The Danger of Leftism
213. Because of their need for rebellion and for membership in a movement, leftists
or persons of similar psychological type often are attracted to a rebellious or activist
movement whose goals and membership are not initially leftist. The resulting influx
of leftish types can easily turn a non-leftist movement into a leftist one, so that leftist
goals replace or distort the original goals of the movement.
214. To avoid this, a movement that exalts nature and opposes technology must take
a resolutely anti-leftist stance and must avoid all collaboration with leftists. Leftism
is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the
elimination of modern technology. Leftism is collectivist; it seeks to bind together the
entire world (both nature and the human race) into a unified whole. But this implies
management of nature and of human life by organized society, and it requires advanced
technology. You can’t have a united world without rapid long-distance transportation
and communication, you can’t make all people love one another without sophisticated
psychological techniques, you can’t have a “planned society” without the necessary
technological base. Above all, leftism is driven by the need for power, and the leftist
seeks power on a collective basis, through identification with a mass movement or an
organization. Leftism is unlikely ever to give up technology, because technology is too
valuable a source of collective power.
215. The anarchist1
too seeks power, but he seeks it on an individual or small-group
basis; he wants individuals and small groups to be able to control the circumstances
of their own lives. He opposes technology because it makes small groups dependent on
large organizations.
216. Some leftists may seem to oppose technology, but they will oppose it only so
long as they are outsiders and the technological system is controlled by non-leftists. If
leftism ever becomes dominant in society, so that the technological system becomes a
tool in the hands of leftists, they will enthusiastically use it and promote its growth.
In doing this they will be repeating a pattern that leftism has shown again and again
in the past. When the Bolsheviks in Russia were outsiders, they vigorously opposed
censorship and the secret police, they advocated self-determination for ethnic minori-
ties, and so forth; but as soon as they came into power themselves, they imposed a
1 This statement refers to our particular brand of anarchism. A wide variety of social attitudes have
been called “anarchist,” and it may be that many who consider themselves anarchists would not accept
our statement of paragraph 215. It should be noted, by the way, that there is a nonviolent anarchist
movement whose members probably would not accept FC as anarchist and certainly would not approve
of FC’s violent methods.
73
tighter censorship and created a more ruthless secret police than any that had existed
under the tsars, and they oppressed ethnic minorities at least as much as the tsars
had done. In the United States, a couple of decades ago when leftists were a minority
in our universities, leftist professors were vigorous proponents of academic freedom,
but today, in those of our universities where leftists have become dominant, they have
shown themselves ready to take away everyone else’s academic freedom. (This is “po-
litical correctness.”) The same will happen with leftists and technology: They will use
it to oppress everyone else if they ever get it under their own control.
217. In earlier revolutions, leftists of the most power-hungry type, repeatedly, have
first cooperated with non-leftist revolutionaries, as well as with leftists of a more lib-
ertarian inclination, and later have double-crossed them to seize power for themselves.
Robespierre did this in the French Revolution, the Bolsheviks did it in the Russian
Revolution, the communists did it in Spain in 1938 and Castro and his followers did
it in Cuba. Given the past history of leftism, it would be utterly foolish for non-leftist
revolutionaries today to collaborate with leftists.
218. Various thinkers have pointed out that leftism is a kind of religion. Leftism
is not a religion in the strict sense because leftist doctrine does not postulate the
existence of any supernatural being. But for the leftist, leftism plays a psychological
role much like that which religion plays for some people. The leftist NEEDS to believe
in leftism; it plays a vital role in his psychological economy. His beliefs are not easily
modified by logic or facts. He has a deep conviction that leftism is morally Right with
a capital R, and that he has not only a right but a duty to impose leftist morality on
everyone. (However, many of the people we are referring to as “leftists” do not think
of themselves as leftists and would not describe their system of beliefs as leftism. We
use the term “leftism” because we don’t know of any better word to designate the
spectrum of related creeds that includes the feminist, gay rights, political correctness,
etc., movements, and because these movements have a strong affinity with the old left.
See paragraphs 227–230.)
