American's Hatred Of America Explained
Have you ever heard this comment coming from someone on the right? "People on the left hate our country."
In my view, this frequently heard statement is accurate based on observing the radical Left as they attempt to change our society to their liking. Over and over, we see attacks on patriotism, the family, religion, America's traditions, our Constitution, and the design of the federal government. It seems like they truly hate our country. What is the source of that hatred?
A possible answer to this question comes to us from R. R. Reno, who published a book in 2019 titled Return of the Strong Gods. Reno is an American theologian and editor of First Things Magazine.
Reno describes the last two centuries as long centuries based on their social or ideological span rather than their chronological span. He believes that the true 19th century years were 1789 to 1914. In other words, the beginning of the French Revolution until the beginning of World War I. Those years encompassed the rise of modern Western society after the Enlightenment. The 20th century began in 1945, with the end of World War II, and ended in 2019. The year 1945 marked the end of World War II, which had a profound impact on the way intellectuals understood Western society and changed the course of the political ideology of the West. The 2019 date was the date of the book's publication.
By Reno's telling, post-WWII intellectuals believed that Hitler rose to power because Germany was a closed society. A closed society is one built on nativist impulses (supporting only one race), religion, or politics. Hitler's Germany was a closed society based on race (Aryan). Theocracies, such as Iran, are closed societies based on religion. North Korea is a closed society based on politics because it is a one-party state.
According to the intellectuals, most Western societies run the risk of becoming authoritarian because they were built on traditional institutions such as the Christian church, democracy, and, in the case of the United States, its Constitution. We are told that loyalty to these institutions leaves us vulnerable to authoritarian tendencies. Any behaviors/traditions that promote group love and respect are dangerous. When the public opposes immigration, it's code for "we are nativist" and won't accept people who don't look like us. When we oppose transwomen in women's sports, we are insensitive and bigoted.
Two intellectuals who advised that Western societies avoid the danger of a closed society were Karl Popper, the famous philosopher of science, and Theodore Adorno. Adorno wrote The Authoritarian Personality, describing how certain personality types support tyrants like Hitler.
After World War II, the concept of open society was gradually adopted by the liberal establishment in the United States. The "Strong Gods" tradition in the United States, based on family, community, religion, and patriotism, was to be replaced by the weaker gods of tolerance, doubt, dialogue, equality, and consumer comfort. This strategy would prevent the rise to power by would-be dictators because supreme power would be widely distributed.
Helped along by the rising popularity of postmodernism, left intellectuals adopted its concept of relative truth to attack America's traditions. The American people needed to be freed from their closed society tendencies because their traditions were illegitimate. The new crusaders, for the open society, would succeed by employing a strategy of fierce intolerance. No competing narrative would be considered or valued if it stood in their way.
The Left moved forward with their open society ideology through three rounds of the culture wars against conservatives in the 1970s, 1980s, and 2000s. Postmodernism, an open society foundation, was established as the default ideology taught in universities during the 1990s. By 2000, political correctness had risen to the level of cancel culture. On moved the crusaders until the Biden administration achieved the final objective of the weak-gods activists - an open border policy. The aim was to fill our country with immigrants, accelerating multiculturalism and eventually pushing white people into a minority where they could be more easily controlled.
All of us in opposition can observe the Left's continuing efforts to change America. Conservatives are appalled by this extremism on the part of the Left, which had never been sanctioned by an election before. Although the economy played a part in the Democrats' defeat last November, there was also a desire on the part of the American people to call a halt to the Left's open society obsession.
The 20th century did not end in 2019. It ended in 2024 with the election of Donald Trump, who has embarked on a never-before-seen journey to unravel the open society deep state that the Left so carefully constructed. If Trump is successful, he will have redefined 21st-century politics in America and around the world.
What should we make of Mr. Reno's theory? It neatly explains the Left's behavior over the past few decades and describes activities the Left will never admit to. Most of what they have done was under the covers.
For Americans paying attention, mark our arrival at the endpoint of the open society implementation, accented by the defeat of Kamala Harris. The Democratic Party is now adrift with no plan. For the next four years, they will be unable to continue their destruction of the American culture.
When you implement a political model based on hate and seek to tear everything down, there is no force for good when you are done. Weak gods can't overcome their own malaise because they lack the strength to lead. The strong gods have returned because enough Americans decided our period of weakness must end. Fortunately, Trump was available to dismantle the long-corrupted system.
Trump represents the return to ideals that have existed since man organized his first government. The strong gods are the behaviors and traditions human beings love and respect. They are the glue that holds our society together in opposition to the concept of weakness, whose advocates try to drive us apart. Trump and his supporters are reimplementing 4000 years of traditions that have served as the backbone of human societies and, long ago, proven their value. Family, community, spiritual beliefs, and love of country are the foundational principles of a successful society.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
 | A guest post by
|
A nice, helpful, big-picture framing for me, thank you.
I read Karl Popper's book The Open Society and its Enemies. The forward was by George Soros, which was very confusing because the book is a thoughtful discourse reviewing Plato, Marx and Hegel. I thought the take on Plato was rather silly but Hegel informative. I know F.A. Hayek supported Popper's work. Like Hitchens, I think he was a naive but good man writing on history, so sort of an inversion of Heidegger, who as a Nazi wasn't such a good man, but wrote thoughtful interesting work.