I was wondering to myself recently why Leftists happen to be so insecure and anti-intellectual and then it came to me that since the turn of the 20th century there hasn't been a single first-rate or original Leftist/liberal thinker.
Meanwhile Right-wing/reactionary thinkers have dominated nearly every single field of study from the 19th through mid-20th centuries-- philosophy (Schopenhauer, Nietzche, Heidegger), economics (Pareto, Veblen, Schumpeter), religious studies (Eliade, Jung, Schuon), literature (the modernists, Yeats, Joyce, Pound, Eliot, Pessoa, Nabokov), math, et cetera
I think the reason why the left-wing has become so antiquated and derivative is because they've simply ran out of fresh source material. What do you think Veeky Forums?
leftists are all bureaucrats at heart, don't be fooled by all the calculated 'transgression' and snark, these people are cops. shrinks. low level security operatives working for an all encompassing managerial society of control. They hide behind the banner of common sense rationality, 'basic human decency' and other empty signifiers while presiding over the liquidation and banalisation of being. Their role is fundamentally repressive, that of turning subjects into objects of management, oedipalizing them into the new postfordian power structures ie. 'women in tech', lockheed martin sponsored pride parades. the far right represents the logical conclusion, the completion and fulfillment of the radical critique of postmodernism, post-structuralism, etc. the radical critique that refuses to be recuperated.
John Barnes
Thanks for further proving his point
Charles Green
WAZ
Austin Hall
All post-structuralists are left-wingers
Colton Reed
I was implying it was "left-wing", not bad. >ran out of fresh source material is ironic when they are still mining Heidegger.
Nathan Cook
>Post-modernism is left wing Hehe...nice try, kiddo
Nathaniel Reed
Wrong, all of the actually talented ones were more or less overt reactionaries, see
Dylan Gray
The most important one, Baudrillard wasn't. And who was Baudrillard inspired by? McLuhan, a Catholic conservative.
Samuel Jackson
>The most important one, Baudrillard
Anthony Powell
>mfw right-wing ideologues still try and claim his as /theirguy/ cause he was joined the Nazi party >mfw right leaning intellectuals never even touched his philosophical project >mfw Heidegger will go down as the father of post-modern thought
Leo Campbell
>die cis white hetero male scum! Philosophy is a social construct, made by the white supremacist patriarchy.
Lefties are the same kind of people as those that dunked witches,or those that burned heretics, or the kind that persecuted Christians. They are ideological zealots, religious extremists, there is no flexibility in their beliefs for philosophy.
Ryder Adams
wow dude i've never thought of it like that
you're very smart
any jordan peterson lectures you'd recommend so i can reach your level of erudition
Kayden Jones
That's because you've never read any right-wing theory silly, tons of political theorists have talked about how Heideggers philosophy is intrinsically tied up with Nazism
Anyway for the OP the right-wing is also the only political group intellectually brave enough to actually deal with recent advances in science and genetics like human biodiversity.
Samuel Robinson
Baudrillard was deemed to be a meandering charlatan even by other questuonable figures, such AS Lacan
David Scott
A bit reaching to classify Nabokov as the same kind of right winger as Eliot or Pound, and not only because he despised the work of those two.
Josiah Collins
>right-wing ideologues still try and claim his as /theirguy/ cause he was joined the Nazi party More like Löwith and Adorno >right leaning intellectuals never even touched his philosophical project Not even Strauss and the right wingers in the Kyoto School? >Heidegger will go down as the father of post-modern thought But their creation myth was set in year 1968, not '27
Jack Bell
Baudrillard is the only one of that group of writers actually worth reading, a "charlatan" he most definitely is not, he was a Nietzschean through and through.
Levi Rogers
Nabokov was thoroughly conservative and anti-marxist though. Some other very important writers to add to OP's list would be Thomas Mann, Knut Hamsun, and Yasunari Kawabata.