219. Leftism is totalitarian force. Wherever leftism is in a position of power it
tends to invade every private corner and force every thought into a leftist mold. In
part this is because of the quasi-religious character of leftism: Everything contrary to
leftist beliefs represents Sin. More importantly, leftism is a totalitarian force because
of the leftists’ drive for power. The leftist seeks to satisfy his need for power through
identification with a social movement, and he tries to go through the power process
by helping to pursue and attain the goals of the movement (see paragraph 83).That
is, the leftist’s real motive is not to attain the ostensible goals of leftism; in reality he
is motivated by the sense of power he gets from struggling for and then reaching a
social goal.2 Consequently the leftist is never satisfied with the goals he has already
attained; his need for the power process leads him always to pursue some new goal.
2 Many leftists are motivated also by hostility, but the hostility probably results in part from a
frustrated need for power.
74
The leftist wants equal opportunities for minorities. When that is attained he insists
on statistical equality of achievement by minorities. And as long as anyone harbors in
some corner of his mind a negative attitude toward some minority, the leftist has to
re-educate him. And ethnic minorities are not enough; no one can be allowed to have
a negative attitude toward homosexuals, disabled people, fat people, old people, ugly
people, and on and on and on. It’s not enough that the public should be informed about
the hazards of smoking; a warning has to be stamped on every package of cigarettes.
Then cigarette advertising has to be restricted if not banned. The activists will never
be satisfied until tobacco is outlawed, and after that it will be alcohol, then junk food,
etc. Activists have fought gross child abuse, which is reasonable. But now they want
to stop all spanking. When they have done that they will want to ban something else
they consider unwholesome, then another thing and then another. They will never be
satisfied until they have complete control over all child-rearing practices. And then
they will move on to another cause.
220. Suppose you asked leftists to make a list of ALL the things that were wrong
with society, and then suppose you instituted EVERY social change that they de-
manded. It is safe to say that within a couple of years the majority of leftists would
find something new to complain about, some new social “evil” to correct; because, once
again, the leftist is motivated less by distress at society’s ills than by the need to satisfy
his drive for power by imposing his solutions on society.
221. Because of the restrictions placed on their thought and behavior by their high
level of socialization, many leftists of the oversocialized type cannot pursue power in
the ways that other people do. For them the drive for power has only one morally
acceptable outlet, and that is in the struggle to impose their morality on everyone.
222. Leftists, especially those of the oversocialized type, are True Believers in the
sense of Eric Hoffer’s book, The True Believer. But not all True Believers are of the
same psychological type as leftists. Presumably a true-believing Nazi, for instance, is
very different psychologically from a true-believing leftist. Because of their capacity
for single-minded devotion to a cause, True Believers are a useful, perhaps a necessary,
ingredient of any revolutionary movement. This presents a problem with which we
must admit we don’t know how to deal. We aren’t sure how to harness the energies of
the True Believer to a revolution against technology. At present all we can say is that
no True Believer will make a safe recruit to the revolution unless his commitment is
exclusively to the destruction of technology. If he is committed also to another ideal,
he may want to use technology as a tool for pursuing that other ideal. (See paragraphs
200, 201.)
223. Some readers may say, “This shit about leftism is a lot of crap. I know John
and Jane who are leftish types and they don’t have all these totalitarian tendencies.”
It’s quite true that many leftists, possibly even a numerical majority, are decent people
who sincerely believe in tolerating others’ values (up to a point) and wouldn’t want
to use high-handed methods to reach their social goals. Our remarks about leftism are
not meant to apply to every individual leftist but to describe the general character
75
of leftism as a movement. And the general character of a movement is not necessarily
determined by the numerical proportions of the various kinds of people involved in the
movement.
224. The people who rise to positions of power in leftist movements tend to be
leftists of the most power-hungry type, because power-hungry people are those who
strive hardest to get into positions of power. Once the power-hungry types have cap-
tured control of the movement, there are many leftists of a gentler breed who inwardly
disapprove of many of the actions of the leaders, but cannot bring themselves to op-
pose them. They NEED their faith in the movement, and because they cannot give
up this faith they go along with the leaders. True, SOME leftists do have the guts
to oppose the totalitarian tendencies that emerge, but they generally lose, because
the power-hungry types are better organized, are more ruthless and Machiavellian and
have taken care to build themselves a strong power-base.
