Monday, March 15, 2021

Jason Paluch's "Liberalism and Leftism"

Michael Lumish

The shifting meaning of words is key to understanding political sensibilities.

In this piece, written for
Karen Lehrman Bloch
's White Rose Magazine, Jason Paluch outlines the essential differences between "Liberalism" and "Leftism."
This is something that has stuck in my craw for years.
Liberalism is about the political tradition, grounded in the European Enlightenment, that values the freedom of the individual and that probably reached its height with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Paluch concludes:
"Liberals adhere to the idea that people have a right to freely live their lives in any way they see fit as long as their choices and actions do not prevent others from doing the same. Leftists believe they have a right to dictate to others how they must live and what they should believe. The difference could not be more clear."



24 comments:

  1. Disqus is cancelling FrontpageMag because SPLC has it listed as a hate site. I've already dumped Disqus a month ago, right decision as it turns out. I wonder when Google will cancel this blog. They will too, it's just a matter of time. Mike should make plans to move it out of reach of fascists.

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    1. They're cancelling Frontpage?

      I wrote for their now defunct NewsRealBlog for awhile.

      This is all part of cancel culture.

      Sometimes I find myself trying to get my regressive friends to understand that it's not just about this book or speak or Dr. Seuss.

      It's about a trend.

      Delete
  2. Speaking of Frontpage, any preaching progressive that worships Obama and bleeds for the Palestinian cause should read:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/anti-semite-chief-frontpage-magazine/

    Then again, a little actual knowledge is a dangerous thing.

    As for the increasing censorship, the dark age of the progressive is upon us. These people are afraid of their own shadows and pretend to speak for humanity. Scary they have so much power to act against the interests of the many for their vanity. Fascism no less.

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  3. "The difference could not be more clear." And yet, how do explain that so many are not seeing this, or are they? All I know is that there today seems to be what David Mamet called in his book, The Wicked Son, a "general sales resistance" when today's woke Democratic voter has this difference explained to them.

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  4. What you are describing is not liberalism, it is libertarianism. Liberals, and Jews, believe we have a duty not simply to refrain from hurting each other but to affirmatively support the widow and orphan, rehabilitate the poor and to protect the stranger. The idea that simply to avoid hurting others is to abstain from being actively involved in injustice and, as Elie Wiesel points out, that aids the oppressor, never the oppressed. What you are describing is Ayn Rand's philosophy, which is basic Republican thought (Paul Ryan insisted his staff read her books) and is antithetical to normative Judaism.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Joseph clearly thinks he has the right to dictate to others how they should live and what they are allowed to think. Then he throws Ayn Rand at anyone who deviates from his collectivist, socialist mentality who asserts individual freedom, civil liberties, democracy and free enterprise , i.e., hallmarks of liberalism.

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    3. Always love when a progressive starts to speak as an authority on Jewish norms and values, injecting progressive ideology, which is anti-Jewish, into the mix. Illiberal and anti-Jewish. Nice combo.

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    4. I guess the Rambam is also a progressive By doing so, we can also achieve true happiness (see Year 1, Lesson 20) as the Rambam describes the ultimate joy that one may achieve on Purim (Hilkhot Megilla 2:17):



      Indeed, there is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows and the converts.

      One who brings happiness to the hearts of these unfortunate individuals imitates the Divine Presence, of which it is stated: “To revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the despondent.”

      07Onaa of Underpriveleged.docx
      I'm happy to be in that company.

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    5. How does going along with fascist mob "gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows and the converts"?

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    6. Our moral lecturer presumes to know what others do in real life "to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows and the converts." Except he doesn't know, so he peddles his hustle that it means to be a progressive, as if progressives can do no harm. Short-sighted and foolish.

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    7. Progressives are Communists. Communists freed the souls of the many millions they killed. Don't know how gladdened those folk were.

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  5. According to Gallup, 38% of Democrats side more with the PLO than with Israel. compared to 43% who side more with Israel.

    53% want to see more pressure on Israel and only 29% want to see more pressure on the PLO.

    https://news.gallup.com/poll/340331/americans-favor-israel-warming-palestinians.aspx

    Jewish Democrats and progressives stand by and watch.

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    Replies
    1. They have been given very bad information by the news media, The New York Times comes to mind, and Democrat politicians.

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    2. Afraid to speak up. Not much worse than an apostate. The Jews, however, have skin in the game and keep silent. They even like to denigrate as if they are the liberals.

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  6. Certainly not for the benefit of bigots.

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  7. Another dummy. But so brave to give your name, Anonymous.

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  8. Certainly not religious like Greenfield, but he was triggered into writing a beauty about a quite familiar type of American Jew, including some that visit and visited here.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/kamalas-husband-hosts-virtual-passover-hell-daniel-greenfield/

    Only a sycophant could watch such a seder and believe it genuine and an authentic representation of the Passover story and its meaning. Not to mention the outright hostility to Israel. Of all causes, they take the side of the very people that hate them for being Jews. Pretty smart. It's frankly embarrassing to listen to them and how out of touch and uninformed they really are. Or the bad stuff they are actually enabling, not just against Israel, but the greater fight for liberalism, freedom and human rights.





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  9. Al Jazerra is reporting that the US is about to recommence shovelling $200 million down the gullets of the corrupt murder gang bosses and their hangers on no strings attached and no questions answered without crossed fingers and hands on heart.

    Biden is a threat to the world.

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  10. Here's a word that should be nauled to the skulls of everyone in the White House. FUNGIBLE!

    As in money is fungible. Look it up you dickheads. It really isn't that difficult a concept.

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  11. https://www.dailywire.com/news/trying-to-create-a-civil-war-calls-grow-for-maxine-waters-to-be-punished-over-alleged-incitement

    hang her up high!!

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