https://x.com/epr510/status/1893851683534643208 (Reflections on watching the right rise in the German election)
What’s funny is that many left-wing intellectuals earlier all thought the enemy was Trump, and that once this oddity had run its course, everything would be fine. But the facts have shown that the left’s collapse is global; Trump’s rise is not an exception but a trend. I think many people still haven’t figured this out even now.
Of course, the left’s collapse has something to do with the general spirit of the age, but fundamentally it is still an internal problem. In short, left-wing parties themselves abandoned left-wing positions. So the essence of the left’s defeat is not the failure of left-wing positions; rather, since they abandoned their own positions, they obviously deserved to fail.
What should the left’s position be? Traditionally speaking, the left’s main labels are nothing more than two: one is progressivism, the other egalitarianism. In recent years, the left itself has completely abandoned both of these traits.
What is progress? Where is the progress of human civilization reflected? Is it reflected in hundreds of genders? Even if one says the liberalization of sexual orientation is part of progress, it is still not the most significant part. The most significant part is of course technology, and second to that is the political system. So progressivism should of course support technological progress, and of course welcome political reform as well. But on these two fronts the left has completely reversed itself. Just look at their attitude toward blockchain, and then also their attitude toward AI: conservative, closed, monopolistic, refusing open source and openness. Not to mention which side Musk, a man who embodies the technological frontier, stands on.
The same is even more true in the matter of political reform. What Trump and Musk are now doing with such sweeping force may indeed be very chaotic and crude. But at least they are reforming. Yet the left, opposing them, has instead raised the banner of conservatism, prudence, and maintaining overall stability.
Egalitarianism is similar: equality of skin color and sexual orientation is certainly one aspect, but not the most significant one. Let alone the fact that when the left has promoted equality of skin color and sexual orientation, it has instead imposed new inequalities on white people and women. I have seen many left-wing scholars openly say that one needs to use an unequal system to offset old inequalities; this philosophy is ontologically wrong to begin with (see https://x.com/epr510/status/1861976399583818012). The key is that the more worthy focus of the equality issue is class equality, the predicament of the lower strata of society.
And in its attitude toward the lower strata of society, the left has turned toward elitism, toward an aristocratic mentality. For example, after the lower strata of society swung comprehensively toward Trump, many left-wing intellectuals attributed the problem to the people’s stupidity and short-sightedness, believing that only they, the elites, can truly “do what is good for the people,” while the people’s own opinions are unimportant, or rather, should be despised. This is a regression to a paternalist, aristocratic political form.
The same is true in its treatment of immigration. Pursuing equality does not simply mean that as long as you take in more immigrants, everyone is equal. A key issue in egalitarianism is this: we must exclude and punish those people, ideas, and systems that oppose equality for all. Opposing despotism, opposing privilege, opposing discrimination—this is the pursuit of equality for all. So-called “freedom of belief” and “cultural diversity” should all be established on the principle of equality for all, rather than placed above that principle. In other words, if a belief itself holds that people are unequal, if a culture has discrimination and despotism built into it, then these beliefs and cultures should not be treated equally. That is what it means to uphold equality for all. Guardians of freedom and equality should courageously confront and suppress cultures that preach inequality, rather than playing the good-natured fool and tolerating everything.
I myself am not actually committed to egalitarianism; in fact, even if the left had not become degenerate, I would still be slightly to the right of center. But when the left is no longer left, then the right becomes the only option. So the future of international politics should be that, after the left has buried itself, the right will in turn be divided into a new left and a new right.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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