225. These phenomena appeared clearly in Russia and other countries that were
taken over by leftists. Similarly, before the breakdown of communism in the USSR,
leftish types in the West would seldom criticize that country. If prodded they would
admit that the USSR did many wrong things, but then they would try to find excuses
for the communists and begin talking about the faults of the West. They always op-
posed Western military resistance to communist aggression. Leftish types all over the
world vigorously protested the U.S. military action in Vietnam, but when the USSR
invaded Afghanistan they did nothing. Not that they approved of the Soviet actions;
but, because of their leftist faith, they just couldn’t bear to put themselves in oppo-
sition to communism. Today, in those of our universities where “political correctness”
has become dominant, there are probably many leftish types who privately disapprove
of the suppression of academic freedom, but they go along with it anyway.
226. Thus the fact that many individual leftists are personally mild and fairly
tolerant people by no means prevents leftism as a whole from having a totalitarian
tendency.
227. Our discussion of leftism has a serious weakness. It is still far from clear what
we mean by the word “leftist.” There doesn’t seem to be much we can do about this.
Today leftism is fragmented into a whole spectrum of activist movements. Yet not
all activist movements are leftist, and some activist movements (e.g., radical environ-
mentalism) seem to include both personalities of the leftist type and personalities of
thoroughly un-leftist types who ought to know better than to collaborate with leftists.
Varieties of leftists fade out gradually into varieties of non-leftists and we ourselves
would often be hard-pressed to decide whether a given individual is or is not a leftist.
To the extent that it is defined at all, our conception of leftism is defined by the dis-
cussion of it that we have given in this article, and we can only advise the reader to
use his own judgment in deciding who is a leftist.
228. But it will be helpful to list some criteria for diagnosing leftism. These criteria
cannot be applied in a cut and dried manner. Some individuals may meet some of the
76
criteria without being leftists, some leftists may not meet any of the criteria. Again,
you just have to use your judgment.
229. The leftist is oriented toward large-scale collectivism. He emphasizes the duty
of the individual to serve society and the duty of society to take care of the individual.
He has a negative attitude toward individualism. He often takes a moralistic tone. He
tends to be for gun control, for sex education and other psychologically “enlightened”
educational methods, for social planning, for affirmative action, for multiculturalism.
He tends to identify with victims. He tends to be against competition and against
violence, but he often finds excuses for those leftists who do commit violence. He is fond
of using the common catchphrases of the left, like “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia,”
“capitalism,” “imperialism,” “neocolonialism,” “genocide,” “social change,” “social justice,”
“social responsibility.” Maybe the best diagnostic trait of the leftist is his tendency to
sympathize with the following movements: feminism, gay rights, ethnic rights, disability
rights, animal rights political correctness. Anyone who strongly sympathizes with ALL
of these movements is almost certainly a leftist.3
230. The more dangerous leftists, that is, those who are most power-hungry, are
often characterized by arrogance or by a dogmatic approach to ideology. However,
the most dangerous leftists of all may be certain oversocialized types who avoid irri-
tating displays of aggressiveness and refrain from advertising their leftism, but work
quietly and unobtrusively to promote collectivist values, “enlightened” psychological
techniques for socializing children, dependence of the individual on the system, and
so forth. These crypto-leftists (as we may call them) approximate certain bourgeois
This paragraph talks about the true colors of the progressivist. They are too deluded to see their brainwashing. They're suckered in on all of this prog bs to blind them from seeing that they are the imperialists here. they inundate other groups and ruthlessly attack them for ideology's sake.
types as far as practical action is concerned, but differ from them in psychology, ide-
ology and motivation. The ordinary bourgeois tries to bring people under control of
the system in order to protect his way of life, or he does so simply because his atti-
tudes are conventional. The crypto-leftist tries to bring people under control of the
system because he is a True Believer in a collectivistic ideology. The crypto-leftist is
differentiated from the average leftist of the oversocialized type by the fact that his
rebellious impulse is weaker and he is more securely socialized. He is differentiated
from the ordinary well-socialized bourgeois by the fact that there is some deep lack
within him that makes it necessary for him to devote himself to a cause and immerse
himself in a collectivity. And maybe his (well-sublimated) drive for power is stronger
than that of the average bourgeois.
3
It is important to understand that we mean someone who sympathizes with these movements
as they exist today in our society. One who believes that women, homosexuals, etc., should have equal
rights is not necessarily a leftist. The feminist, gay rights, etc., movements that exist in our society have
the particular ideological tone that characterizes leftism, and if one believes, for example, that women
should have equal rights it does not necessarily follow that one must sympathize with the feminist
movement as it exists today.
