very nice fisking of the lefties. hitchens class!
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There is a section of people who feel India is unique because we earned our freedom without bloodshed, but one thing is sure.
I recently finished reading American thinker Ben Shapiro's book " Bullies- How the Left's culture of fear and intimidation silences America". In this book the author has demonstrated with case after case how the unholy nexus of NGOs, media and the socialist government is usurping the fundamental rights of its own citizens in the name of political correctness and inclusiveness.
I have not studied in depth on the subject and I am not going to form my opinion based on a single book although Mr. Shapiro makes a compelling case. But what worries me is how similar the tactics used by Left liberals in India are to the ones employed (albeit on a larger scale and with much better results) by their ideological doppelgangers in the USA.
Since we are in a different development cycle than the United States, perhaps the tactics employed by the left are not as aggressive and not as commonplace but the early signs are there for sure. Knowing your opponent is the first step of putting up a defence and hence in the paragraphs to follow I will attempt to point out the logical fallacies, philosophical inconsistencies and general lack of common sense in a typical left liberal's thought process.
Before I start I must congratulate the liberals on two things
- They have spent more time thinking about this as a group than we have. The Left thinks as an institution (thanks Ben Shapiro) and the Right thinks as an individual.
- Since they are aware of the inconsistencies in their argument they have built the argument in a circular way so that the irrational side of each argument is removed (the old smoke and mirror tactic) from the immediate vicinity of the argument itself.
Therefore, in order to expose them, we must look at different parts of their arguments on different issues and show how they are at odds with each other. For example their thoughts on free speech might be contradicted with their own thoughts about majoritarianism. So they are clever enough never to put both arguments together.
The patriotism and dissent folly
After Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014, there was such a large spurt in intellectuals trashing patriotism as a virtue that it could not have been anything but pre-planned.
The Left argues that patriotism is an often overrated and misused virtue. Patriotism strips people of their right to dissent and often patriots are crude and violent people. Before the cricket world cup this summer, sociologist Ashish Nandy said, "I don't want either India or Pakistan to win. The Indian public is suffering from too much nationalism right now and a WC win will only reinforce it". I suppose the desire not to see your own countrymen feel proud about your own country makes sense to someone, it does not make sense to me at least.
And then the liberals trot out the late Samuel Johnson's quote "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels". And since this is such an oft used quote it deserves an examination on its own.
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