Hudson Wright
You should read alejandro soldiernippen's, Goolie ark a pelico, it's crazy
Jack Cook
daily reminder that liberals and leftists still believe in blank slate theory
Brayden Garcia
no, no they don't. why would you think that?
Asher Wilson
Because thats what they proclaim to believe both in the public sphere and within their own communities. ive never once seen a leftist adress human biodiversity whether politically or otherwise.
Dominic Edwards
please understand the distinction between a "liberal" and a "leftist" and keep note of this in the future pls thanks
Joseph Perez
Firstly, nobody outside a few bloggers on the internet recognise "human biodiversity" as a real discipline.
If you're referring to psychology and anthropology, those academic disciplines are overwhelmingly left-of-centre and they conduct almost all the research on individual/group differences that alt-right people like to claim vindicates their worldview.
Buddy he didn't just do a whoopsie when he joined that party, he didn't fall down a flight of stairs. Have you ever read any of his private correspondence or god forbid his black notebooks? Left-right dichotomy is trash but if you subscribe to it there is no way Heidegger is a leftie.
Matthew Lewis
In my country the right has no saying in culture, in fact anything Veeky Forums related worth a read is from the left, which still talks about the dictatorship and uses its influence to get a peak of the repercutions of it in every generation. Anti-intellectualism is way more associated with right wingers in my experience. Also you shouldn't associate liberals with leftists, they differ in a lot of points.
Carson Brooks
>In my country the right has no saying in culture
sweden or germany?
Jace Sanchez
Memechet's Chile.
Lincoln Cox
i thought chile is heavily influenced by catholicism
Jason Perry
Everyone has devolved to the level of realpolitik.
Ryder Carter
Wtf i love hitler now
Cameron Kelly
because weltpolitik led to nothing but shit historically
Jordan Bailey
m8 realpolitik led to the two most destructive wars in human history
Noah Morris
>I think the reason why the left-wing has become so antiquated and derivative is because they've simply ran out of fresh source material. The Left has been plagued by the idea of Utopia. They lack all transcendent qualities and perspectives. In fact, they have been dismantling them as sources of 'oppression and power' wherever they could.
Their utopia is a gray brick in the middle of Siberian steppes, with no hills or elevation in sight.
Kayden Thompson
The left has shifted its focus from the cultural sphere to the litigious sphere since the 1960's; The movement of left thought has become excessively praxis oriented. Zizek even comments on this. OP is entirely correct.
Jaxon Williams
Eh, debatable. Hitlers ambitions were clearly more Weltpolitik than Realpolitik.
Nathan Long
Heidegger wasn't a leftie, but his thought leads directly to Derrida and from there feminist epistemologies, radical skepticism, moral relativism.
Nice pic but Junger and Heidegger oppose each other in thought. Their correspondence displays a real arrogance on Heidegger's part. Both Carl Schmitt and Ernst Junger are anti-Heidegger.
I would go as far as to say they are both anti-Nietzsche, but for different reasons.
A nice Schmitt quote on Heidegger: "Many cite Heraclitus' sentence "War is the father of all things. But few dare to think thereby of civil war."
Jack Morales
Litigious? What do you mean by this?
Afaik, contemporary left-wing rhetoric is still focussed on post-structuralist critique of Western culture.
Colton Parker
that's debatable, many authors have argued that the current left rhetoric is still extremely eurocentric, they just shifted from white man's burden to white man's guilt, but the structure itself is still centered around european men being the only true universal subjects, the only ones who can act and have true responsibility while the rest just react and are a product of externalities
Mason Morgan
I mean that the focus has been to create legislative changes; to codify the critique in law. That is the essence of "social justice" anyway. The left looks for strategic, legislative victories. Unfortunately this entails a lot of reactionary backlash, since, what is legislated does not necessarily communicate into the larger sphere of culture.
Charles Cooper
>while the rest just react and are a product of externalities
You are right, thinking of it. SJW rhetoric, for example, empasizes the oppression of African-Americans by state and police (for example), but totally downplays the traits of the African-Americans themselves, treating them as subjects and ignoring how they themselves are also responsible for, lets say, excessive crime rates.