77
213. Because of their need for rebellion and for membership in a movement, leftists
or persons of similar psychological type often are attracted to a rebellious or activist
movement whose goals and membership are not initially leftist. The resulting influx
of leftish types can easily turn a non-leftist movement into a leftist one, so that leftist
goals replace or distort the original goals of the movement.
214. To avoid this, a movement that exalts nature and opposes technology must take
a resolutely anti-leftist stance and must avoid all collaboration with leftists. Leftism
is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the
elimination of modern technology. Leftism is collectivist; it seeks to bind together the
entire world (both nature and the human race) into a unified whole. But this implies
management of nature and of human life by organized society, and it requires advanced
technology. You can’t have a united world without rapid long-distance transportation
and communication, you can’t make all people love one another without sophisticated
psychological techniques, you can’t have a “planned society” without the necessary
technological base. Above all, leftism is driven by the need for power, and the leftist
seeks power on a collective basis, through identification with a mass movement or an
organization. Leftism is unlikely ever to give up technology, because technology is too
valuable a source of collective power.
215. The anarchist1
too seeks power, but he seeks it on an individual or small-group
basis; he wants individuals and small groups to be able to control the circumstances
of their own lives. He opposes technology because it makes small groups dependent on
large organizations.
216. Some leftists may seem to oppose technology, but they will oppose it only so
long as they are outsiders and the technological system is controlled by non-leftists. If
leftism ever becomes dominant in society, so that the technological system becomes a
tool in the hands of leftists, they will enthusiastically use it and promote its growth.
In doing this they will be repeating a pattern that leftism has shown again and again
in the past. When the Bolsheviks in Russia were outsiders, they vigorously opposed
censorship and the secret police, they advocated self-determination for ethnic minori-
ties, and so forth; but as soon as they came into power themselves, they imposed a
1 This statement refers to our particular brand of anarchism. A wide variety of social attitudes have
been called “anarchist,” and it may be that many who consider themselves anarchists would not accept
our statement of paragraph 215. It should be noted, by the way, that there is a nonviolent anarchist
movement whose members probably would not accept FC as anarchist and certainly would not approve
of FC’s violent methods.
73
tighter censorship and created a more ruthless secret police than any that had existed
under the tsars, and they oppressed ethnic minorities at least as much as the tsars
had done. In the United States, a couple of decades ago when leftists were a minority
in our universities, leftist professors were vigorous proponents of academic freedom,
but today, in those of our universities where leftists have become dominant, they have
shown themselves ready to take away everyone else’s academic freedom. (This is “po-
litical correctness.”) The same will happen with leftists and technology: They will use
it to oppress everyone else if they ever get it under their own control.
217. In earlier revolutions, leftists of the most power-hungry type, repeatedly, have
first cooperated with non-leftist revolutionaries, as well as with leftists of a more lib-
ertarian inclination, and later have double-crossed them to seize power for themselves.
Robespierre did this in the French Revolution, the Bolsheviks did it in the Russian
Revolution, the communists did it in Spain in 1938 and Castro and his followers did
it in Cuba. Given the past history of leftism, it would be utterly foolish for non-leftist
revolutionaries today to collaborate with leftists.
218. Various thinkers have pointed out that leftism is a kind of religion. Leftism
is not a religion in the strict sense because leftist doctrine does not postulate the
existence of any supernatural being. But for the leftist, leftism plays a psychological
role much like that which religion plays for some people. The leftist NEEDS to believe
in leftism; it plays a vital role in his psychological economy. His beliefs are not easily
modified by logic or facts. He has a deep conviction that leftism is morally Right with
a capital R, and that he has not only a right but a duty to impose leftist morality on
everyone. (However, many of the people we are referring to as “leftists” do not think
of themselves as leftists and would not describe their system of beliefs as leftism. We
use the term “leftism” because we don’t know of any better word to designate the
spectrum of related creeds that includes the feminist, gay rights, political correctness,
etc., movements, and because these movements have a strong affinity with the old left.
See paragraphs 227–230.)
