1) Preamble:
If either side of the political spectrum wields too much power, your society can end up in Hell.
However, the particular versions of Hell created by the Leftwing and Rightwing do differ.
2) Leftwing Attitude:
Leftwing people are concerned about inequality; they consider large gaps between the rich and the poor to be a bad thing.
They are correct to have this concern; intense levels of inequality have pernicious effects, including higher homicide rates and a heightened probability of violent revolution.
So far as the maintenance of civilization is concerned, intense wealth inequality is a destabilizing factor.
The tragedy is that many of the solutions Leftwingers offer for alleviating inequality are foolish; they do more harm than good.
3) Rightwing Attitude:
Rightwing people tend to be unconcerned with inequality, mostly because they assume that the rich deserve their relative wealth and the poor deserve their relative poverty.
They are unlikely to implement policies to alleviate inequality, and thereby are unlikely to foolishly implement policies that make things worse.
The pathology of Rightwingers is that they often have a callous indifference regarding the suffering of those at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy; many Rightwingers view the poor with disdain.
4) Leftwing Nightmares:
Catastrophes driven by the actions of Leftwingers usually take the form of the Leftwing implementing a policy in an attempt to eliminate or reduce inequality, but the policy having unintended side effects with disastrous consequences.
4A) Communism:
Communists are Leftwingers who demand zero wealth inequality; they demand equality of outcome when wealth is built.
This is pathological for a simple reason; the only way for zero wealth inequality to exist (so far as we have yet discovered) is for everyone to have nothing.
The Communist regimes of the 20th century have done a spectacular job of attaining equality of outcome; in countries run by communists, the gaps between the rich and the poor are very small because everyone has little or nothing.
Historical examples of Communism being implemented include Ukraine from 1930 – 1940 (The Holodomor), and China from 1950 – 1980 (Mao Zedong’s regime).
In both cases, enforcing equality of outcome led to mass starvation.
4B) Socialism, Deficit Spending:
Socialism is less authoritarian than communism in the sense that socialist regimes allow free market capitalism to run (people can freely engage in trade as they see fit), but the rich are taxed, and the money gathered via taxation is distributed to the poor or to the entire population in the form of the government spending money on infrastructure, or brazenly giving out free stuff.
Socialism can work if the government spending is kept down to a reasonable level, and it is funded via taxation.
However, when government spending rises to an unsustainable level, and it is funded via the government borrowing money rather than via taxation, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen. Sooner or later, the government’s debts will become so immense that they cannot possibly be paid off.
The government will either declare bankruptcy, or print money to pay off its debts (thereby causing hyperinflation). In either case, the given society will experience economic disaster.
Everyone will suffer, but none more than the poor. For the rich an economic downturn is a minor inconvenience. For the poor it is a desperate struggle to survive.
Denmark (1990 – 2020) is a modern example of socialism working well.
Venezuela (1990 – 2020) is a modern example of socialism leading to mass starvation.
4C) Affirmative Action, Blank Slate Theory
Egalitarianism:
Blank Slate Theory asserts that all psychological differences between individuals and groups are the result of environmental factors, never genetics; all humans are born with a mind that is a blank slate.
For good or for bad, Blank Slate Theory is factually incorrect; it is factually correct to say that every thing that psychologists have ever discovered is significantly driven by genetics.
Individuals and groups differ significantly in their psychological makeup, and for every facet of a person’s psychological makeup, genetics plays at least some role.
Affirmative Action is a policy designed by Leftwing Americans that attempts to enforce equality of outcome between racial groups, and between the 2 genders (men and women).
The Leftwingers who desire Affirmative Action assume that in any case where men do better than women (on average), and in any case where one racial group does better than another (on average), the only explanation is discrimination.
In light of the assumption that inequitable outcomes are the result of discrimination, affirmative action seems reasonable as a bulwark against the effects of discrimination.
However, in reality inequitable outcomes between genders and racial groups are often driven by differentials in the average level of competence with certain tasks between genders or racial groups.
In many cases, the reason men make it to the top of a profession more often than women is because men are on average better performers within the given domain.
In many cases, the reason one racial group makes it to the top of a profession more often than another, is because that racial group is on average better at performing within that domain than the other.
In America from 1970 – 2020, Affirmative Action in university admissions has meant holding women to lower standards than men, and blacks to lower standards than East Asians and whites.
In effect Affirmative Action has meant discriminating against more competent men in favor of less competent women, and more competent East Asians and whites in favor of less competent blacks.
It is gender discrimination and racial discrimination that the Leftwing approves of.
5) Rightwing Nightmares:
Catastrophes driven by the Rightwing are marked by callous indifference regarding the suffering of those towards the bottom of the dominance hierarchy, or even worse, a sadistic desire to see the powerless suffer.
