In January, after Trump’s inauguration, we saw leftists of all stripes, including vapid, virtue signaling Hollywood celebrities that don’t produce anything good anymore, legitimizing a violent incident, saying it was alright to “punch Nazis in the face.” Given the elasticity of this word, it was obvious to everyone that “punch a Nazi” would quickly mean “punch anyone to the right of screeching leftists on college campuses.” Within a week, that came to pass.
Then came the violent Berkeley riots on February 1st, with a muted police and media response. It was obvious then that the writing was on the wall. It was the watershed moment that publicly elevated and incentivized violent action among leftists, but such a thing was easy to see coming. Quintus Curtius and I independently came to the same conclusion at least two years ago. The pathology was firmly in place and the rumblings were growing then, but Trump’s election, far from forcing them to reconsider as I had hoped (perhaps naively), only served as confirmation bias for their narrative and reinforced their mental perversions.
My prediction after Berkeley in February was that we would be seeing Weimar-style street battles by the summer. In April, again in Berkeley, one occurred, and the so-called “summer of resistance” has come. The attempted assassination of Republican lawmakers by a leftist loser whose only victory in life was in a corpulence contest suggests the battles might get more violent still.
Why is this occurring? What are the mental perversions of leftists that cause them to get so violent?
The Pathology of Leftists
To understand modern leftists and why they’re so prone to getting violent, you have to go back a long way. While earlier generations of leftists, such as the New Deal Coalition, were primarily concerned with economic matters, since the late 60’s when that coalition fell apart, the modern left has been absorbed in identity politics and postmodern deconstruction ideology. This is the latest iteration of an age-old pathology. The best term to describe it comes from Pol Pot – “Year Zero.”
The Wikipedia description is actually on point, so I’ll just quote it here:
The idea behind Year Zero is that all culture and traditions within a society must be completely destroyed or discarded and a new revolutionary culture must replace it, starting from scratch. All history of a nation or people before Year Zero is deemed largely irrelevant, as it will ideally be purged and replaced from the ground up.
And make no mistake, modern leftists are Year Zero devotees. They have different ends and a different “revolutionary culture” they’d like to see built than Pol Pot, but the underlying pathology – the feelings of moral superiority, the revulsion toward the “impurity” of the old order, the dehumanization of all its adherents (who are regarded as immoral), is exactly the same. Pol Pot and modern leftists are cousins, as is ISIS.
Violent action is naturally justified by this pathology. It’s a short leap to make. Why did the corpulent loser ask whether those on the field were Democrats or Republicans? It was because he viewed the Republicans as the benighted, as immoral rubes perpetuating the old, “impure” social order that must be destroyed. His social media accounts essentially said as much. Violent action was thus justified in his mind.
Far from changing after their massive defeat last year, leftists took it as a cue that they needed to redouble their efforts, as everything they believed about the old, impure social order was manifesting in the worst ways before their eyes. America really was “racist” and “sexist” and every other label for rejecting them. Viewing themselves as moral, above the benighted old order, the impurities attached to that order really, really needed erasing, and because these Year Zero leftists have been increasingly losing the argument, other measures needed to be taken, violent if need be.
Where Does It End?
The Year Zero phenomenon has ancient origins, stretching back to Egypt and the reign of the “heretic pharaoh,” Akhenaten, who in the midst of his religious revolution, overturned the religious and cultural norms of the country that were ancient even by the standards of his own time. Akhenaten’s revolution lost territory to the Hittites and caused great social tumult and upheaval in Egypt, and even after his death, the situation wasn’t entirely resolved until Horemheb, a military man, came in and restored order.
This would often be repeated afterward. Year Zero revolutionaries always subvert and rot away their inheritance and the institutions of the society which gave them birth. Starting from nothing, their revolutionary vision always descends into chaos. As their new regime is totally untested and human memory is not just limited to one year, the population clings hold to its old traditions in secret. At the same time, the Year Zero revolutionaries themselves descend into often violent infighting as they try to purge their enemies and signal their being more pure to the revolution. Governing becomes impossible as upheaval, anarchy, tyranny, and sometimes full blown civil war come. The chaos is usually ended by a strongman that takes power and restores order, purging the subversives in a sometimes equally violent fashion along the way. Instances of this in the 20th century are well-known – Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile, etc. But other good examples can be found in Napoleon in France in 1799, the Restoration of the British Monarchy in 1660, and so on back to Horemheb.
At such a point, one can only hope that the new regime’s violent authoritarianism is temporary, so that a functioning constitutional order can reassert itself. It worked in Britain for the most part. Napoleon’s rule in France was a lot more chaotic until finally, a functioning peace came in 1815.
By breaking the social bonds and the traditional, lawful methods of arbitrating disputes and wielding and transferring power, no other method becomes available to counter the Year Zero subversives and end the social disharmony, witch hunts, thought policing, and tyranny that they bring in their wake.
What of America?
As for our own country, the United States has been fortunately blessed with a political culture that defends personal liberty and that transfers power peacefully, with only one brief violent interlude 150 years ago, with continual peace since.
But since the 60’s and accelerating this decade, Year Zero subversives have taken control of the left, the universities (their fortresses and laboratories), and the Democratic Party. Far from discouraging leftists’ irrationality, most of the world’s elites are surrendering to it or outright perpetuating it. To take down Trump, they are gladly eroding the rule of law and have descended into full-blown demagoguery, including inevitably excusing violent actions. It is entirely unsurprising that someone was shot. We can only hope that someone isn’t killed, even as it’s increasingly likely. The hallmark of Year Zero ideas is that any kind of harm or cruelty is seen as acceptable in the great purge their adherents wish on civilization.
What Can be Done?
There’s only one answer – the zealotry of Year Zero leftists can only be met with equal or superior contempt, disgust, and revulsion. These are not people that can be negotiated or reasoned with. Even after Trump, who gets it, the Republican Party still doesn’t. Now that there was an attempted assassination on many of their own, perhaps they will, but I doubt it.
Not an inch of ground can ever be surrendered to these subversive leftists. Their self-professed moral superiority must be mercilessly, relentlessly, exposed for what it is and torn down, and the media and elite sponsors that egg them on should be mocked and viewed with contempt. The heat must be constantly turned up on the Democratic Party to cease its current war of all against all, give up identity politics and the victim Olympics, purge the radicalized elements of their party, and return to their roots.
Antifa should be declared a terrorist organization immediately and, if possible, something like RICO should be used to dismantle these groups as it has been used successfully against the mafia. Universities must be radically overhauled, if not defunded in most cases. Riots must be put down and rioters made an example of. Lastly, targets of leftists’ ire and violent intentions need to be prepared to defend themselves with the necessary force.
If this sounds harsh, too bad. This is where we are. If these things aren’t done, it will only get worse. Year Zero subversives never stop unless forced to. Fortunately, their cancerous spread can still be met with an ordered, proportional response that keeps the peace and order intact, but for how long? Leftists are working feverishly to subvert a lawful election, destroy our social bonds, and legitimize violent action against their opponents.
As President Trump would say, it’s time to get tough, now.
And since narrative control is essential to this battle, read Stumped now, because the third chapter will show you how to demolish leftist faux morality and virtue signaling.