219. Leftism is totalitarian force. Wherever leftism is in a position of power it
tends to invade every private corner and force every thought into a leftist mold. In
part this is because of the quasi-religious character of leftism: Everything contrary to
leftist beliefs represents Sin. More importantly, leftism is a totalitarian force because
of the leftists’ drive for power. The leftist seeks to satisfy his need for power through
identification with a social movement, and he tries to go through the power process
by helping to pursue and attain the goals of the movement (see paragraph 83).That
is, the leftist’s real motive is not to attain the ostensible goals of leftism; in reality he
is motivated by the sense of power he gets from struggling for and then reaching a
social goal.2 Consequently the leftist is never satisfied with the goals he has already
attained; his need for the power process leads him always to pursue some new goal.
2 Many leftists are motivated also by hostility, but the hostility probably results in part from a
frustrated need for power.
74
The leftist wants equal opportunities for minorities. When that is attained he insists
on statistical equality of achievement by minorities. And as long as anyone harbors in
some corner of his mind a negative attitude toward some minority, the leftist has to
re-educate him. And ethnic minorities are not enough; no one can be allowed to have
a negative attitude toward homosexuals, disabled people, fat people, old people, ugly
people, and on and on and on. It’s not enough that the public should be informed about
the hazards of smoking; a warning has to be stamped on every package of cigarettes.
Then cigarette advertising has to be restricted if not banned. The activists will never
be satisfied until tobacco is outlawed, and after that it will be alcohol, then junk food,
etc. Activists have fought gross child abuse, which is reasonable. But now they want
to stop all spanking. When they have done that they will want to ban something else
they consider unwholesome, then another thing and then another. They will never be
satisfied until they have complete control over all child-rearing practices. And then
they will move on to another cause.
220. Suppose you asked leftists to make a list of ALL the things that were wrong
with society, and then suppose you instituted EVERY social change that they de-
manded. It is safe to say that within a couple of years the majority of leftists would
find something new to complain about, some new social “evil” to correct; because, once
again, the leftist is motivated less by distress at society’s ills than by the need to satisfy
his drive for power by imposing his solutions on society.
221. Because of the restrictions placed on their thought and behavior by their high
level of socialization, many leftists of the oversocialized type cannot pursue power in
the ways that other people do. For them the drive for power has only one morally
acceptable outlet, and that is in the struggle to impose their morality on everyone.
222. Leftists, especially those of the oversocialized type, are True Believers in the
sense of Eric Hoffer’s book, The True Believer. But not all True Believers are of the
same psychological type as leftists. Presumably a true-believing Nazi, for instance, is
very different psychologically from a true-believing leftist. Because of their capacity
for single-minded devotion to a cause, True Believers are a useful, perhaps a necessary,
ingredient of any revolutionary movement. This presents a problem with which we
must admit we don’t know how to deal. We aren’t sure how to harness the energies of
the True Believer to a revolution against technology. At present all we can say is that
no True Believer will make a safe recruit to the revolution unless his commitment is
exclusively to the destruction of technology. If he is committed also to another ideal,
he may want to use technology as a tool for pursuing that other ideal. (See paragraphs
200, 201.)
223. Some readers may say, “This shit about leftism is a lot of crap. I know John
and Jane who are leftish types and they don’t have all these totalitarian tendencies.”
It’s quite true that many leftists, possibly even a numerical majority, are decent people
who sincerely believe in tolerating others’ values (up to a point) and wouldn’t want
to use high-handed methods to reach their social goals. Our remarks about leftism are
not meant to apply to every individual leftist but to describe the general character
75
of leftism as a movement. And the general character of a movement is not necessarily
determined by the numerical proportions of the various kinds of people involved in the
movement.
224. The people who rise to positions of power in leftist movements tend to be
leftists of the most power-hungry type, because power-hungry people are those who
strive hardest to get into positions of power. Once the power-hungry types have cap-
tured control of the movement, there are many leftists of a gentler breed who inwardly
disapprove of many of the actions of the leaders, but cannot bring themselves to op-
pose them. They NEED their faith in the movement, and because they cannot give
up this faith they go along with the leaders. True, SOME leftists do have the guts
to oppose the totalitarian tendencies that emerge, but they generally lose, because
the power-hungry types are better organized, are more ruthless and Machiavellian and
have taken care to build themselves a strong power-base.
