The Left’s Disdain for Businessmen
I recently had an interesting Twitter exchange with an editor named Max Fawcett.
I believe this specific engagement gives great insight into the mindset of the Left/NDP in Canada and it’s worth going over. It all started when Max tweeted the figure below with the comment “Friendly reminder: the UCP’s massive corporate tax cut was great for CEOs and shareholders. It was much less good for workers and other Albertans.”
Debating the merits of tax rates is fine, but I did not like the undertone of the tweet. I saw it as an attempt to drive a wedge between business owners and workers while trying to frame the economy as a zero-sum game with winners and losers. I shouldn’t have to say this, but considering the responses I got on Twitter I guess I have to, but CEOs and shareholders are people also, and individuals have rights. I decided to voice my concerns and replied “CEOs and business owners are Albertans too though, or should they have less rights than workers?”, Max then replied with “They are massively outnumbered by other Albertans, and our policies should reflect that reality(Exchange can be viewed here).” Pretty incredulous statement, what Max is implying is that in a democracy, the majority has the right to trample the rights of any minority that they don’t recognize as protected. Broadly speaking, the accepted protected minorities are Blacks, Asians, Indians, Native Americans and immigrants in general among others. If you don’t belong to one of the accepted minorities, then discrimination against you is fine in their eyes. Business owners “are massively outnumbered” according to Max, and so the dictionary tells us they are a minority. But Max and his socialist followers do not agree; since business owners do not belong to a group of minorities they feel deem protection, they don’t get minority status. They are merely individuals; hence it’s fine to trample on their rights. I pointed this flawed reasoning out to Max, and his response was to screenshot our conversation and make a tweet out of it. That’s when the hilarity really ensued and all his supporters started piling on what I said.
But examine the thread for yourself. Over sixty comments and not one of Max’s supporters attempted to discredit what I said with an actual argument. They all resorted to personal attacks. I believe there are several reasons for this. First, the members of the Left/NDP in Canada are increasingly viewing themselves as better people than the ones they disagree with and quickly label them as Conservatives. If they are better people, then there is nothing wrong with putting down people they disagree with, they are not worthy of basic respect and decency in their eyes. This tendency of the Left is one that is increasing rapidly, and it spells trouble. In the US it’s increasing tensions to such a level that the prospect of a civil war does not seem as absurd as it might have seemed just ten years ago.
Second, is cognitive dissonance.On one hand these socialists view themselves as protectors of all minorities, but then on the other they are also driven by envy and wish to confiscate ever more property from people they feel are exploiting others such as CEOs and business owners. There is a contradiction here though, you can’t simply just keep taking more property from people just because you don’t like them, that’s not protecting all minorities. Obviously socialists don’t want this contradiction exposed. They are the kind and just ones after all, and exposing their envy does not sit well. When the core beliefs that help define the identity of people are challenged, rather than examine the criticisms and react in a logical manner, most instead choose to go on the attack. This response is much easier than any introspection that is required about who you are. This reaction is natural and most people answer this way; we all believe we are just, good, and honest people and when somebody challenges this we respond emotionally. Conservatives are not immune from this phenomenon, unfortunately it makes political discussions rather difficult.
I’m astounded really at how much ground the Left in Canada has gained, I always suspected that most members of the Left/NDP don’t really have much respect for the individual rights of business owners. They view them as exploiters and hence there isn’t really much wrong you can do to them that they don’t deserve. But they were always careful to keep this disdain hidden; however, it now seems acceptable for influential voices like Max to proclaim his disdain out in the open. I would like to imagine that not even ten years ago it would have been impossible for anyone to suggest you can trample the rights of business owners merely because they are business owners. All this highlights the perilous situation Alberta is in, the fact that a socialist party like the NDP can get so close to power is an ominous sign. It means socialists are winning the long-term battle.