Nicholas James
Michel Clouscard would say the left has abandoned dialectical thought. He was the first dude to call Deleuze & Guattari the ideologists of late capital.
Hunter Moore
Exactly. I don't know many niggers, but I don't believe they like their change from mistreated slave to pampered pet.
Connor Scott
but how is this strive for legislative change a new priority? the french revolution already was about that.
Brayden Cook
Veblen was a leftist. Nabokov was a liberal like his old man, but for the most part remained apolitical. Nietzsche, Jung, and Joyce were on a higher planes.
Jeremiah Fisher
To be honest I haven't read this book yet but considering he wrote 245 paged about Jünger's work in addition to their friendship I think he can't have been completely clueless to the nature of his thoughts. Not like to be or not be Nietzschean is what makes or breaks a rightie anyway.
Levi Jenkins
I think they have abandoned thought for action; in the wake of Paris 68, lifestylism became the de jour expression of leftism; it does boil down to capitalism with a human face, posting that you bought a pair of tom's shoes on a Bernie facebook group; in fact the techniques of Situationism have been ably recuperated by ad agencies, which ultimately were the source of lifestylism to begin with. Poststructural academic left conceded en total the design for living offered by Bernays, Le Courbousier, et al.
Chase Phillips
There is an obvious difference between the People's Terror and crowdfunded lobbying PACs.
Hunter Edwards
The right is going through a similar phase of abandoning self-criticism and will ultimately dissipate in the same way as the left. Globalism is an ideology unto itself and it is winning by a fucking long shot. I listened to an NPR story about the Koch brothers furthering their monopolistic agenda and of course it was only ironically critical. The Kochs also fund NPR.
Jaxson Robinson
fascinating. are there some books on this topic?
Nathaniel Harris
Heidegger really liked Junger's The Worker but he thought Junger didn't go far enough and is a crypto-Platonist (which he is). Their correspondence is Junger trying to learn about this famous philosopher and Heidegger politely condescending to him. Heidegger really didn't respect any contemporary philosophers save Derrida.
> Not like to be or not be Nietzschean is what makes or breaks a rightie anyway.
No, but I'd argue Schmitt and Junger perceived a big problem in Heidegger which would help to weaken Germany and European culture. Like Junger says, after the death of gods in come the titans.
Evan Gutierrez
this man knows
Hunter Morales
i am not sure about that, many of the big institutions of globalism like the EU seem to have completely lost their soul and be moving just by the momentum they accumulated, plenty of asian countries are also starting to see the western globalized countries as a joke
Carson Stewart
Not him but if you can read french, Michel Clouscard. Neo-Fascism and the Ideology of Desire is his 1973 piece that is anti May 68 and anti D&G.
Interesting fact: Henri Lefevbre and Sartre reviewed Clouscard's master's dissertation. The former loved it, the latter hated it.
Noah Ward
but we can and will continue like this infinitely
Ayden Watson
I suggest watching the movie "Grin without a cat" by Chris Marker, i think that is where i got the ideas from. Also a little of zizek, i forget where but he says the left should think more and act less.
Carson Ward
>if you can read french
no, sadly. wish i did, i could properly read baudrillard, beckett, godard then.
Christopher Cruz
what about the term "lifestyle-ism"? did you come up wit hit by yourself?
i believe its a very apt term for the belief of western middle classes that they could make revolution by slightly tweaking their lifestyle.
Nicholas Rivera
So will Eastasia and Eurasia.
And not a bomb will be dropped.
