The Pretentious left versus the alt right

I look at this statement and blindly think we could solve all our problems if we could remove these groups from American discourse. And of course, that is ignorant madness.

Both groups are made up of a core that are definable, yet they also cross over into the mainstream side of liberal and conservative body politic.

And the left also has another definable group that sometimes aligns with the pretentious left and is sometimes on its own. Progressives, as a stand-alone group, are becoming a stronger movement within the left.

So, what gives here. Is this a real battle for control of our country? Or do we have just another ideological battle of two sides. You ask either side and you will get a resounding the other side is the problem, they are clueless and are destroying American. The fight is real. How much of it is ideological and how much of it is a power struggle is the question. And it is both. And right now, the alt right is winning.

The alt right has been working harder than the pretentious left. The pretentious left tends to believe since they know everything, everyone should fall in line and go along to get along.  Their attitude towards many Americans turns these people off. It does not matter if they are right or wrong, what has come about, is people do not like being looked down upon.

There has and will be an “intellectual royalty”. A group that separates itself from the masses and holds their ideals above them. This by itself, is not a danger. Humanity needs someone to push envelopes; to take us further in our evolution as humans intellectually, culturally, scientifically, societally; yet we cannot fall into the backseat behind them. It creates mistrust and educational divides that hurt the whole of society. And this intellectual royalty needs to stay engaged with the people. Unfortunately for the general liberal this separation is causing a huge backlash and push back from the middle. This helped led to the current rise of the alt right.

The alt right plays on the anger of a disaffected group of people. And when you throw in a growing wealth gap, deteriorating education levels, mistrust of institutions, angst towards the pretentious left, then this turns into a God send for the alt right to capture the emotions of the middle or some of it and move their cause forward.

The alt right and the pretentious left have always been a negative counter balance to each other. In its ugliest form, we have right wing dictator ships. In its mildest form, we have ultra-nationalists on the outside looking to find a door way into the public discourse to spout their hate. Out of some aspects of the pretentious left, socialism and communism as philosophies were developed. In practice, they became dictatorships.

Currently the United States and Europe is seeing the rise of the alt right. They found their doorway and with social media have found new ways to engage the disaffected majority of countries. Again, the wealth gap, education gap etc… gives them the avenues to continue their march. This march does not bode well for the evolution of humanity. Yet, the pretentious left does not have a strong counter balance. Their credibility is on the wane and the pendulum shift is favoring the alt right.

I do not think a victory for the pretentious left is what we are needing. We do not need a victory for either side. The real battle is enlightening the overwhelming middle of a society, giving them the tools to be successful, education to make holistic choices that benefit the whole of society. When this has happened historically mankind moves forward.

Sometimes we get lucky and the middle gains control. An example is the turn into the 20^th century. The eventual break up of the monopolies (yes, they came back), right for women to vote, the birth of the labor union movement (a sad history that workers lost lives to have a decent work life), direct election of Senators, push for more education to the general population and more.  These were hard earned victories yet shows the ability of the general population to gain when people put the whole of the country first. It was not a perfect time, yet it is one we can build a foundation to achieve even better.

The pretentious left and the alt right will never put the general population first. Their goal is to dictate how we live, who are the enemies, who is right and who is wrong, what we are doing wrong, etc… Our goal is to find within ourselves the true needs of the country and fight for a continued push forward.

Neither side is inherently evil, however, the alt right tends to find hate as a tool much more often and the pretentious left looks down upon the masses with utter contempt. Not good a look to make a good impression. 

In a perfect world, it would be nice for people to look after us and for people to define what are our values. We do not live in a perfect world; hence we must ignore the excesses from both sides and work to make ourselves educated, strong, and value based. This is how we succeed.