Brother planning 12th COVID shot, surgery, donating money to Ukraine sparked humorous conversation about ideological possession. Satire reflects perception of "libtard." Ideology shapes identity, seen through historical contexts like Hadrian's reflections and religious wars. Marxism, especially, captivates intellectuals, leading to rigid ideological views. Personal perspectives on Marx's and Koran's relevance discuss their historical significance but contemporary ineffectiveness. Current American divide between two tribes exacerbated since 2008, with brother and speaker not aligning with either side.
"Libtard": The Origin of a Pejorative Term How one tribe perceives the other tribe to be in the grip of ideological possession. Thu, 10 Oct 2024 14:53:22 GMT https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/libtard-the-origin-of-a-pejorative Last Friday my youngest brother called and announced that he planned to get his twelfth COVID-19 shot, cut off genitals, and send all of his money to Ukraine. I lauded him for embarking on such a sensible project of personal and civic improvement.
A casual listener to our conversation—spoken in perfect deadpan—would likely think that both of us have completely lost our minds. I believe it is this perception—amplified by satire and hyperbole—that is the origin of the pejorative term “libtard .”
Satire of USA Today’s “Woman of the Year" award for Rachel Levine.
Our conversation was part of a running gag about what Carl Jung called “ideological possession .” As he famously remarked:
People don’t have ideas; ideas have people.
Ideology—the stepchild of religion—is a key determining factor in the development of a tribal identity. In Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, there is a passage in which the Roman Emperor Hadrian meditates on what appears to be the impossibility of incorporating the Jewish people into the Roman Empire because their fervent dedication to their ancestral, tribal god makes them unique and ungovernable.
During the great religious wars of Europe during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Catholic and Protestant leaders concluded that there was simply no possibility of understanding and living with each other. War was the only way.
During the 20th Cold War, the world was divided along ideological lines. In the U.S. at that time, we grew up with the understanding that we believed in the tenets of classical liberalism and the free market economy . The Soviets, on the other hand, believed in the tenets of Marxism-Leninism .
Ideological possession occurs when a person becomes so mesmerized by an ideological representation of the world that he is no longer able to interpret or perceive anything unless it conforms to his ideological schema. If you present him with information that challenges his ideological conception of the world, he will instantly reject it. Likewise, no matter what questions you ask him, his answers will always be more or less the same. One who is ideologically possessed is akin to a robot with very limited algorithmic programming.
Of all ideological representations of the world, Marxism has proven to be the most potent in possessing people who regard themselves as intellectuals. The British economist, John Maynard Keynes wrote about this in a December 2, 1934 letter to playwright George Bernard Shaw:
As for my view of Marx, I said nothing in that article except to accuse you and Stalin of being still satisfied with his view of the capitalist world 'which had much verisimilitude in his day is unrecognisable three quarters of a century later.' Surely it is certain that the picture has changed out of recognition.
My feelings about Das Kapital are the same as my feelings about the Koran . I know that it is historically important and I know that many people, not all of whom are idiots, find it a sort of Rock of Ages and containing inspiration. Yet when I look into it, it is to me inexplicable that it can have this effect. Its dreary, out-of-date, academic controversialising seems so extraordinarily unsuitable as material for the purpose. But then, as I have said, I feel just the same about the Koran . How could either of these books carry fire and sword round half the world? It beats me. Clearly there is some defect in my understanding. Do you believe both Das Kapital and the Koran ? Or only Das Kapital ? But whatever the sociological value of the latter, I am sure that its contemporary economic value (apart from occasional but inconstructive and discontinuous flashes of insight) is nil . Will you promise to read it again, if I do?
This brings me back to my running gag with my youngest brother. Though we grew up believing that all of us are, first and foremost, Americans, we now perceive that the American people have been divided into two tribes. Since around 2008, a longstanding fault line in American society rapidly widened, and the two tribes coalesced on either side of it. Now we find ourselves staring at each other from across this abyss in mutual incomprehension.
My brother and I did not join one of these tribes. We believe we became members of it when the people belonging to the other tribe fell increasingly under the spell of ideological possession .
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