Foseti reviews another Moldbug-recommended work, The Dark Side of the Left, by Richard J. Ellis:
The radical leftists are uncompromising in a way that no other groups are. Thus, they inevitably win — everyone else compromises with them and the political equilibrium is thus constantly shifting leftward. Radically leftward.
Finally, the non-leftist reader will be struck by the similarities that run through all of the movements covered in the book. The abolitionists are the first group covered. The feminists are the second to last group covered. Yet, we don’t even have to leave the chapter on the abolitionists before we get calls for the end to “the patriarchy of marriage.” Let’s look closer at abolitionism.
Ellis quotes Stephen Foster as saying that “every family” is “a little embryo plantation.” Traditional marriage to many abolitionists was a form of slavery that needed to be eradicated like all other forms. Many of the abolitionists also rejected capitalism, as again, it creates “slaves.” Of course, the abolitionists also became militants. Many eventually gloried in the deaths of the Civil War which killed more Americans than any war. For example, Wendell Phillips said that “the bloodiest war ever waged is infinitely better than the happiest slavery which ever fattened men into obedience.” It would be hard to better distill the totalitarian mindset in one sentence.
I’ve chosen to focus on the most controversial topic (i.e. slavery). Don’t let this shade your view of the book. Ellis is best discussing the violence of the New Left, but I found the initial chapter on abolitionism more interesting.
I should conclude by saying that the reactionary will agree with many positions held by the radical leftists. Specifically, the radical leftists have a disdain of the masses that the reactionary will find appealing. However, the radical leftists believe that this makes the masses expendable. Further, the radical leftists believe that the deficiencies of the masses can be fixed with the right program. The reactionary believes neither. The radical leftist despises the masses but continually embraces democracy — his movements, therefore, fizzle in this inherent contradiction. Unfortunately, the don’t fizzle before the damage has been done.
Ellis believes that the core of radical leftism is radical egalitarianism, but Foseti shares Molbug’s belief that it’s really radical protestantism, which has evolved into a secular religion.