The Left Wing is a Cult

Submitted by Art Altman (United States), Jul 16, 2002 at 13:08

This article captures the differences between Europe and United States, but there is another dyamic going on that we need to consider. I have observed the anti-Israel movement, the anti-capitalist movements in the United States, particularly in Northern California and I've become convinced that they are in effect a cult. They use all the tactics - group pressure, stridency, extremely selective presentation of information, strong adjectives whose utilization are really not appropropriate, extended speeches to "train" followers, etc.

This probably applies to the Left Wing movement in Europe and elsewhere as well. There is a stridency and narrowmindedness and tendency to utilize the same language that suggests this is more than just a set of political opinions.

I am very concerned about this. Not sure how to handle it. How do you "deprogram" such a collection of individuals?

Art

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".