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Editorial
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Title: Ten Reasons Why I Am No Longer a Leftist
Source: American Thinker
URL Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014 ... _i_am_no_longer_a_leftist.html
Published: Jul 21, 2014
Author: Danusha V. Goska
Post Date: 2014-07-23 20:11:24 by Dakmar
Keywords: None
Views: 131
Comments: 14

How far left was I? So far left my beloved uncle was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party in a Communist country. When I returned to his Slovak village to buy him a mass card, the priest refused to sell me one. So far left that a self-identified terrorist proposed marriage to me. So far left I was a two-time Peace Corps volunteer and I have a degree from UC Berkeley. So far left that my Teamster mother used to tell anyone who would listen that she voted for Gus Hall, Communist Party chairman, for president. I wore a button saying "Eat the Rich." To me it wasn't a metaphor.

I voted Republican in the last presidential election.

Below are the top ten reasons I am no longer a leftist. This is not a rigorous comparison of theories. This list is idiosyncratic, impressionistic, and intuitive. It's an accounting of the milestones on my herky-jerky journey.

10) Huffiness.

In the late 1990s I was reading Anatomy of the Spirit, a then recent bestseller by Caroline Myss.

Myss described having lunch with a woman named Mary. A man approached Mary and asked her if she were free to do a favor for him on June 8th. No, Mary replied, I absolutely cannot do anything on June 8th because June 8th is my incest survivors' meeting and we never let each other down! They have suffered so much already! I would never betray incest survivors!

Myss was flabbergasted. Mary could have simply said "Yes" or "No."

Reading this anecdote, I felt that I was confronting the signature essence of my social life among leftists. We rushed to cast everyone in one of three roles: victim, victimizer, or champion of the oppressed. We lived our lives in a constant state of outraged indignation. I did not want to live that way anymore. I wanted to cultivate a disposition of gratitude. I wanted to see others, not as victims or victimizers, but as potential friends, as loved creations of God. I wanted to understand the point of view of people with whom I disagreed without immediately demonizing them as enemy oppressors.

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#1. To: Dakmar (#0)

Uhhh...think that I'll go check out the Osprey cam www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/Osprey-Cam

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2014-07-23   20:20:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Lod (#1)

LOL, that's cool Lod, but this really is a good article, the lady makes a lot of good points.

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:26:15 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Dakmar (#2)

OK - I'll go read it.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2014-07-23   20:28:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Lod (#1)

To make elite schools ‘fair,’ city will punish poor Asians - NY Post

Similar theme as lead article, without the RCC slant.

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:30:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: All (#3)

That was sad and depressing enough.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2014-07-23   20:45:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Lod (#5)

That was sad and depressing enough.

That's generally the case when dealing with cults.

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:48:55 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Dakmar (#4)

Liberal morons.

Don't look at the test, look at the testees.

Stop trying to artificially muddy the water.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2014-07-23   20:51:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Lod (#7)

"holistic"

Doesn't that really mean no real standards?

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:53:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Lod (#7)

CPS expands math, sports mentoring program for troubled teens

Sports tutors, your tax dollar at work.

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:56:04 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: whom it may concern (#0)

I voted Republican in the last presidential election.

Guess what? You're still a leftist.

Obnoxicated  posted on  2014-07-23   20:57:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: All (#9)

The Chicago Public Schools will expand a sports-based mentoring program for troubled teens to 2,000 students at 37 schools and add “math tutoring on steroids” to three more schools.

I thought steroids were bad, mmmmkay?

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   20:59:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: Dakmar (#0)

thanks Dakmar


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Rotara  posted on  2014-07-23   20:59:54 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: Obnoxicated (#10)

Guess what? You're still a leftist.

I give her credit for rejecting the core Stalinist orthodoxy. You have to start somewhere.

corruptissima re publica plurimae leges - Tacitus

Dakmar  posted on  2014-07-23   21:01:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: Dakmar, Buzzard (#0)

I could say as much about a truly frightening phenomenon, left-wing anti-Semitism, but I'll leave the topic to others better qualified. I can say that when I first encountered it, at a PLO fundraising party in Marin County, I felt as if I had time-traveled to pre-war Berlin.

That's awful, Dakmar. What an inspiring article! I hope it leads to the transformation of many sandal-wearing, bong-hitting, guitar-strumming, ever-angry Marxists. I'm so happy that I'm conservative and would never think to insult Tea Partiers in misogynist terms. I believe in Odin and I can vouch for at least polytheism being beneficial. I'm not so sure about monotheism but it's better than godless Marxism for sure. Usually, that is.

Deasy  posted on  2014-07-24   1:35:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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