5A) Nazis, Holocaust:
The German Nazis were Rightwingers who wanted to rid the world of anyone they consider undesirable; Jews, homosexuals, and seriously ill people. The violence the Nazis carried out seems to have been driven by high orderliness and disgust sensitivity. The Nazis didn’t fear the Jews, or hate them; they were disgusted by them.
High orderliness drives disgust sensitivity, and high orderliness is also what drives Rightwing political preference.
It seems to be the case that pathologically high levels of orderliness made the Nazis extremely Rightwing and also drove their desire to kill anyone who made them feel disgust.
5B) Slavery, Confederate South:
The Confederates enslaved millions of people, and justified it by asserting that the people they enslaved (blacks) were their racial inferiors.
Is it morally acceptable to enslave people, force them to work for you, and give them miserable lives? This is one of the easiest moral questions in the history of the world, and tragically it is also one of the most consequential.
The Confederates got this question wrong because they had the Rightwing bias of assuming those at the bottom of the hierarchy deserve to suffer.
5C) Medical Extortion, Capitalist Medicine:
In modern America (1990 – 2020) medical care is largely handled by the free market. This has led to life saving medical care being sold for extortionate prices.
Medical care is a product ripe for extortion because it is the only category of product for which the demand is infinity. People are willing to pay an infinite amount of money in order to not die.
The result has been that many (perhaps millions) of Americans have died, simply because they did not have enough money to buy the medical care that would have saved their life; diabetics routinely die because they don’t have enough money to buy insulin.
The response from Rightwing Americans has been ‘Who cares?’
The horror is not the reality of people dying unnecessarily, but the seemingly psychopathic indifference of the Rightwing regarding those who die.
Notably, the phenomenon of poor people dying because they can’t buy medical care sold at extortionate prices is unheard of in most other industrialized countries who have socialized healthcare rather than capitalist healthcare (Canada, Australia, and The United Kingdom).
6) Historical Pattern, Kill The Rich and Take Their Stuff
“The discourse that precedes genocide…the enhancement of a sense of victimization…on the group that’s going to commit the genocide. Their sense of being victims is much heightened by the demagogues who are trying to stir up this sort of hatred. They say ‘Look, you’ve been oppressed in a variety of ways, and these are the people who did it, and they’re not
going to stop doing it, and this time we’re going to get them before they get us.’” –Jordan Peterson (When Victimhood Leads to Genocide)
The following is a historical pattern that has killed untold millions of people, perhaps billions. Usually it is a pattern where the violence is instigated by Leftwing Revolutionaries, rather than Rightwing Reactionaries.
The 3 steps in the pattern are as follows:
Wealth Creation, Inequality Rises
Envy and Violent Revolution
Mass Starvation
6A) Wealth Creation, Inequality Rises:
High IQ people find a way to build wealth. Wealth being created is good for everyone, since everyone gets richer on an absolute basis.
Unfortunately, as wealth is created it is distributed inequitably; a tiny minority of people get most of the spoils (pareto distribution).
6B) Envy and Violent Revolution:
Low IQ people are bad at building wealth, and end up far poorer than the high IQ people who are rich. The poor low IQ people envy the rich high IQ people.
Leftwing Revolutionaries tell the poor people “The only reason the rich have so much more than you, is because they stole it from you. Kill them, and take their stuff!”
The poor people proceed to do this.
6C) Mass Starvation:
With the high IQ rich people killed off or exiled, the people who are most capable of creating wealth are eliminated. As such, little to no wealth is created, and everyone ends up poor.
This is very likely to result in mass starvation especially if the rich people killed off were those who were highly competent at farming.
6D) Historical examples:
-Ukraine from 1930 – 1940 (Dekulakization, The Holodomor)
-Rhodesia/Zimbabwe from 1960 – 2020 (Robert Mugabe’s Regime)
7) American Education, Leftwing Neglect:
The American education system does an excellent job of informing students about the existence of Rightwing atrocities; the slavery that took place in the Confederate South and the genocide that took place in Nazi Germany are covered extensively.
However, Leftwing atrocities such as Communism are never mentioned.
So far as American educators are concerned, the atrocities of the Rightwing must never be forgotten, and the atrocities of the Leftwing must never be mentioned.
8) Epilogue:
The Leftwing will tell you that those at the bottom of the hierarchy are oppressed, and that something ought to be done to alleviate their suffering. This is true.
However, be cautious; most of the ideas Leftwing regimes provide to alleviate the suffering of those at the bottom make things worse in the long term rather than better.
Communists always think they’re one revolution away from creating a utopia.
The pathologies in the minds of Leftwing people are numerous and complex. The pathology of Rightwing people is singular and simple; callous indifference regarding the suffering of those at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy.
In the Leftwing, you will find insanity.
In the Rightwing, you will find cruelty.