By Selwyn Duke

Interestingly, the very first “leftist” revolution provided the very first case of a leftist revolution eating its own. That is, Maximilien Robespierre, the French Revolution’s main author, was opposed to the death penalty while seeking power.

He then wantonly killed opponents upon attaining it — and finally began murdering former allies.

(He then was executed himself by other comrades who feared they were also on his hit list.)

And thus has it been ever since with leftist movements. You can never be pure enough for the cause without “drinking the Kool-Aid” — including when that brew’s ingredients suddenly change.

Comedians/commentators Bill Maher and Adam Carolla have learned this through experience. Oh, no one is trying to kill them (yet). But on a Monday episode of Maher’s Club Random podcast, the pair lamented how you are already dead to the Left — if you don’t imbibe their latest dogma wholesale.

Citing themselves as examples, they pointed out that they’re quite socially liberal and libertine. Yet leftists nonetheless may dismiss them as ostracism-worthy “conservatives.” Maher also said that despite these inquisitors’ superciliousness and seeming self-assuredness, “they’re not that bright.”

When You’ve Lost Maher…

The Daily Caller reports on the Club Random exchange, writing:

Maher and Carolla, who both live in the Los Angeles area, are not religious and support abortion and smoking marijuana. Yet they lamented on the podcast that the left had cast them out and treated them as conservatives.

“It’s so hard to not be on one of the extremes, to not have a team. I mean, it just really sucks. And especially in this town where everyone’s on one team … They are very exclusionary,” Maher said. “They really just don’t want to breathe the same air if you’re not exactly with the groupthink, while they’re not that bright.”

Illustrating the coerced conformity, Maher mentioned how he had to take a Covid shot against his will. He wouldn’t otherwise have been allowed to do his show.

Providing more details on the discussion, Mediaite informs:

“Listen, I don’t own a gun, I’m not religious at all, I’m for abortion and pot smoking, how right-[wing] can I be?” Carolla marveled.

Maher said he has run into the same problem, where he has been shunned by his fellow liberals for having non-woke takes. And he said the same goes for CBS News boss Bari Weiss. Maher said only a few years ago that liberals would have viewed Weiss as being on their team for being a lesbian and Jewish — but that’s not good enough anymore.

“We need no further credentials to let you know that we are certainly not conservatives, we’re not right-wingers, we’re not whatever you think,” Maher said about himself and Weiss. “And yet, it’s never enough for them. It’s never enough.”

He continued, “We’re just not willing to go along with your insanity. That doesn’t make us conservatives.”

Perhaps not. Or does it?

What Are You “Conserving”?

There’s a confusion over concepts here. “Conservatism” and “liberalism” don’t relate to any fixed set of beliefs. Rather, each label reflects different beliefs in different times and places. For example, late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was described as “right-wing” or “conservative” after his 2008 assassination. Yet he was a homosexual who was pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “rights,” and socially liberal in general. He was “conservative,” however, in a Western European sense.

The reality: “Conservatism” and “liberalism” aren’t ideologies as much as processes. The latter is the process of ever trying to change the status quo. Conservatism is the process of trying to maintain it.

Now consider that today’s status quo was influenced by yesterday’s change agents, that time’s liberals. So upon being accepted and normalized, yesterday’s liberalism becomes today’s conservatism. Thus do yesterday’s liberals, such as Maher, become today’s conservatives; i.e., defenders of our time’s older-liberalism-born status quo. (And thus do yesterday’s conservatives become today’s “radicals” — sometimes just for being radically right.)

The point: The above explains how today’s in-fashion leftists could, in all seriousness, consider Maher conservative.

Whence the Intolerance?

As to Maher’s complaint, what breeds the left-wing intolerance he bemoans? Immaturity, or childishness, comes to mind. Children, after all, have relatively poor ability to abide perceived negatives. This is why teens may be so dogmatic and intolerant when first developing intense ideological passions.

Situationally proper tolerance is developed through the cultivation of virtue. Particularly relevant here are the virtues of Charity, Justice, Temperance, Prudence, Patience, Kindness, Forgiveness, Humility, and Love.

Many have noted this liberal juvenility, too, such as late commentator P.J. O’Rourke. Liberals are essentially “spoiled” children, he wrote. They are “miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, [and] despotic….”

In other words, everyone grows old — but not everyone grows up. Yet more can be said.

The G Factor

It’s well established that leftists tend to be either declared or de facto atheists. In contrast, conservatives are generally more God-oriented. (Thus is church attendance an excellent predictor of voting patterns.) This can make all the difference.

Just consider the traditional Christian perspective. The Christian will view the leftist’s beliefs as sinful and the person as a sinner. But his faith instructs that we’re to hate only the sin while loving the sinner. It also teaches him that he, too, is a sinner, and if he’s introspective, he well recognizes his past trespasses.

This forestalls any supercilious, holier-than-thou attitude. For the Christian cannot look down on his fellow man while looking up at God. He sees God looking down on them all, too, though not with contempt, but with the love of a much taller father gazing upon his little children.

So the Christian certainly sees his fellows’ trespasses — more clearly than anyone else. But he looks horizontally at his fellow man, knowing we’re all in this sinful earthly scrum together. We all fall short of God, who is perfection itself.

The View From the Ivory Tower Illusion

The godless, however, can have a very different perspective. Not using God’s law, Truth, as their moral yardstick, they often become their own source for what they call their “values.” These are, too, generally just a reflection of their own wants, desires, affections, and addictions — of their own emotional foundation. And they then may see themselves as morally perfect.

For how can you be out of conformity with yourself? It’s a form of self-deification.

Virtually no one else, however, will conform to your values precisely because they’re not you. Your values reflect your preferences, in this case, and people’s preferences vary.

So what does the godless leftist often see? He looks down on a world of troublesome, evil beings bereft of enough brainpower to do his will. The world would be downright heavenly, you see, if those benighted humans just had his sense and goodness. They are contemptible.

There’s certainly even more to it, but that’s enough to chew on for now. But the short version is this:

Self-deified leftists too often hate you — and many would kill you if they could. You are, to them, life unworthy of life.

For those interested, the aforementioned Club Random episode is below.

This article was originally published at The New American.