Sunday, May 05, 2013

Narcissism, Projection, and Geopolitics

McCain makes an interesting point here.

...it does highlight the nature of the larger problem, what Jeanne Kirkpatrick rightly called the “Blame America First” mentality.

There is a sort of  perverse narcissism involved in this worldview: Encountering people who hate us, liberals think, “It’s about us.”

This error was what crippled liberalism during the Cold War. If the Soviet Union wanted to destroy America, liberals imagined, this must be because of something wrong with America, rather than something wrong with the Soviet Union. So liberals wanted to change American foreign policy — détente! — in a more pro-Soviet direction, accepting the Leninist critique of “Western imperialism” as essentially accurate, so that you had Jimmy Carter claiming (and evidently believing) that a U.S. commitment to “human rights” would somehow repair the damage to American international prestige.

Except it wasn’t about us. It was about them....

It's another case of projection writ large.  Lefties understand their offenses, which is good.  However, they tend to project those offenses to the larger (US) population as a whole--which is a logical fallacy.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course covertly (and overtly) overthrowing their sovereign governments, occupying their countries, taking their oil, and blowing them up is not about us.

Anonymous said...

11:18

You talking about Saddam Hussein?

Dad29 said...

No, he's talking about the Soviet Union.

Anonymous said...

Well he does have their talking points in order.

Dad29 said...

From an essay NOT related to the topic at hand, but which asserts a similar thesis:

"Deep down, progressives (i.e. socialists) are not populists. Deep down, progressives despise the majority of their fellow citizens, and don't trust them at all. They love America but hate most of the Americans. Progressives are entranced with the possibilities presented by a benevolent dictatorship. They ignore the peril, that it can mutate into a malevolent dictatorship because they believe in their own virtue. They're sure it won't happen if they're in charge. As to Democracy? It's a burden, a barrier; it gives the vote to all the rednecks and knuckle-draggers who have been mislead by the evil capitalists (remember the Doctrine of False Consciousness? Pernicious claptrap, that one, but it has a lot of currency on the left) and will resist the Progressive program even though it's Obviously the right thing to do."

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/339702.php

Anonymous said...

Deep down, conservatives(i.e. Fascists) are not libertarians. Deep down, conservatives despise the majority of their fellow citizens, and don't trust them at all. They love America but hate most of the Americans. Conservatives are entranced with the possibilities of overthrowing an elected government by force (anyone remember HUAC?). They ignore the peril, that it can mutate into its own malevolent dictatorship because they believe in their own virtue. They're sure it won't happen as long as they have their guns. As to Democracy? it only counts if the winner isn't black and the government policies suit only them; their "democracy" denies the vote to citizens who don't deserve it because they disagree, who would only help elect those who would trample the rights of people who seek to foist their religion on everyone because Jesus Christ whispered in the ears of the founding fathers.

Anonymous said...

Nice! Got the (erroneous) Hitler in there, along with racism and Muslim tendencies, too!

Wrong on all three counts, but nicely played for the stupids...