For the following article, adapted from the 1995 essay Industrial Society and its Future, the terms ‘leftist’ and ‘leftism’ can be better understood/defined today as ‘Social Justice activist’ and ‘the Social Justice Movement’. While their aims (equality, social justice) are obviously noble and aligned with our own, the psychology and actions which that psychology produces (vindictive antagonism; boisterous, self-obsessed, hostile agitation) are clearly so problematic, ineffective, and destructive to such an overwhelming extent that they have utterly destroyed the credibility of the Left and any viability of an attractive leftist future. Thus, the need for Unism.
Note: if anything herein seems too harsh on or judgmental of leftists/Liberals (read: social justice activists), it is possible you are exactly whom this essay is addressing, and while it may already be too late for you (to revise your ideologies/consider yourself tolerant of ideas which do not conform with your own), we have added an afterword which addresses this sensitivity. We do not mean to antagonize, pass judgement on, or hold any malice against leftists – yet due to the nature of the malady (feelings of inferiority/persecution complex), any critique on or deconstruction thereof will likely be conceived of as such.. All we can do is reassure you that Unism is concerned with the prosperity and security of everyone, values equity even more than equality, and accepts all those who treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.
Feelings of Inferiority: “Self-Hatred is a Leftist Trait”
The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call “feelings of inferiority” and “over-socialization.” Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while over-socialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.
By “feelings of inferiority,” we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strict sense, but a whole spectrum of related traits; low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, etc. We argue that modern leftists tend to have some such feelings (possibly more or less repressed) and that these feelings are decisive in determining the direction of modern leftism.
When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities and about anything that is said concerning minorities. The terms “negro,” “oriental,” “handicapped” or “chick” for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. “Broad” and “chick” were merely the feminine equivalents of “guy,” “dude” or “fellow.” The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word “pet” and insist on its replacement by “animal companion.” Leftish anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the word “primitive” with “non-literate.” They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)
Those who are most sensitive about “politically incorrect” terminology are not the average inner-city black person, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any “oppressed” group, but come instead from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual white males from middle- to upper-middle-class families.
Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), outcast (homosexuals) or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women, Indians, homosexuals ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology.)
Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. But the reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he BEGRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus, it is clear that these faults are not the leftist’s real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West because they are strong and successful. Why? Because the leftist cannot see these traits of strength and success in him/herself.
The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart, an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself: he has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself. (Ed note: i.e.: attaching themselves to the Social Justice movement, militant feminist movements, joining the Democrats, and to a different extent BLM: Again, all acceptable ends and intentions, yet all are spoiled by the unjustifiable means and the leftist psychology)
Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or racists to abuse them, etc. (Ed. note: again, this was written in 1995, oh how little has changed!) These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they PREFER masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.
Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion, or by moral principles, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the over-socialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so too is the drive for power.
Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously, it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach, because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so, they actually harm black people, because the activists’ hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify race hatred.
If our society had no social problems at all, leftists would have to INVENT problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.
We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism.
Thoughts? Responses? Contact us on twitter @TheUnists
While this may seem a harsh, searing indictment of leftism and the Social Justice movement, we feel it is wholly warranted: in the vacuum created by the failure of Republicans to hold any sway with all younger generations (rightly so), leftism and the corporate Democrats who pose as leftists have become a catch-all party for every young person seeking to not be labeled a racist (wrongly so). In this absence of any viable alternative (in that Greens and Libertarians are not large enough movements to attract those seeking to ‘belong’ and be a part of a winning side), Liberals have indoctrinated entire generations by default – because by the time they reach college, no minority, or any person wholly sympathetic to or aligned with minorities (i.e. the overwhelming majority of Americans today) would chose to be a Republican, save for those select few due to strong religious convictions.
Therefore, at such an impressionable, moldable age, these (usually white but Always upper/upper-middle class) university professors gladly espouse their views, their version of the world, as informed by their own self-hatred, as though it were the key to understanding everything more clearly. But instead of allowing students to understand everything more clearly, this social justice conditioning in fact blinds them to the multitude of perspectives and reasonings one must acknowledge and account for in order to create and maintain balance in our society, in favor of their simple, all-encompassing perspective which holds that cisgender white males are all actively (and passively) oppressing the world and loving it – so you’ll have to aggressively denounce and depose them at every opportunity if you ever wish to be happy. This toxic brainwashing, while hopefully well-intentioned (achieving equality, social justice) damns all of its followers to the same self-loathing and hatred that proliferated it and delivered it to them. We should know: many of us original Unists were adamant SJW’s ourselves.
But there is a way out, a way beyond the ideologies we were enslaved to.
We’ll see you in the circle…
The Unists 