Kayden James
i am not sure how you'll maintain the progression of globalism without the constant wars if you don't have the cannon fodder to burn in them and the population no longer buys the "spread democracy" and similar memes that they did when we still believed in progress
i guess this issue can be sidetracked if we get war bots soon enough, i guess all the obama's politically correct drone wars was a first taste of this
Alexander Sullivan
There will always be critics of the prevailing ideology but I would say the EU is gaining power in the region brexit notwithstanding; refugee reassignment is something i am against, as i feel it is a method of extending western hegemony into the fringes of the developing world (create a warzone, evacuate non-combatants, install a proxy state) interestingly the Dalai Lama shares this opinion. It is also a mistake to forget China in this, they are not colonizing Africa, but buying it in a buyer's market. In essence, left or right, we are within globalism like a fish inside a tank.
Lifestylism is something of a pejorative among the gutter punk anarchists i hung around as a teen. I think the term is pretty old though perhaps coming from Prodhoun even but i am unsure.
Xavier Stewart
>but we can and will continue like this infinitely That's impossible. We aren't infinitely here. Some generation will change things.
Gabriel Turner
Damn i wish this were in translation :/
Joseph Reed
Global capitalism is the enemy. The homogenising force that subverts everything else to it. The le helicopter meme kids who are closet lolbertarians take criticisms of capitalism as a personal threat to their pocket money. Its ok because these future boat shoe wearing finance students don't count for shit. As they say "its a big club and you're not in it". As a lifelong rightist the Trump presidency is pretty clear proof that "the house always wins" and unless you attack the system exists only to perpetuate itself you'll never gain any ground. The alienation, degredation and social rot that rightists hate comes from capitalism. The environmental catastrophe and wild inequality the left hates comes from capitalism. Zizek recently wrote an article saying that the altright and Bernie socialists should align to take out neoliberalism. Maybe a pipe dream but nobody is getting anywhere until we make positive moves against this system
Alexander Young
>Junger didn't go far enough and is a crypto-Platonist (which he is) Explain
Aiden Torres
>but I would say the EU is gaining power in the region brexit notwithstanding that's very debatable, 20 years ago everybody wanted to jump on board, on current year >According to a poll conducted in April 2017, 29% of Czechs were in favour of introducing the euro while 70% were opposed and 1% undecided.
and plenty of stuff like that, germany is hardly seen as a leader anymore and while france with macron seems eager to pick up the responsibility we'll see up to what point he's successful in doing it
Angel Hall
>Zizek recently wrote an article saying that the altright and Bernie socialists should align to take out neoliberalism link?
Kayden Edwards
>The alienation, degredation and social rot
not universally acknowledged. a lot of people like their lives as they are now.
Thats why I specified the right. And yes I know this is the case thats why I work in advertising. Pigs like filth, humans don't. If you like filth well you might just be a pig
Tyler Hill
>not universally acknowledged. a lot of people like their lives as they are now. most of those people are not reproducing and we are importing people from more traditional societies to replace them, so they don't matter in the long term unless they are successful in creating an education system strong enough to secure their influence towards the future when they lack the families to do it in any other way
Colton Morgan
I hope so. When i was very young i remember a time when radical anarchists and timothy mcveigh right wing types could agree that the WTO and the ATF police state needed to be taken down; solidarity does not always mean fraternity, but i think it would be like parents who don't love each other staying together for the kids. Once we are rid of globalization and its inherent anti-humanity then we can begin to go our seperate ways.
Lincoln Gutierrez
No, it's actually the opposite. Leftists are the ones who pursue things like higher education and criticizing themselves while far rightests idea of debate is Ad Hominem on /pol/ while thinking that they're genius because they realize that communism is bad
Globalization is unpopular everywhere but public opinion has almost no effect on the trajectory of its policies.
Daniel Sanders
>far rightests >/pol/ lol, /pol/ is just contrarian degenerate filth, they'll say anything to cover their own degeneracy
Carter Harris
its fairly unknown what causes decline in birth rates.
