No Monopoly on Hate

Here’s a NYT op-ed on the report from the Department of Homeland Security that ring-wing groups, including veterans, constitute an emerging threat to national security.  His main argument:

[The conservative] argument seeks to suppress and subjugate two rather unfortunate facts: while only a tiny number of conservatives and veterans are members of hate groups, nearly all hate groups do indeed follow far-right ideology. And they covet members with military experience.

His first presumption is absolutely false.  The far right wing does not have a monopoly on hate (see the left wing during presidency of Bush, George W. as exhibit A and the left wing during the candidacy of Palin, Sarah as exhibit B.). This presupposes that:

1. Communism, the extreme left, is intrinsically benevolent, and;
   
2. Fascism (supposedly the extreme right) and communism (the extreme left) are polar opposites.

History has adequately disproven the first point.  However, the second has not received enough attention and still leads to much confusion/disinformation.  The idea that communism and fascism are polar opposites was a lie perpetrated by the Soviets when they were competing (politically) with Hitler in the 1930s, made all the more intense when Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941.  How best to get the sons of the fatherland to fight then to paint the enemy as enemies of the revolution.

Communism and fascism (along with Social Democracy) are all members of the Left.  In the case of the more extreme versions (fascism and communism), they use the same tactics to similar results, albeit for different goals.  In the case of communism, all human action, economic, religious or political, is subjugated to the authority of the revolution.  In the case of fascism, most human action is subjugated to the authority of the “master” race or the desired national empire (eg. the Third Reich, the New Roman Empire or Imperial Japan).  The modern fascism embodied by radical Muslims is still a part of the extreme left wing as it wants to subjugate all human action to the authority of Sharia Law and usher in the worldwide caliphate. Tell me, what’s the difference between that and communism?  Both are political-religious-economic worldviews intent on worldwide subjugation.  Perhaps the Iranians and terrorists worldwide are more worried about producing moral behavior in the end, but that was a large part of Communism as well (thus homosexuals and other moral undesirables were routinely executed).

The extreme right-wing is not fascism, but anarchy – which also produces lots of hate – where the state has absolutely no control over the individual.  The extreme left-wing is communism or authoritarianism where the state has absolute control over the individual.  There’s certainly plenty of hate to go around on all sides of the political spectrum.  It’s quite obvious which side the New York Times is on when it believes that hate is only espoused on the Right.

(Note:  The left-wing/right-wing debate isn’t exactly ideal to begin with because it relies on the linear political spectrum, which is somewhat inaccurate.  More reflective of reality is the political quadrant, explained here.)