The Prissy Arrogance of the Righteous Left

Many, many, many years ago when I was a young teacher, there existed in Ontario four different elementary school teachers’ unions– one for Francophones, one for English speaking Catholics, one for Public School males, and one for Public School females. The latter was, by a significant margin, the largest.

One day one of my male colleagues, on a bet, or on a dare, or perhaps because he was hungover, walked into a conference of the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario, the female union. The speaker, a well-known feminist, stopped her discourse in mid-sentence, glared daggers at the intruder, and hissed venomously, “Get that thing out of here!” One or two of the attendees raised their eyebrows, but nobody spoke up.

Somehow, the ownership of a penis made my colleague unworthy, unhuman. Imagine if that had happened in reverse at a convention of the Men Teachers’ Federation.

A few years ago I wrote in a Friday Briefing (https://mailchi.mp/55c84f409b0b/resolution-for-1600133?e=[UNIQID]) of the outrage expressed by feminists on account of the acquittal by a female judge (the keywords being acquittal and female judge) of two hockey players accused of sexual assault. The judge found that the complainant’s story was not at all credible and that she had serially contradicted herself under oath. Nevertheless, feminist commentators raged that every time a man is acquitted, women’s rights are set back fifty years. Acquitted. In the view of the prissy left, our robust system of justice, in the hands of a female judge, must still step aside in favour of…. Of what? Help me out, here.

Just recently Ashli Babbit was shot dead storming the American Capitol. Her actions were indefensible, stupid, and treasonous, but we would do well to remember that one of the factors that drove her rage was that she was paying a loan with interest running at 169%. In California, the leftiest of all the left states. Liberals are just as capable of winking at egregious behaviour as are conservatives.

Some years ago one of my colleagues mounted a campaign to become the federal Liberal candidate in his area. He outhustled all other candidates, knocked on more doors, raised more money, had a superior and battle-ready committee, and was widely predicted to sweep the riding for the party. But at the last minute the touchy-feely Liberal Party of Canada, at its very highest level, unceremoniously shut him down and parachuted in their hand-picked golden-haired boy.

The insanity called Brexit is just as much the natural outcome of Corbin’s doctrinaire obstinacy as of Johnson’s little-boy craftiness. In each case, doctrinal purity overrode good policy. Corbin also provides an object lesson that antisemitism is not exclusively a disease of the right.

I could go on, but my point is that the right has no monopoly on hypocrisy or outrageous behaviour, positions, or politics. Graft, greed, hypocrisy, and nepotism are every bit as alive in China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as they are in right wing fascist regimes. Power and privilege corrupt, no matter the colours on your poster.

Prissy liberals presume themselves to be more righteous, more worthy, more intelligent. They have the cheek to label their positions “politically correct”. Correct? By whose standards? Hillary Clinton’s sneer, the “basket of deplorables”, not only cost her the election, but inflicted on the world four years of Donald Trump and the full-blown Trumpist cancer which now thrives in the breast of America. Liberals would do well to keep their supercilious sneering in check.

Whether you are on the right, or on the left, if your opinions are untethered from evidence, you’re a menace. There’s no excuse for being a jerk of any flavour. Sorry, but it’s that simple. Leftists, just as much as rightists, can rage about perceived truth which exists only in their fevered brains. Extreme leftists just as much as extreme rightists are a menace to democracy.

We have plenty of critical issues upon which to focus and agree. Our planet’s climate and ecology are in deep trouble. We treat our brothers and sisters abominably because they are female, gay, Pentecostal, Jewish, Indigenous, or Black. We are the wealthiest society in history yet we deny our children a fair shot at education and enslave our youth with crushing student debt. In some countries (I’m lookin’ at you, Uncle Sam) we pretend that police protection, superhighways, and the military are essential tax-paid services, but medical care is not. These are not political issues, they’re human issues.

It’s time for all of us to grow up and stop whining because some of the other kids’ new nickels are shinier than ours. Let the side which thinks itself morally superior set the first example.