10 Commandments for Talking with Leftists

I made the mistake of engaging in a longer conversation in which my interlocutor spoke in a way that one would (in the modern sense of the word) probably call left.

Naturally, it was fruitless.

Naturally, it was (for me) painful.

Naturally, he was probably satisfied with himself in the end, while I later tossed and turned sleeplessly, as perplexed as I was helpless.

From conversations with you, dear readers, I know that you’ve had similar experiences. It’s frustrating at first because it drains your valuable time and energy without result, but that’s the least of it.

You feel angry and helpless when leftist thinking not only talks nonsense but acts likewise—and then, predictably, inflicts damage that is as painful as it is unnecessary.

It sometimes robs me of hope for humanity as a whole. How are we supposed to stand against artificial intelligence and foreign powers when a frightening number of us think so lamentably stupidly?

But I cannot and will not leave it at lament and pain. I want to do my job. Loosely following Immanuel Kant: Always write in such a way that you derive from your reaction to your pain a rulebook valid for the general public!

So here are, born of my helpless pain and yet another sleepless night, my 10 Commandments for Talking with Leftists.

First Commandment

You shall not rely on logic.

The rational person, trained in sound thinking, examines the premises and the factual situation. He applies tried and tested logic to arrive at a conclusion that produces new insight into reality.

For the rational person, facts and logical principles are fixed. It is the outcome of the debate that must be flexible. That’s why we debate in the first place: to gain new insights!

For the leftist, it’s the other way around. The outcome is given for him. The facts and the logic that supposedly lead to this outcome are arbitrary and flexible. (It’s similar in ideologies: the outcome is fixed, and one constructs the logic and facts to fit. That’s why leftists are so susceptible to ideologies.)

If there were a room set up specifically for debating leftists, the sign over the entrance would read: Abandon all hope, you who would debate with leftists, of reaching the goal by means of logic.

Second Commandment

You shall not hope that reason will defeat emotion.

In attempting a conversation with leftists, you will find that your logical, reality-based argumentation is interrupted by outbursts of emotion. Of course, this is a tactic for the leftist to feel like a “winner.” It’s like a pigeon landing on the chessboard in the park and knocking the pieces over, then feeling like a “winner.” But this detour away from logic toward emotion is also connected to deeper causes of being left!

Even the Bible warns that a certain type of person paradoxically 1) sees his own way as “straight” (while not listening to advice), yet 2) is quickly angered: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.” (Proverbs 12:15–16)

Leftism is related to the psychological disorder narcissism. Both often stem from wounds and/or inner insecurity, and both seek to build power, in part to compensate for their hurt and insecurity.

When the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk was arrested, leftists pointed out that he came from a stable conservative family. He couldn’t be a leftist, they said. In doing so, they revealed what they unconsciously know: Being left (in today’s sense of “left”) is a destructive reaction to emotional wounds and insecurity.

Someone who is wounded could turn for help to higher powers, i.e., to God. But whoever thinks himself wiser than God (see the sixth commandment) closes off this constructive option. It is no coincidence that the demonic and the left so often go hand in hand in action and demeanor.

Being pointed to logical contradictions makes the leftist fear that the aching wounds of his soul will be torn open further. Both the narcissist and the leftist retreat (sometimes “preemptively”) into power games and emotional thought-stoppers. The typical leftist fits of rage, defiance, or emotional theatrics are also attempts to gain a feeling of power and control bypassing logic and reason.

As a rational person, you might think (and doing so is one of my most persistent mistakes) that with more and more reason you will induce a change of mind in the leftist. You are gravely mistaken! With every further logical sentence, you probe deeper into the leftist wound, and the leftist will defend “his truth” all the more stubbornly.

Third Commandment

You shall not expect that contradiction will succeed.

For the sake of your own and the general psychological stability, it is necessary to contradict the leftist audibly. But that will not succeed in the leftist himself.

The leftist actually “argues” from a place of inner hurt and insecurity. The leftist’s inner wound is the true foundation of his “logic.” To contradict the leftist sounds to his ears as if you were saying: “Your wound is not a wound!”

You can present the leftist with any number of facts—he will just shrug, and his eyes will glaze over. Or he will tell you those facts are lies you invented for this purpose.

The leftist is projecting from himself onto you, likely unconsciously: Because he lies to himself and his surroundings to support his “personal truth,” he unconsciously assumes that you do the same.

