Confounded leftism should not be elevated to the level of legitimate political philosophies ending with the “ism” suffix. The perennial political paradoxes from time immemorial have been addressed by great thinkers whose insights are often pigeonholed by some “ism”: liberalism, conservatism, capitalism, socialism, Marxism, etc. No matter where one falls on the spectrum, the ideas underpinning them were formulated by mostly rational minds -- even if their prescriptions don’t comport with human nature.
Leftism doesn’t come close to that. Other than being consistently anti-American, it is not a coherent or cogent ideology, although its inherent demagoguery is reminiscent of some aspects of fascism. Leftism isn’t intellectually potent enough to “make people crazy.” Instead, it is a loony mish-mash of anti-tradition and anti-Trump messages just for the sake of it. It rejects commonsense conventions born of experience that have often served humanity well in our inexorable pursuit of enlightenment (with notable exceptions).
In a sense, leftism is really “wrong-ism” insofar as it reflexively rejects what’s proven to be right on the right. Why, for example, would anybody want to radically transform our society (the last great hope of Earth) after attaining comfort in our Shining City on a Hill? Why not stay whence you came if we’re so bad (e.g. Soros, Ilhan, and others…) and transform your own dysfunctional societies (Somalia is a mess, for example, and Hungary has plenty of its own problems)? Leftism didn’t make them crazy; rather, they are crazy people who contribute to an ill-conceived and disjointed patchwork of leftist poppycock.
We categorize many crazy policies under the aegis of leftism, and conveniently label their progenitors as leftists. In other words, they are formulated by unhappy people who have an axe to grind. Their lunacy is then reinforced by leftist indoctrination and conformity, but, ultimately, it is crazy people who conjure leftist voodoo from the firmament of human-derived reality.
In many cases, that indoctrination happens in academia, perpetrated by leftist professors who are a scourge on our vibrant, free-market society. The hapless students are young and impressionable, keen to grasp their first exposure to “higher learning.” It’s as if brain-synchrony between teacher and pupil permeates the classroom, or perhaps the student just wants to get an “A.” Either way, it is just more craziness as the gullible students struggle to resist leftist propaganda. Again, crazy (including those with tabula rasa brains) people are drawn to leftism.
Contrast that leftist incoherence to the systematic and rationally cohesive doctrines that weave the great tapestry of ideas permeating Western Civilization. The history of political philosophy is replete with brilliant religious scholars and philosophers who earnestly addressed the human predicament, including how society is arranged (e.g., who rules? How? Why? How chosen? To what ends? From where does power derive? What are its limits? Are we essentially estranged? Liberty v. Equality, etc.). By contrast, leftists rebuke our heightened consciousness if favor of dystopian dark ages (remember the Seattle CHOP zone a few years ago?). They are regressive, not progressive.
It is indeed important for society to know that some people on the cusp become crazy first, then leftists. Then, with more efficacious treatment options for individuals, we may be able to expunge the root cause of leftist social ills. A first step is to classify TDS as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
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