The True Deniers

I was on the left of the political spectrum. I supported Harold Wilson in the UK and voted twice for Whitlam. My Dad, a tradesman, was a union man. My formative credentials were impeccable. I could have become a True Believer. I changed my mind and became and remain a conservative. Not a classical liberal or libertarian, you understand, but a conservative. Classical liberals and libertarians tend to be in favour of too much individual licence and globalism for my liking.

Mind you, classical liberals and libertarians have cases to be made. As do left-wingers of the kind my dad and I used to be, and dare I say of the kind George Orwell used to be. Accordingly, I often find myself in agreement with one or other of their positions. But then there are post-modern progressive leftists. A vast impenetrable chasm separates their minds from mine.

They are, to my mind, a race apart. My best guess is that they are alien body snatchers from the dead planet Stultus; otherwise now called Wajinga in Swahili, after the Kenyan scientist and philosopher who discovered it in the 17th Century, but whose discovery was buried before being usurped by a privileged older white man of typically low and despicable character. You might doubt this explanation in its entirety (and should) but you can’t doubt the strangeness of the following beliefs which seem to be held, wholly or in part, by vast numbers of people who, nevertheless, give the appearance of being one of us.

• Humankind can change the climate; phooey to King Canute.
• Wind, sun and batteries can power the modern industrial world; hail to the IPCC, Al Gore and Elon Musk.
• Socialism can work; phooey to history.
• Marxism can work; phooey to history.
• Sexual identity is a matter of choice even in schoolgirls’ changing rooms; phooey to biology.
• There are tens if not hundreds of different genders; take your pick each Tuesday.
• Men can marry men and women women and then adopt children; phooey to the millennia-old institution of traditional marriage and to the well-being of children.
• Masculinity is toxic; femininity is noble; the American Psychological Association and a company that makes razors says so.
• Little boys really are made of slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails and must be feminised through cross-dressing, penis tucking and homosexual role plays; what can possibly go wrong?
• The army is a social experiment in gender fluidity and equal opportunity; any future opposing armies will have been equally cured of discrimination and toxic masculinity; what can possibly go wrong?
• People who espouse non-progressive views are hateful, bigoted, racist, xenophobic and sexist and must be shut down and, ultimately, re-educated; diversity has its limits
• Refugees are better people than citizens who live in poorer outer suburbs or in rural communities; aka deplorables.
• Refugees must be allowed to flood across borders, be given generous help from taxpayers and settled among deplorables; deplorables will learn to cope.
• Foreign aid is never ever near enough; phooey to the evidence of its abject ineffectiveness and to the waste, corruption, and dependency it engenders.
• Our forebears did unforgivably wicked things to indigenous peoples; there is no end to how sorry we, our children, their children, and theirs in turn, ad infinitum, must be.
• Religion is primitive; Christianity is especially worthy of being pilloried at every opportunity; however, the religion of peace lies in a protected realm beyond criticism.

I could go on, unfortunately, for there is no end to the madness. Its sheer extragalactic nature is mindboggling to a grounded Earthling such as myself. When did it all start? It has probably been around in primitive, unevolved, form for a century or more. Orwell had it bang to rights in The Road to Wigan Pier in the 1930s. He spotted progressives before anyone knew what to call them collectively. Here he is:

One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.

You have to say that however perceptive he undoubtedly was, Orwell could not have envisaged the political progeny of sandal-wearers and feminists infiltrating and dominating political life, the media, public services, universities, schools, large corporations, and even the upper echelons of police and defence forces.

A final point, it is ironic that those who doubt the global warming thesis are called “deniers” by the “I believe in climate change” crowd. For if there is one thread running through progressive views it is denialism. In the psychology of human behaviour, denialism is a way to avoid uncomfortable truths and consequences. Examine each of the beliefs of progressives. Translated into policy and action, none will improve the lot of people in the developed and civilised Western world. Most will end in suffering and tears. Progressives truly are the high priests of denialism.