The Strange Psychology of the Political Left

For years the Left (the liberals, the Democrats, etc) have seemed suicidal, self-hating, even downright crazy. With radical Islam conspiring to murder thousands, if not millions, of Westerners, the Left embraces the terrorists, wearing Muslim clothing and gear to their anti-war demonstrations, making excuses for the terrorists' murderous attacks, and blaming it all on American Imperialism or capitalism or Western arrogance or cultural hegemony or swamp gas or whatever bogey man they can dream up.

However, as a seasoned American (a little oregano, some chili powder, a dash of paprika) I remember the sixties and seventies and the atmosphere on college campuses. Then the Left identified with the Marxists who wanted to undermine, sabotage and conquer the rest of the world. The Left showed up at their anti-war rallies wearing Che Guevara T shirts, carrying Viet Cong flags or wearing old army jackets and berets to pretend that they too were romantic revolutionaries.

A question that has puzzled me for years is this: why does the Left always side with Evil? Why are they always so quick to sell out their own people to totalitarian aggressors? Don't they know that if we lose, they too will lose their freedoms and maybe their lives?

The American Thinker has a great article that explains the mechanics of Loon-Thought. Their article describes the Jewish Kapos, the Jewish police that were an arm of the Nazis in the concentration camps, wearing cast off Nazi uniforms and helping in the persecution of their own people. They sought to distance themselves from the ovens by serving the seat of power, by identifying with the source of their greatest fear. If we are with you, how can you be against us? If we hate the same people you do, are we not allies and friends?

This psychological phenomenon was named "the Stockholdm Syndrome" in the 1970's, after
bank customers were taken hostage by armed robbers and held for days before being released. The former hostages spoke glowingly of their captors. They had come to identify with their tormentors, seeing themselves as part of them. A psychologist in Stockholm explained that this misplaced identification was a psychological coping mechanism, an attempt to curry favor with the captors and be spared from death. The former hostages' reaction was similar to that of the Kapos of the concentration camps.

I read somewhere that this behavior is similar to that of certain wild beasts. Wild dogs, for example, exhibit their submission to the pack leader by laying on their backs and exposing their throats to the leader's fangs. By assuming such a vulnerable position, the subservient members of the pack signal their willingness to be dominated, and it spares them from death. In some situations in the animal world, pacifism works.

Today when we see liberals reaching out to Muslim fanatics, or arguing that their hostility to us is our own fault, or that 9/11 was a Zionist plot, or that we should be in awe of the splendid civilization built by Musims and the grandeur of the Koran, we should know what's happening. It is the Stockholm Syndrome, the baring of the throat. The Left, in terror of their own mortality, are in deep denial of a reality so terrible it cannot be faced. Instead of taking courageous and proactive action to thwart Islamic aggression and terror, they instead seek common ground with the enemy in the hope that they may be spared.

This phenomenon probably explains why so many modern Jews (both in and out of Israel) act in ways that appear contrary to their own best interests, e.g., funding projects for Islamic societies, voting for Democrats, liberals and leftists, denouncing Israel, parroting Palestinian propaganda about occupation and oppression.

The American Thinker article makes a lot of sense and gives a lot of clear examples of why the Left behaves as it does. Read the article.