Based Eric Hoffer

Over the past few months I've seen a couple of people refer to Ted Kaczynski as a critic of the left (and as a social critic in general, to be sure). Reference is made to a particular quote:

>When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities ... Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual, white males from middle-class families

Ted Kaczynski cites, for his analysis, Eric Hoffer's conception of a 'true believer'. Eric Hoffer, the American philosopher who prefered to be referred to as a longshoreman (guy who throws ropes and shit around boats), characterized the true believer as a particular person who follows a movement with a strong degree of conviction. He emphasized the following characteristics of the true believer:

>Identifying with a group and identifying personal achievement with the achievement of the movement.

People will, of course, have varying reasons for this: Hoffer cites as examples ethnic groups which struggle to assimilate, the chronically bored, unsuccessful people of all shades (particularly artists); Essentially, those who feel worthless and who feel their lives are meaningless.

>A tendency to focus the locus of control outside the self.

There are many levels to this, such as the need to demonize the toxic present and to glorify the prestigious past, the need for a devil (even in the absence of a God), the notion that their lives are irremediably spoiled and they must strive to correct whatever ills they perceive.

Not Veeky Forums

cultural critique isn't Veeky Forums? i'm not here to discuss any particular ideology, i just think that Eric Hoffer has some very interesting and fruitful ideas.

If that is all you get after reading the unabomber, you are crazier than him

Also, you are underestimating, and awfully generalizing a lot of people

For what we can tell you are probably yet another degenerate sociopath that lives in his own world

The point of his manifesto was to get you against machines and industrialization, not to provide you with more sick burns against those darn SJWs. Kill yourself.

I want /pol/ to leave

Earning my PhD made me want to run off to an isolated cabin in Montana and mail explosives to certain academics.

But I lack Ted's conviction.

>tfw actually a commie
>tfw genuinely believe in most of the main progressive causes people always bitch about on Veeky Forums

>tfw even though you genuinely believe in all of this, and find great pleasure in reading related literature and talking about them with people who really know their shit, you really can't stand 99% of the leftists I've met during my life. It is certainly a generalization, but it still makes sense to do it: I'm referring ot the clueless leftists, not the well-read, educated, active leftists

I don't know, I just want people to really get tougher, to get an edge. I get it, you're a victim, but should I really be okay with you being ONLY that? Why can't I expect any sort of harshness from you?

I want people to stop being offended and start being self-righteous, even arbitrary. Any sign of weakness in front of transphobia is a loss for the cause itself, I think that a real pragmatic leftist should remain neutral towards it while still fighting it viciously.
The collective goal is okay, but the means everyone is using to reach it are downright pathetic: no one should have the right of being weak.
The Unabomber was mostly right.

class struggle is a meme and the circumstances which inspired Marx were gone by the time of the first gommie revolution

Not him, but
>being this delusional and optimist

Class struggle is still real, even more if we leave our borders and start thinking about the relationship between the First and the Third world.
Society is still structured in classes, although there are some ways to escape them (it's not a chaste system).
Wether that's a bad thing in principle or not is debatable.