Caleb Hernandez
we don't need to know the reason, just that it's happening and in what kind of societies it happens the most
Hudson Jones
>literally correlation = causation the post
Charles Peterson
>Once we are rid of globalization and its inherent anti-humanity then we can begin to go our seperate ways. The environmental crisis should be top priority. Literally everything else can be done but the damage the consumer society does to the physical world is unfixable. We may already be at the point of no return. Modern liberal-progressive morality is all about lowering the bar. Its about esteem. Reminds me of Ted Kaczynski saying the left comes from feelings of inferiority. So the left wants to remove all standards, hierarchies and objective measures by which they could be judged. You may have noticed that "being judgey" is something 30> year old women use often. These people are on some level aware of their shortcomings and so they have removed any metric by which they could be revealed. Again it is all about esteem. I think it was Dove which ran a series of ads all about "ur beautiful gurl xoxox" and that is the essence of capitalism. Or rather of advertising in a consumer society. Pandering to a demographic. And telling people that they are perfect makes them feel good. Those feel good feelings are associated with your brand. Not everything is necessarily filthy, but grotesque? Absolutely. Treating people like children is the best way not just to reach them but to understand them. Capitalism and infantilisation go hand in hand
Chase Morales
I know where you're cribbing this notion from and it's not a good look.
Jayden Hill
what? if something happens it will have consequences regardless of why it happened, this has nothing to do with causation or correlation
David Reyes
>The environmental crisis should be top priority. Literally everything else can be done but the damage the consumer society does to the physical world is unfixable. We may already be at the point of no return. the problem is the solution, we won't destroy the world, just our capacity to survive in it.
now, whether we can do something to avoid the mass death that this would involve is another question
Gabriel Bailey
>the environtmental crisis should be top priority
I agree but i think it is easy to fall into the same old trap of letigiousness here, protesting pipelines etc. Those actions often draw attention away from the actors who are instrumental in destroyibg the world. In fact i think a partial extinction of the human species is part of global policy. Maybe i am crazy
Jackson Gray
>the damage the consumer society does to the physical world is unfixable. This is largely because the consumer society brings forth the idea of physical world unto the world. Once you're talking about eternal particles, no priorities with different setups really exist. Mere opinions; patterns of the same themselves, completely changeable.
Nicholas Scott
>So the left wants to remove all standards, hierarchies and objective measures by which they could be judged. why are the USAs most beautiful, glamorous, acknowledged pop stars all left-wing, then? same goes for the successful west coast area. whereas the south, with its historical inferiority complex, is right-wing.
i also genuinely believe that condemning people for flaws they were born with is pointless.
Joshua Morgan
>why are the USAs most beautiful, glamorous, acknowledged pop stars all left-wing, then? Guess who their (((producers))) are.
Oliver Taylor
>why are the USAs most beautiful, glamorous, acknowledged pop stars all left-wing, then? because they are duping the fools, that's the best way to get money from retards nowadays
Only the most radical environmentalists (Pentti Linkola for instance) are living sustainable lives. Telling a growing number of people that living like upper middle class americans is the only way to live is not just shitting up the world but depleting every resource on earth. There will be a critical malthusian moment. Can't sustain infinite exponential wants with limited resources. But by that time what will earth be? Down 65% of species, a salinated ocean, desertfication and 15 billion people who are going to get even hungrier? Solving this is going to be very brutal and we dont have much time. >why are the USAs most beautiful, glamorous, acknowledged pop stars all left-wing, then? I don't understand your point. You think any of those people would be vocally in favour of hierarchy? Would Katy Perry say that "not everyone is beautiful?" or would Anne Hathaway say "equality is undesirable?" These people may live a contradiction but it is one that the neoliberal system can pave over easily. Moreover the system allows for this sort of cognitive dissonance.
William Gonzalez
Interesting. Just for clarification it wasn't my intention to say Heidegger and Jünger were one and the same and this made the former right-wing because the latter is accepted to be that. It was simply a cute picture. Also interesting though that despite these differences and the big problem you say Jünger perceived in Heidegger Jünger suggested a joint right conservative venture in 1949 and Heidegger rejected because the political climate didn't allow for them to be associated.