Op-Ed: The Ideology Now Running the Democratic Party Looks Like a Classic Cult
Every camera phone these days has a feature that can flip the focus from “selfie” to the outside world for a more conventional shot. All of it done with a quick touch to the screen.
That’s as good a high-tech explanation as any of projection in the psychological sense.
Apart from deliberate projection, which is regularly used as a political tactic as per Saul Alinsky, there is the more classic and unconscious projection that happens among true believers of the same ilk.
Take a look at what happens when one of those believers is caught telling the truth about what he’d like to do to Trump voters: DNC member David Atkins openly suggesting that 75 million Americans need to be “deprogrammed.”
While Atkins wonders how anyone could be a Trump supporter, many of us wonder how a leftist who may have been initially attracted to feel-good ideas like “tolerance” and “diversity” could publicly advocate forceful “deprogramming” of 75 million of his fellow citizens (in refugee camps? concentration camps?) for the sin of disagreeing with him about a political candidate. How does that happen?
Here’s a little of how projection works: Most of us are capable of powerful emotions. We also have emotions about our powerful emotions, which complicates matters even further. This can terrify people, especially if they already have trouble distinguishing between thoughts, feelings and actions. How could I have such horrible, evil, hateful thoughts? Does that make me evil too?
Among the variety of responses possible when emotions become too intense or painful for a person to tolerate is a kind of flip of focus — just like that camera. The subject disowns his uncomfortable or embarrassing feelings and quite unconsciously attributes them to others — often to the person or group on which he has already been so intensely focused.
It’s much easier to feel justified in advocating full-blown persecution of those he hates if he can view himself as a victim. To add insult to injury, this is all in the name of “tolerance.”
What happens when true victims of a paranoia-fueled vendetta are themselves called paranoid? How do we know who to believe?
Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha and the McCloskeys in St. Louis know firsthand how the propaganda media works full-time to confuse the public about who are the criminals and who are the law-abiding citizens.
The inability to distinguish or accept the origins of one’s rage is a building block of paranoia and persecution complexes.
A culture that positively values personal responsibility rather than collective guilt is infinitely healthier not just politically but psychologically.
Atkins goes on to project another charge against Trump supporters, claiming they are in a “death cult against reality & basic decency.”
If ever there were an ideology that resembles a classic cult, it is the leftism, socialism and communism of today, which now control much of what used to be the Democratic Party.
In 2017, I outlined some of the more obvious comparisons in an article about how liberalism is like a cult.
Cults feed and grow off collectivism and groupthink. That is why they must always demonize dissent, individuality and personal responsibility.
Remember when the left lectured us (when do they not?) about “Hate, hate — we have to root out hate!” That should have been our first clue that they were getting ready to unleash an avalanche of hate upon us, and they did.
The pattern is so often repeated that we can just about predict what they’ll do by watching what they accuse everyone else of next.
For his mental health and our safety, David Atkins and others like him need to flip their cameras to “selfie.” That, or take a good, long look in the mirror.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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