The phenomenon I call the tragedy of the Left combines a passionate commitment to liberating the oppressed with extremely poor analytical abilities. Originally noble intentions end exactly as one might expect.
It always begins with some valid observation. For example, that the justice system is not a neutral machine but systematically favors the owners of capital over those who make their living through their own labor, and grants greater rights to those born into wealth. But it is equally important to see the other side. The very same justice system also protects the lives and modest possessions of even the poorest people. All of this is tightly intertwined, and it takes extraordinarily careful analysis to understand what is in the interests of those at the bottom as well, and what a fighter for a better society should actually rebel against. But who would waste time on anything like that?
And this is not merely a question of the justice system. It applies to the entire functioning of the state and society. The system favors the rich and powerful, yet when it functions well, those at the bottom benefit from it too.
Left-wing activists therefore launch a war against the justice system as a whole. Ordinary poor people who go to work and want to live their ordinary lives correctly understand that such a revolution threatens them. They defend their world, and the result is not a war of the Left against the rich, but a war of the Left against the poor—and of the poor against the Left.
Left-wing ideologies evolve, and left-wing political structures evolve with them. Eventually, it becomes clear that they are far more useful to banks and transnational structures than to working people. Activists discover that life is more comfortable with large foundations behind them. A logical alliance follows. Certain things are quietly dropped from the agenda or allowed to lose importance—and you know the rest. Instead of protecting the way of life of the lower classes, gender transition. Instead of creating good jobs, the Green Deal. Instead of safety in poor neighborhoods, unrestricted migration and the abolition of the police.
This is not a matter of one or two projects or political groups. It has been the fate of left-wing politics throughout the Western world for more than fifty years. And it is almost certainly the fate of every future attempt as well.