or Facebook graphic. Enlarge your knowledge of facts and of relationships between facts.

Try thinking and fact checking before you Like or Share.

Agree? Disagree? You can comment on this post at Natural Liberation Blog at blogspot.com