The Left and Violence

Much has been made, and rightly so, of leftists’ physical and verbal violence toward conservatives. That the left is inherently violent when faced with opposition to its ideas and aims is unsurprising to me. Leftism is a state of mind that demands control. Leftists project their authoritarianism onto conservatives, one result of which is the false portrayal of Hitler as a right-wing dictator.

Just think about the means by which leftists attain their ends. First, they rely on government — which is the big kahuna of coercive institutions. After that it’s just a matter of selecting the preferred instrument of coercion: regulation, taxation, redistribution, hate-thought-crime legislation, abridgement of property rights and freedom of association, affirmative action racial quotas, and so on.

Leftism is built on control. Control is attained by coercion. Coercion is based on the threat of violence — the ability of the state’s agents to search, seize, summon, compel, fine, and imprison at will — and to use force in doing any of those things.

In sum, leftism depends on violence — or the clear threat of it. Violent outbursts from the left should surprise no one but naifs and leftist hypocrites.