Being a Leftist is a Mental Health Issue! By James Reed
Anyone who has much to do with Leftists, must have noticed that they seem to all be mentally unsound. That common observation is in fact backed by psychological research, as difficult as it must be to get it published given the stranglehold the Left now has on academia and its journals. But, a recent paper in the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychology (abstract below) has uncovered that Leftism is linked to psychopathic tendencies and narcissism. That is extremely plausible, since authoritarian personalities, typically found in the Left, are narcissistic, which is needed to put their agendas into action. According to authors Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams, this Leftist narcissism, which they call the “dark-ego-vehicle principle,” is the real motivating force of Leftism: “According to this principle, individuals with dark personalities — such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits — are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism which they can use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality.” All the ranting about social justice and the like is just that, ranting. It is not serious, but is simply something of convenience to “provide them with opportunities for positive self-presentation and displays of moral superiority, to gain social status, to dominate others, and to engage in social conflicts and aggression to satisfy their need for thrill seeking.”
In short, Leftism is all about the will to power, today in the West, done by psychological manipulation, while in the past, it was done as old Mao said, down the barrel of a gun.
“How did they ever get this through? Our nation’s colleges and universities today are radioactive wastelands of far-Left indoctrination. Demonization and defamation of patriots and others who tell truths about issues Leftists cover with lies is common to the point of being routine and taken for granted. A central element of this propaganda is bogus psychoanalysis purporting to show that to stand for freedom and love America is a clear sign of derangement, while believing that men can become women and that socialism is a viable political system are healthy indications of sanity. In that atmosphere, it’s astounding that this academic study was published at all. But it was, and it shows the truth: Leftism is driving people nuts. Literally.
The Left has been weaponizing psychology against patriots for decades. As far back as 1964, a magazine that called itself Fact but was actually unacquainted with anything deserving of the name published a cover story entitled “1,189 Psychiatrists Say Goldwater is Psychologically Unfit To Be President!” Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater sued for libel and won, as none of the psychiatrists involved in the article had ever actually met him; they were all diagnosing him from a distance based on their political proclivities. This new study of the psychology of Leftism, however, is nothing like such political manipulation and hackery; it’s a genuine examination of the effect that Leftism has on a healthy mind.
The New York Post reported Thursday that “Left-wing extremism is linked to toxic, psychopathic tendencies and narcissism, according to a new study published to the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychology.” Anyone on the Right could have told you that after even the most cursory contact with Leftists, but its confirmation in an academic study is a major surprise. The study’s authors state: “Based on existing research, we expected individuals with higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism to also report higher levels of narcissism.” Of course. What else is it but narcissism to think that one is sufficiently knowledgeable and wise to dictate to others how they live, and control their choices so that they do not stray beyond what the Leftist authoritarians consider to be acceptable bounds?
Study authors Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams call this Leftist narcissism the “dark-ego-vehicle principle” and explain: “According to this principle, individuals with dark personalities — such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits — are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism which they can use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality.” What? You mean Leftists aren’t really interested in social justice and equality at all, but simply use such rhetoric to fool the uninformed, while actually pursuing their own “ego-focused needs”? Of course. Any examination of the Soviet Union or any other Marxist state, with its wealthy elites proclaiming themselves the vanguard of the proletariat and living high on the backs of the poor while proclaiming themselves their saviors from economic injustice, makes that abundantly clear.
The study adds that “certain forms of activism might provide them with opportunities for positive self-presentation and displays of moral superiority, to gain social status, to dominate others, and to engage in social conflicts and aggression to satisfy their need for thrill seeking.” Right, that’s an academic way to say that Leftists love to engage in hypocritical virtue-signaling in order to manipulate others.
And the hypocrisy is indeed heavy: “Social justice is often used as a guise for these activists to behave unhinged, the research noted.” What’s more, a Leftist activist “might declare anyone to be ‘old fashioned’ who is opposing their own ‘progressive values,’ strive to suppress free speech to regulate the expression of right-wing beliefs in educational institutions, and even endorse the use of violence to reach their own political goals.” Of course. Because they think they know better, and must impose their superior knowledge upon the racist, redneck, right-wing yahoos who have the temerity to resist their wisdom and prefer their own stupidity.
This study doesn’t tell patriots anything they didn’t know already, but it is remarkable for its singularity, and for the very fact that it exists, and was able to be published in today’s academic environment. It could conceivably even represent a crack in the edifice, and evidence that the kneejerk Leftism that dominates American academia is finally beginning to recede. But for that, we’ll have to see how many years it will be before a similar study is published.”
“Narcissistic individuals and those with psychopathic tendencies are more likely to strongly endorse left-wing antihierarchical aggression, according to new research published in Current Psychology. Antihierarchical aggression refers to a specific type of hostility aimed at challenging or opposing hierarchical power structures or authority figures. The new findings shed light on psychological mechanisms that motivate some individuals to participate in violent political activism.
The majority of research on authoritarianism has focused on individuals with right-wing political ideologies. This focus has resulted in a gap in understanding authoritarianism among individuals who support left-wing political ideologies, which the authors behind the new work sought to address.
“We were interested in the psychological factors behind authoritarianism,” explained study authors Ann Krispenz, a postdoctoral associate, and Alex Bertrams, the head of the Educational Psychology Lab at the University of Bern. “There is a wide range of literature and research in the field of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). However, research on authoritarianism observed in individuals who are supportive of left-wing political ideologies are still rare.”
“By many researchers, the notion of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) is even been met with skepticism. Thus, we wanted to investigate LWA and its personality correlates using a recently published measure for LWA by Costello and colleagues (2022).”
Costello and colleagues conceptualized LWA as a tripartite construct consisting of three correlated dimensions: anticonventionalism, top-down censorship, and antihierarchical aggression.
“Authoritarianism can be found on both sides of the political spectrum,” Krispenz and Bertrams said. “Indicators of authoritarianism on the political left are anticonventionalism (i.e., the absolute endorsement of progressive moral values), top-down censorship (i.e., the preference for the use of governmental and institutional authority to suppress any speech that is considered as offensive and intolerant), and antihierarchical aggression (i.e., the motivation to use force and aggression to overthrow established hierarchies).”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-04463-x
Abstract
In two pre-registered studies, we investigated the relationship of left-wing authoritarianism with the ego-focused trait of narcissism. Based on existing research, we expected individuals with higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism to also report higher levels of narcissism. Further, as individuals with leftist political attitudes can be assumed to be striving for social equality, we expected left-wing authoritarianism to also be positively related to prosocial traits, but narcissism to remain a significant predictor of left-wing authoritarianism above and beyond those prosocial dispositions. We investigated our hypotheses in two studies using cross-sectional correlational designs. Two nearly representative US samples (Study 1: N = 391; Study 2: N = 377) completed online measures of left-wing authoritarianism, the Dark Triad personality traits, and two variables with a prosocial focus (i.e., altruism and social justice commitment). In addition, we assessed relevant covariates (i.e., age, gender, socially desirable responding, and virtue signaling). The results of multiple regression analyses showed that a strong ideological view, according to which a violent revolution against existing societal structures is legitimate (i.e., anti-hierarchical aggression), was associated with antagonistic narcissism (Study 1) and psychopathy (Study 2). However, neither dispositional altruism nor social justice commitment was related to left-wing anti-hierarchical aggression. Considering these results, we assume that some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs. We discuss these results in relation to the dark-ego-vehicle principle.”
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