The leftist must assume that anything becomes true and absolute solely because he believes and asserts it; any uncertainty regarding his worldview would remind him of his wound and rekindle his insecurity. Indeed, the leftist’s worldview is “stable” and even “self-immunizing” in this respect: “I know it’s true because I know it’s true.”

For a leftist, your contradiction is wrong precisely because you contradicted him. So you cannot expect your contradiction to be successful.

Yes, contradict the leftist! Contradict him loudly, clearly, and regularly. Do it for society. Do it to maintain your mental balance. But abandon the hope that you can convince the leftist.

Fourth Commandment

You shall not think that actual argumentation is taking place.

A leftist will sometimes talk with you, and it is “talking” in the sense that you both say things, sometimes taking turns and sometimes talking over each other.

But remember: For the leftist, the outcome of the conversation is predetermined. The motivation for his assumptions about the world and his ethical positions operates on a different level than yours.

“Experienced” leftists, when they threaten to lose a power game, will sometimes grit their teeth and pretend to consider or even apply your objection, but that is only a short-term power-game tactic.

The leftist may temporarily pretend to argue with you, may indeed exchange arguments, but in reality, he is merely waiting for you to wear yourself down and submit to his power plays.

If you think you’ve convinced a leftist, just wait a few days and then discuss again. You will soberly find how quickly and thoroughly he has abandoned temporary concessions to logic and reason.

Fifth Commandment

You shall not build on ethics.

In the book Relevant Structures I explain how human ethics really functions. In brief: A person evaluates as “good” (in the ethical sense) what strengthens a structure relevant to him, and as “evil” what weakens it.

You may, in ethical argumentation, appeal to the fact that this or that action demonstrably harms children or even drives the shared nation to ruin. You can even show the leftist that he is harming himself—in other words: you can appeal to tried-and-true, natural ethics. It will move him little.

The leftist has different relevant structures than you do. The leftist will frighteningly easily sacrifice children, general family structures, the country’s future, or even his own life. For the leftist is driven by entirely different motivators than you are. He is driven by the covering of his emotional wounds and insecurities, not by ethics. From this there sometimes results a lust for obedience and submission to authorities. And for that, too, he will willingly sacrifice himself and the next generation, as history shows.

You may assume that your counterpart in a debate respects logic and traditional ethical concepts, but you will be doubly wrong. A fruitful debate presupposes a shared foundation of values. But you build on reason and evolved ethics; the leftist “builds” on hiding his wounds and insecurities. On what foundations, then, should your common house stand?

Sixth Commandment

You shall not appeal to the conscience.

The human conscience, like physical pain, is an innate warning against the injury of relevant structures.

Physical pain warns when, for example, the skin or tooth enamel is breached and pests can enter. In the case of broken organs or various inflammations, pain is meant to make the sufferer stop all other activities and focus on these injuries.

Similarly, ideally, the conscience functions: If, for example, the well-being of the next generation or the survival of the people is endangered, the conscience should send a pain signal that forces the individual or the collective to avert this danger.

But in the leftist, his “conscience” is busy processing his own pain and his own inner insecurity.

Where the general conscience should actually be at work, including the “orders of love”, there sit wounds and insecurity, and the leftist is incessantly occupied with letting ever new crusts and hardenings proliferate around his insecurity.

In the leftist who is just “becoming a leftist,” this process can be observed live. Once the encrustation is complete, depending on the manifestation, you will encounter either a fully grown narcissist or a brainwashed subject.

If you speak to him about his conscience, the leftist will even name what his conscience supposedly tells him. But in truth, his conscience is long dead, and what speaks there is a wound hardened into a psychic tumor, a deep, unresolved insecurity.

This parasitic encrustation that has settled in the leftist in place of his conscience may even speak in ethical terms, for example when the leftist repeats familiar propaganda clichés about “tolerance” and “climate” and so on. But in reality, these phrases are merely symptoms of a hard crust around a festering inner wound.

So when you notice the leftist speaking of “conscience,” but in fact either speaking of his wounds or merely repeating clichés, remember the sixth commandment for talking with leftists: You shall not appeal to the conscience… for there is none.

Seventh Commandment

Know that the leftist considers himself wiser than God.

The traditional way to attain truth and ethical prudence consists of the interplay of an honest observation of the world and the application of proven methods of thinking to develop an adequate model. All that, however, is irrelevant to the leftist.

For the leftist, facts and ethics are merely means to achieve his true goals. But these are usually motivated by the leftist’s inner tornness.

