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Samizdata quote of the day – the terminal hypocrisy of Labour Labour bigwigs have spent so long portraying themselves as morally superior that they have come to believe their own hype. They really do seem to think they are, as a group, almost beyond reproach. That they are the good guys, the virtuous ones. What they lack in any substantial political vision for Britain, they make up for in skyscraping self-righteousness. Which blinds them to their own hypocrisy.
– Tim Black
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I think there is a lot in that. Labour types honestly think they are the good people and those on the right are bad people. Thus, this current government assumed that once they, the good people, were in power, growth would appear, the vile gangs would be smashed, and all would be well. They did not seem to realise that the Conservatives were not bad people, they were incompetent. And it now turns out that Starmer’s rabble are even more incompetent. Some of them may well be bad people too, but that’s another story.
We think they’re stupid. They think we’re evil.
It always comes down to the seed-corn argument and/or victimhood.
It’s the side of identity politics that doesn’t get talked about. They don’t just make identity political, they make politics an identity. The “what” is less important than the “who”; they really do believe it’s different when they do it.
And one of the major problems for britain is that they [Labour] are so entrenched in power that even if Starmer had to quit they have enough votes that they can caucus to name a new PM and not have to have an election for 4 more years. Making the assumption that they do decide to allow an election in 4 years [what would you brits do if they cancelled them?]. And there is a lot of ruination that can be done to a nation and liberty in 4 years by an egotistical, hypocritical ruling class that believes as a matter of faith that it is superior to everyone else.
Subotai Bahadur
I think it is worth thinking about why the left feels this sense of moral superiority. I think it is best understood with an example I often hear directed at Christian conservatives (I am neither). They will say “Jesus helped the poor, so the government should too”, or “How does allowing old people to live without power to heat their houses sit with your Christian values?”
So the answer seems obvious, I guess, to you and me: “Yes Jesus helped the poor, so get on your bike and go ahead and help them.”
Which is to say they are part of this culture that overemphasizes the importance of government, taking it away from people and the private sector. It is the belief, that is fairly new in human history, that only the government can fix problems.
And I sometimes thing we contribute to that belief here. By being sucked into the constant talk of politics, politics, politics we are just validating the idea that politics and government are at the center of everything. You watch the news and almost every article in the news is about politics and government apparently ignoring the whole mass of the private sector going about its productive and charitable business.
Of course I am one of the worst offenders at this. But as soon as you concede that government is the solution to every problem you have given them the choice of territory on which to fight, and here we come, the French knights galloping through the narrow muddy fields of Agincourt, into the spears of the waiting English. As soon as you accept that government is the solution then you will NEVER spend enough on the NHS, or the OAPs, or the unemployed, or the whole galaxy of issues.
Perhaps we should rather talk about what happens in the private sphere nearly as much as we talk about the government sphere. I think then we’d all be better off, and those lefties would look like the small minded fools they actually are.