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There is No Such Thing as a Bleeding Heart Liberal

Love of the poor.

Care for the infirm.

An infinite metric of the empathy of one human to another

And yet, not.

The term “bleeding heart liberal” gets thrown around from time to time, as often as not from the “bleeding hearts” themselves, but it represents nothing of the position of the American left. The belief in government assistance programs, and their targeting of the “underprivileged” in America seems to imply an excess of empathy. That excess of empathy is derided by the right and worn as a badge of honor by the left. The reality, however, is that there is no empathy at all, merely pride.

This truth is revealed in the nature of the welfare state and other government programs which are designed to provide benefit to one group; always these benefits occur at the expense of others. These others – the providers, the workers, the economic producers of the nation – are forced to provide the resources for government programs through coercive force. There is no empathy on the left for the ever shrinking cadre of wealth producers who have their resources stolen at gunpoint and used against their conscience. There is no thought for those who now have less because what they have has been taken from them. These victims of violence are targeted not because they are vicious, but because they are virtuous. The wealth they have created, their lifestyle, their “excess” of resources has been produced by particular behaviors: thrift, putting off children until they can be provided for (at an ever increasing age due to the increase of theft by the government), savings, wise investment, a good work ethic, and, most importantly, the ability to put of current pleasures for future security.

No sympathy, empathy, or compassion waits for those that act with integrity and responsibility. Only a bitter truth, made no sweeter by political platitudes: no good deed goes unpunished.

The lie of empathy is further exposed for the illusion that it is when considering not just the horrific means of the government’s attempts to “provide for the less fortunate” but the outcomes of the attempts themselves. Welfare programs are nearly universally designed to subsidize poverty rather than to lift anyone out of poverty. Welfare gives out a benefit that is at or just above “poverty,” but when an individual attempts to lift himself up, through hard-work, or savings, or the acquiring of education, these benefits are removed, leaving him in a truly difficult situation. To quote Thomas Sowell from Free to Choose:

What the welfare system and other kinds of governmental programs are doing is paying people to fail. In so far as they fail, they receive the money; in so far as they succeed, even to a moderate extent, the money is taken away.

Not just that, but 50 years of intensive welfare interventions have utterly failed to cure the country of poverty. In fact, just about every single measure of life outcomes by those affected by the welfare state has deteriorated, from life expectancy and health to single mothers and broken families. The poor are now only a banner to clothe the bleeding heart on its march onward.

And so with the “bleeding heart liberal” we see that the heart does not bleed for the people that are subjected to violence in the quest for “equality,” “social justice,” “poverty,” or other such incorporeal terms, nor does the heart bleed for those who supposedly benefit from the hearts false empathy. The heart doesn’t bleed at all, it swells, for it has filled itself with pride for its “efforts”: the voting of men into government office who hire other men with guns to take from those who act in ways that benefit society, and give their money to yet more people, none of whom the bleeding heart has ever met.

That is the real march of the naked emperor through the town square. That anyone could call themselves empathetic of a multitude of faceless, unknown strangers, whose actions have not been witnessed by the supposed empath, who cannot be said to be either virtuous or vicious, victim or perpetrator, and swell with pride for the pretension is a great testament to the nihilistic horror of our age.

Prometheus weeps.

The Slave Morality of Socialism

Socialism is that idea that if you steal and murder enough, equality will emerge. It is an utter sacrifice of the means to the end. On the surface, this seems like consequentialism at its worst, but even a cursory glance of history reveals that this is not the case. This is because 100 years of socialism have yielded tangible consequences, and they are horrific. Not only are the process costs immense, some 100 million dead due to socialism and communism in the last century as a conservative estimate, but the ends of equality and social justice that would justify the sacrifices have never (and will never) be achieved.

In reality, socialism is another permutation of what Nietzsche called “slave morality” – obsessed with intentions and vilifying those who are viewed as “masters.” Indeed, this is the best explanation for why socialism continues to be discussed at all. It is the sincerity, the intent – the “good” goal of equality – that really matters to those encased in slave morals, not the obviously horrific outcomes that come from the actions themselves. This morality is appealing to anyone who views himself as a victim of oppression, because the promise of socialism is the essence of the slave morality, which is not to overthrow the masters, but to make the masters into slaves as well. This is the terrible goal of “equality.”  

Of course, as history demonstrates, those who are the greatest proponents of socialism, the political leaders who end up organizing “the masses” are not the slaves. They are just different masters, using the weak will and short-sightedness of the “proletariat” to overthrow one set of “masters” and replace them with themselves. They seek not to destroy the ring of power, but to take it up and sit upon the dark throne, ordering things to their will. Nietzsche’s God is replaced by the cult of the State. The State becomes the only god worth worshipping, because the state is the only god with the power to enslave the masters for the “good” of the collective.

Enter into this backdrop the person of Bernie Sanders, a true exemplar of the slave morality. Boring, weak, old, polite, and meek – he appears to be everything the slaves see in themselves and wish vainly to be virtuous. However, if one discards the “kind” or “virtuous” (according to the slave morality) intents behind what Sanders proposes, and thinks instead of the actions used to achieve these intents, one will recognize him as by far the most evil and vicious of the oligarchs vying for the throne of the empire.