It is a property of pain that your greatest current pain is often also the greatest pain you can imagine. Since a leftist derives “his” truth and ethics primarily from his pain, his insecurity, and his attempts to cover both, “his” truth and ethics will logically always appear to him maximally valid and thus absolute.

“I am the LORD your God,” so the real Ten Commandments begin, but the leftist’s true first commandment is: “I am my own god!”

A leftist must consider himself “wiser than God.” (This may also explain why leftists so often seem downright godless, whether they serve as civil servants, as office drones, or as bishops.)

But what greater folly could there be than to think oneself wiser than God? None.

Eighth Commandment

You shall know that language is a weapon to the leftist.

For the leftist, language serves a completely different purpose than it does for you. You want to increase truth, reduce error, and perhaps collectively negotiate a wiser ethic. The leftist wants to use language to establish his power; that is the purpose of logic and factual statements for him.

Language is first and foremost a weapon for the leftist. He will reinterpret terms again and again, yet pin you down to his interpretation of your terms, and he will use them to attack you.

The leftist will not submit to logic or facts, but will accuse you of logical errors and lies. Jürgen Habermas spoke of the “peculiarly uncoerced coercion of the better argument.” The leftist will seek to subject you to this coercion of language, yet you will soon find that he does not subject himself to it.

The mythical battle of arguments with a leftist is an asymmetric war—and you will finish it about as successfully as the USA finished the Vietnam War.

Ninth Commandment

You shall not waste your time.

Every second and every day in your life comes only once. Do not waste them! Even if you believe in eternal life, this life is a preparation for that one, and it is important not to let yourself be dragged into the abysses of the godless by fruitless exchanges of words.

The leftist pretends to be debating with you. In reality, “debating” with him is as little a real debate as the well-groomed missionaries you let into your living room are truly “discussing” theology with you. The leftist does not want to find new insights together with you in conversation. He wants to wear you down until you submit to a predetermined “outcome.” He wastes your time and strength. Your strength may return; your time will not.

Do not present facts where facts carry no weight. Do not appeal to logic where logic is not a standard. Do not appeal to conscience where conscience has been replaced by fears and insecurities.

Besiege them or give up and move on, just don’t argue. If realistically possible, break off contact with them in time. Above all, protect yourself against their delusion.

Live so that you can call your time holy, and then this applies: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine!” (Matthew 7:6)

You have only this one life on this earth—waste not another second from today! Not on debates with leftists, and not otherwise either.

Tenth Commandment

Stay human!

“Hurt people hurt,” as they say in English. Injured people injure.

You do not want leftists to drag you down into their self-created inner hell. Sacrificing yourself would achieve nothing. Their injury will not heal by subjugating you.

These people would have a way to heal their wounds and overcome their insecurity, but they choose another path.

It makes no practical difference for you and the rest of the world whether leftists are truly outright evil or “only” wounded and fearful. Are they stupid or evil? Does it make any difference at all? No, in effect it makes no difference, so our consequences should be similar.

The wounds and insecurities that trigger leftism are no excuse for the typically leftist emotional coldness.

The wounds and insecurities of the left do not oblige you to let yourself be dragged down into their abyss.

Stay human. Stay soft and vulnerable, instead of allowing yourself to be injured by them in such a way that you too become hard and cold.

Stay human. Listen to your conscience—the one that seeks the good of the world and not merely the protection of your fragile ego.

Stay human.

Two Loves

The Church Father Augustine writes: “Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.” (De civitate Dei XIV,28)

One need not be a believer to see that a mindset which makes the self the foundation and ultimate end of all thought and striving first causes much suffering and ultimately will perish.

Yes, orienting one’s striving toward the treatment of one’s own emotional wounds and insecurities is also a glorification of the self.

Yes, dressing up egomania in pseudo-ethical vocabulary remains egomania, just as a man in women’s clothing remains a man.

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools,” so Paul writes of such people.

Every person will be wounded and is then wounded. Every person sometimes feels insecure—how could it be otherwise? Especially today!

But whoever rejects the old order and cobbles together a new, homemade order for himself, whoever takes his own cognition for wisdom and the encrustations around his insecurity for a conscience, makes himself a servant of those powers that have made the world so frightening.

Whether you speak as a father or mother for your entire household, or whether “your house” consists only of yourself—say to the leftists: No, I will not let you drag me into your abyss.

And then with Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

(Heathens may substitute: “As for me and my house, we will remain decent people.”)