The Outcast

Political nonsensicalism in the Brave New World

As a left-winger, I find myself in a strange place these days, aligned with people I considered my idealogical enemy just a few years ago. My core values have not changed, but when I look around this virtual realm I’m more likely to see a Trumper or a Brexiteer. I feel as though I have been largely abandoned by the left. I am an outcast. How such a thing could happen has bewildered me for quite some time. But after some careful introspection, I understand it now.

I was never really left-wing, I was anti-establishment, a role the left played for some time. But the left hasn’t been anti-establishment for a long time. The only difference between right and left these days is the degrees by which they want to screw the general population.

Most of my “left-wing” beliefs have been embraced by right-wing governments, at some point, all over the world. I believe in the socialization of certain services like healthcare, something I consider to be a human right. Although I’m also not opposed to the existence of private healthcare. I’m collectivist in that I believe that society should take care of the less fortunate. I believe in higher taxes for the rich. I believe in free education and access to private education. There is a lot that governments can do to improve the lives of citizens.

I believe in strong regulation for sectors that have a huge influence and impact on society, like banking, and leave the little guy alone. I believe in gay rights because all men are equal under the sun, and my thoughts on that are not going to be dictated by religion. I believe in trade unions because…power to the fucking people.

But when we get down to brass tacks, none of these views are really hard leftist. Some are progressive sure but guess what, the human race is progressing. If you identify as being on the right, I doubt we’d have much argument about any of these views. The partisan divide generally descends when we get into the minutiae.

What the last two years have revealed is that none of that is central to our core identity. It’s all fluff and well-meaning ideas. And it seems the human race has been whittled down into two groups of core identities. One is based on individual liberty, human dignity, and freedom of expression. And the other is based on safety, security, collectivism, and conformity.

Your politics can be right or left and you can belong in either of these core identity groups. But traditionally, right-wing politics has its roots in the first group and left-wing politics has its roots in the second. It’s easy to see why the average “anti-vaxxer” leans right but why then do I, as a left-winger, find myself aligned with anti-vax views? The answer is simple. The issue of vaccines, vaccine mandates, and vaccine passports transcends politics and cuts right down to our core identity.

The major issue we face is that most people don’t even know what their core identity is. Their core identity has been shaped by parents, education, and environment usually very early in life. Their core identities are, for the most part, inherited. Just as most Christians grow up to be Christian and most Muslims grow up to be Muslim. Politics works in the same way. Most people just accept inherited beliefs as their reality, as their identity, and have never questioned it. When I was around 14 years old I questioned all my inherited beliefs and at the end of that process, I had discarded quite a few. But left-wing political ideology made sense to a compassionate and empathetic teenager and remained intact.

If more people were to actually take a few minutes and think deeply about the issue of vaccines and mandates I think we’d have a lot more people on our side. Unfortunately, thinking on this level is beyond most people, distracted as they are with navigating life.

How can I call myself left-wing when left-wing governments all over the world are starting to give off a very authoritarian odour? Don’t get me wrong, right-wing and centrist governments are heading down the same path but some of the most egregious offenders are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, and Italy. Germany has leaned right under Merkel’s rule but it was the new chancellor, Olay Scholz from the lefty SPD, that laid out the plan for mandatory vaccinations.

So I’ve decided I need to drop my decades of political baggage. There is no left-wing or right-wing anymore. There is Establishment and nothing else. If a political ideology does not have as its foundations the basic principles of individual liberty, human dignity, and freedom of expression, then I’m out. I’m a political atheist. And if those are the values of your core identity you’re a political atheist too, you just haven’t realized it yet. I give you the UK as an example. Boris Johnson, prime minister of the conservative government, announces a lockdown and the response from the opposition, Labour’s Keir Starmer, is that he didn’t lockdown fast enough. Boris Johnson announces “Plan B” which includes the roll-out of vaccine passports and Keir Starmer’s only response, yet again, is that this infringement of individual liberty wasn’t rolled out fast enough.

And according to “leftist” counterculture warriors like The Guardian’s George Monbiot, because I have experienced this moment of clarity, I have been lured over to the right.

No, George, it’s shocking to see that left-wingers are so happy to eat this steaming pile of dog shit that passes for left-wing politics these days. Which “conspiracy theory” is he referring to? That vaccines cause injuries? That vaccine passports will be rolled out? That vaccines will be compulsory? All my left-wing beliefs are still there, but because I don’t want to take one experimental gene therapy posing as a vaccine, I’m not just right-wing, I’m far-right. It’s actually frightening to think of the level of psychological damage that needs to be inflicted to be able to contort logic into a mental pretzel like that.

I actually think George Monbiot is a decent journalist. One of a few left at a Gates-funded rag that is only a shadow of its former self. He is often a lone voice warning of the encroaching police state in the UK and Boris Johnson’s slow march to autocracy. But when it comes to the pandemic, vaccines, and vaccine passports, he just can’t see it. Of course, he can’t see it. He’s lives in the media forest so it’s very difficult to see the wood for trees. He’s also sure to be vaccinated so it’s not like any of his freedoms are being curtailed. Also:

In his piece, George Monbiot states:

In the countercultural movements…people are dropping like flies.

It’s clear he means this literally, with all the unvaxxed getting covid, but I also want to stress this applies in a figurative sense too. People like myself are done with counterculture. We’re out. If your movement embraces the culture of mass vaccination and discrimination, you are no longer counterculture. These people don’t even understand they are fighting the wrong fight. Oh, the government is trying to gain even more power? No shit, that’s what they do. You may decry it but by supporting the current pandemic narrative you idiots in the media are acting as enablers.

While these traditional counterculturalists play petty party politics humanity is being subjected to a vicious attack. It’s an attack that I’m now sure will result in society tearing itself to pieces as it’s clear that we are headed towards mandatory vaccinations. And those that hold dear the values of individual liberty, human dignity, and freedom of expression will not go gentle into that good night without a fight. And in this fight, if I look over my shoulder and see Trumpers, Brexiteers, and any on the right, I will gladly accept these strange bedfellows, these brothers-in-arms. Until that time comes to pass, I discard these antiquated notions of “leftism” and “counterculture”.

Welcome to the CounterNarrative. See you on the battlefield.

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