In psychology, as many of you know, there is a term called "projection". It refers to the tendency of some people to "project" their own insecurities or feelings onto others.
People who are judgmental, for instance, may be constantly lamenting the judgmentalism of others. It is a well-known phenomenon, and I think it is of supreme interest these days.
Those of us who believe in Liberty, free association, free-market capitalism, and smaller government have been labeled recently as "Nazis".
At first, I took these comments exactly as they were intended. I presumed that those who used these epithets to describe people like me were simply meaning to be offensive. I took the bait. I was offended.
Then over the last couple of days, something started to occur to me. I think it will be of interest to you too.
Who exactly were the Nazis, anyway? The word "Nazi" is a shortened version of the name of a small German political party in the early 20th century. The full name of this party in English is the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Notice anything? Yes. The Nazis were Socialists.
What did the Nazis believe in? Their main goal was to create a totalitarian state, a state in which the government was all-powerful. Hmmm. This doesn't really sound much like me. I want the government to be LESS powerful. Let's move on.
The Nazis advocated a so-called "middle way" between capitalism and communism, which has been called "corporatism". I'm a free-market capitalist. This doesn't sound much like me either. Interesting.
The Nazis also detested the development of international market capitalism, and denounced it often. Again, this sounds very unlike what I believe in.
The Nazis identified people with whom they disagreed and sought to silence them. I am an advocate for complete freedom of speech. The Nazis demonized the German religious communities. I believe in complete freedom of religion.
Finally, and most troublingly, the Nazis used unemployed people and lower-wage workers as thugs to intimidate and assault those who disagreed with Hitler and who tried to disagree with him publicly. This group were called the SA or "brownshirts". Yet again, I would hardly think of myself as someone who would organize blue-collar workers and jobless malcontents to intimidate my political opponents.
But it seems to me that I have noticed some of these characteristics in the ideology of some people. Let's review:
1. Socialists
2. Advocates of larger, more powerful, more intrusive central government
3. Opponents of free markets
4. Opponents of free speech
5. Opponents of free exercise of religion
6. Organizers of unemployed people and low-wage workers, encouraging them to silence opposition.
No, this doesn't really sound like us at all. But it does sound suspiciously like them.
They advocate socialism.
They are pushing for more powerful and intrusive central government.
They are the ones constantly talking about how the "out-of-control free market" caused all our current problems.
They oppose free speech through their "hate speech" laws and harrassment of opponents (Joe the Plumber).
They are the ones who are anti-religious, constantly pushing to place secular humanism and social engineering propaganda into our childrens' textbooks.
And finally, they are the ones using the unemployed (ACORN) and low-wage workers (SEIU, UAW, etc.) to indimidate their opponents into submissive silence.
One should be careful when labeling others, I think. One might be accused of simply projecting.
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