by Chuck Norton

Leftists generally fall into one of four categories.

The Useful Idiot

This person believes the party propaganda put out for “the rabble” by the elite media and the academic left. They have also bought the seductive “reasoning” of appeals to envy (social justice, eco-extremism etc). They are not well informed but are SURE they are right. They are the poster child for the effectiveness of attitude change propaganda.

While useful idiots have been fooled, many of them are not unintelligent. In fact many of them are well educated in areas outside of political history, propaganda and mass media theory. Their ability to defend their world view crumbles easily under cross examination.

The Utopian

The Utopian believes the propaganda for the most part, but his primary motivation is the false belief that utopia through central planning is possible. At first they do not understand the level of coercive force required to achieve “utopia.” Early on, they do not understand that utopia requires the destruction of all that is different.

Eventually The Utopian comes to believe that those who oppose The Utopian’s efforts must be evil, therefore use of coercive force becomes easier to justify and an “ends justifies the means” mentality wins over.

The Elitist

The Elitist truly believes in their own intellectual and moral superiority. They believe that “rationality must be imposed from above” and by “above” they mean themselves and their allies. Many elitists have read some theory such as Hegel, Marx, grievance studies etc.

The Elitist is also motivated in part by envy as they are disgusted by wealthy business leaders, many of whom do not even have a college degree. The Elitist may even believe that he is more worthy of wealth and/or adoration. Their contempt for the merchant class causes them to engage in circular logic like “you didn’t build that” as they cannot accept that those who they despise might actually be smarter and/or harder working and more creative than said elitist.

The Elitist can also be a utopian. Most leftist college profs and many bureaucrats are elitists.

The Oligarch

The Oligarch can start as one of the previous three. Their belief in their own superiority goes beyond arrogance. They truly believe they are born to rule. Ironically The Oligarch is often the least ideological of the group. The Oligarch has come to understand that Marxism, envy, conflict theory, etc are all a means to an end. They see society as a chess board and feel morally justified in playing the role of the chess master (George Soros, John Brennan etc). Morality is whatever they define it as at any given moment.

The Oligarch will use whatever means he must, so a little fascism or corporatism is fine, a few payoffs or Chicago style corruption, the use of government to pick winners and losers, killing, destroying people’s lives, threats, bribery and thuggery are all tools The Oligarch will use.