Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Leftism and Political Correctness

  • Merit and ‘Equity’

    Those who lack merit too often seek to achieve by political means what they cannot achieve by accomplishing something. Leftists aid and abet them. Equality before the law and equality of opportunity are not enough for leftists: they demand equality of outcome.  But this cannot arise naturally due to differences in interests, attitudes, abilities, and…

  • “One Man’s Datum is Another Man’s Theory”

    Why do I use 'man'? To exclude women? No, to exclude leftists, both men and women. I believe in equality when it comes to the exclusion of the destructive. In the '70s, when it first really got going, gender-inclusive language seemed to many a very good thing indeed. It showed a welcoming attitude to the…

  • Denial of the Lapsus is the Left’s Main Lapse

    My title above. A long-time reader sends us his thoughts. Here are some of them, with my  edits and a bit of commentary. Every so often I reflect on causes of the Leftist mentality, and all the madness it leads to. If we scan across favourite activities of the current woke age, such as racialism…

  • Roots of Antifa

    Almost all of my political commentary and linkage these days is at my Facebook page, but some of you so despise that platform that you will not join me there. I fully understand. But this article is important enough to be worth citing here.

  • A ‘Woke’ Paradox

    Is it objectively true that objectivity is a white-supremacist value? Assert that it is, and you presuppose it. But if you say that it isn't, then why should we listen to you?

  • Sebastian Haffner: Totalitarians Intolerant of Private Life

    Among the dozen or so books I am currently reading is Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler: A Memoir (Picador, 2003).  Written in 1939, it was first published in German in 2000. The Third Reich is no more, but the following passage remains  highly relevant at a time when the main forms of totalitarianism are Chinese Communism,…

  • The Main Threat of the Left to the Right

    The following quotation from Rod Dreher receives the plenary MavPhil endorsement: . . . the “major threat of the far left” to us on the right — the major threat, not the only threat — is that in power, they will go pedal to the medal [metal] on a soft totalitarian “social justice” regime that…

  • Trotsky’s Faith in Man

    On this date in 1940, the long arm of Joseph Stalin finally reached Trotsky in exile in Mexico City when an agent of Stalin drove an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. He died the next day.  The Left eats its own. Read the rest. The tragedy of Trotsky is that of a man of great…

  • Is the Left Out for Power Alone?

    The following is a sample of (some of) what I post at my Facebook page.  I swore off Facebook for July, but I have been back in the groove since 1 August doing my humble bit to beat back the forces of darkness.  They have sicced their censor bots on me, so I have to…

  • Old Left and New Left

    A succinct differentiation: The New Left retained the values and ultimate goals of the Old Left. They also retained elements of their philosophical framework. They then set about spreading their ideas throughout the culture by means of propaganda and institutional subversion. And they won. Aside from Cuba and North Korea, orthodox Communism is dead. Capitalism…

  • BLM is Playing by the Book. Alinsky’s Book

    Michael Brown: In his insightful, 2009 mini-book, Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model, David Horowitz quoted an SDS radical who wrote, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” As Horowitz explained, “In other words the cause — whether inner city blacks or women — is never the real…

  • Grammar is Propadeutic to Logic

    So if grammar is 'racist,' then so is logic. What is the criterion whereby a subject or activity is deemed 'racist' by leftists?  It appears to be this:  Whatever blacks and other 'people of color' are poor at is 'racist.'  And what is at the back of that criterion?  It appears to be the assumption…

  • Negativity: The Spirit of the Left

    The spirit of the Left is the spirit of negativity. Any intellectually honest person following current events can see that the tendency of leftists is mindlessly to destroy for the sake of destruction what it has taken centuries to build. Transgressive of tradition and its wisdom, these 'progressives' are both hobbled and enabled by their…

  • Is Grammar Racist?

    It has to be. Whatever blacks and other 'people of color' are not good at is racist; blacks and other 'people of color' are not good at grammar; ergo, etc.  This also explains why logic, mathematics, natural science, chess, self-control, self-reliance, deferral of gratification, pulling up your pants, etc. are all racist. It is also…

  • The Priorities of Comrade Bozo de Blasio