225. These phenomena appeared clearly in Russia and other countries that were
taken over by leftists. Similarly, before the breakdown of communism in the USSR,
leftish types in the West would seldom criticize that country. If prodded they would
admit that the USSR did many wrong things, but then they would try to find excuses
for the communists and begin talking about the faults of the West. They always op-
posed Western military resistance to communist aggression. Leftish types all over the
world vigorously protested the U.S. military action in Vietnam, but when the USSR
invaded Afghanistan they did nothing. Not that they approved of the Soviet actions;
but, because of their leftist faith, they just couldn’t bear to put themselves in oppo-
sition to communism. Today, in those of our universities where “political correctness”
has become dominant, there are probably many leftish types who privately disapprove
of the suppression of academic freedom, but they go along with it anyway.
226. Thus the fact that many individual leftists are personally mild and fairly
tolerant people by no means prevents leftism as a whole from having a totalitarian
tendency.
227. Our discussion of leftism has a serious weakness. It is still far from clear what
we mean by the word “leftist.” There doesn’t seem to be much we can do about this.
Today leftism is fragmented into a whole spectrum of activist movements. Yet not
all activist movements are leftist, and some activist movements (e.g., radical environ-
mentalism) seem to include both personalities of the leftist type and personalities of
thoroughly un-leftist types who ought to know better than to collaborate with leftists.
Varieties of leftists fade out gradually into varieties of non-leftists and we ourselves
would often be hard-pressed to decide whether a given individual is or is not a leftist.
To the extent that it is defined at all, our conception of leftism is defined by the dis-
cussion of it that we have given in this article, and we can only advise the reader to
use his own judgment in deciding who is a leftist.
228. But it will be helpful to list some criteria for diagnosing leftism. These criteria
cannot be applied in a cut and dried manner. Some individuals may meet some of the
76
criteria without being leftists, some leftists may not meet any of the criteria. Again,
you just have to use your judgment.
229. The leftist is oriented toward large-scale collectivism. He emphasizes the duty
of the individual to serve society and the duty of society to take care of the individual.
He has a negative attitude toward individualism. He often takes a moralistic tone. He
tends to be for gun control, for sex education and other psychologically “enlightened”
educational methods, for social planning, for affirmative action, for multiculturalism.
He tends to identify with victims. He tends to be against competition and against
violence, but he often finds excuses for those leftists who do commit violence. He is fond
of using the common catchphrases of the left, like “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia,”
“capitalism,” “imperialism,” “neocolonialism,” “genocide,” “social change,” “social justice,”
“social responsibility.” Maybe the best diagnostic trait of the leftist is his tendency to
sympathize with the following movements: feminism, gay rights, ethnic rights, disability
rights, animal rights political correctness. Anyone who strongly sympathizes with ALL
of these movements is almost certainly a leftist.3
230. The more dangerous leftists, that is, those who are most power-hungry, are
often characterized by arrogance or by a dogmatic approach to ideology. However,
the most dangerous leftists of all may be certain oversocialized types who avoid irri-
tating displays of aggressiveness and refrain from advertising their leftism, but work
quietly and unobtrusively to promote collectivist values, “enlightened” psychological
techniques for socializing children, dependence of the individual on the system, and
so forth. These crypto-leftists (as we may call them) approximate certain bourgeois
This paragraph talks about the true colors of the progressivist. They are too deluded to see their brainwashing. They're suckered in on all of this prog bs to blind them from seeing that they are the imperialists here. they inundate other groups and ruthlessly attack them for ideology's sake.
types as far as practical action is concerned, but differ from them in psychology, ide-
ology and motivation. The ordinary bourgeois tries to bring people under control of
the system in order to protect his way of life, or he does so simply because his atti-
tudes are conventional. The crypto-leftist tries to bring people under control of the
system because he is a True Believer in a collectivistic ideology. The crypto-leftist is
differentiated from the average leftist of the oversocialized type by the fact that his
rebellious impulse is weaker and he is more securely socialized. He is differentiated
from the ordinary well-socialized bourgeois by the fact that there is some deep lack
within him that makes it necessary for him to devote himself to a cause and immerse
himself in a collectivity. And maybe his (well-sublimated) drive for power is stronger
than that of the average bourgeois.
3
It is important to understand that we mean someone who sympathizes with these movements
as they exist today in our society. One who believes that women, homosexuals, etc., should have equal
rights is not necessarily a leftist. The feminist, gay rights, etc., movements that exist in our society have
the particular ideological tone that characterizes leftism, and if one believes, for example, that women
should have equal rights it does not necessarily follow that one must sympathize with the feminist
movement as it exists today.
77
