At the core of left-wing thought is a denial of painful realities, the denial of what the
French call les faits de la vie, facts of life. Conservatives, on the other hand, are
all too aware of the painful realities of life, and base many of their positions on them.
One example of this left-right difference is the differing attitudes toward human nature
and responsibility for evil. When liberals blame violent crime on poverty, one reason
they do is that ever since the Enlightenment the Left has posited that human nature is
good. So, then, when people do bad things to other people, the Left argues that some
outside forces -- usually poverty and, in the case of non-white criminals, racism --
are responsible, not human nature.
Why? Because people on the Left find it too painful to look reality in the eye and acknowledge
that human nature is deeply flawed. Another fact of life that the Left finds too
painful to acknowledge is the existence of profound differences between men and women.
There is no other explanation for the denial of what has been obvious to every previous
generation in history -- that men and women are inherently different. This denial is certainly
not the result of scientific inquiry. The more science learns about the male brain and
the female brain, not to mention male and female hormones, the more it confirms important
built-in differences between the sexes. Yet many people, influenced by left-wing thought,
believe that girls are as happy to play with trucks as are boys, and boys are as happy
to play with dolls and tea sets as are girls. Why do they believe such silliness?
Because acknowledging many of those differences is painful.
For example, feminists and others on the Left do not want to acknowledge that men are far
more capable of having emotionally meaningless sex than women. Therefore, feminism has taught
generations of young women that they are just as capable of enjoying emotionless sex with
many partners as are men. The fact is that the great majority of women are deeply dissatisfied
with the hook up culture and yearn to bond with a man even more than they yearn for professional
success. But feminism came up with the famous and false phrase, “A woman without a man
is like a fish without a bicycle” to counter the painful reality that most women feel incomplete
without a man in their life -- just as, I might add, most men feel incomplete without
a woman. Ironically, however, most men have no trouble acknowledging this.
This is what the notion of Political Incorrectness is all about. The very definition of “Politically
Incorrect” is a truth that people on the Left find too painful to acknowledge
-- and therefore do not want expressed.
To cite yet another example, why are many young black males in prison? The reason is
too painful for the Left to acknowledge and therefore it is politically incorrect to say it:
Young black males commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. And why are there
speech codes on virtually all college campuses? Because the Left doesn’t want to hear facts
or opinions that cause them pain.
That’s why the Left developed what it calls “trigger warnings.” A “trigger warning,”
as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “a statement at the start of a piece of writing,
video, etc. alerting the reader or viewer to the fact that it contains potentially distressing
material.” That’s why the Left constantly speaks about being made “uncomfortable”
and about feeling “offended.” Being made uncomfortable or feeling offended, is, after all,
painful.
Take the left-wing bumper sticker idea, “War Is not the Answer.” The painful truth is
that war is often the only answer to great evil. Nazi death camps were liberated by soldiers
fighting a war, not by peace activists or by peaceful dialogue with the German regime.
But having to acknowledge the moral necessity of war is too painful a truth for many on the Left.
One might say that Leftism appeals to those who wish to remain innocent. Growing up and
facing the fact that life is messy, difficult and painful is increasingly a conservative point of view.
I’m Dennis Prager.