The rich are not like the rest of us.  Whether that adage is true or not, it is becoming increasingly clear that leftists do not think as we do.  They are not like the rest of us.

I am reminded of the very nice lady who brought her billing statement to our office, insisting that there was an error.  She could not possibly owe anything, she said.  At first, I thought she might be right, so I went over the entire record of the account with her, line by line.  After each item, she agreed that the running total was correct.  It was basic arithmetic: charges minus payments.  When we got to the final balance, she agreed that the math was correct, but she still insisted that she could not possibly owe the balance due.  Even when I asked her to show me the error, which she could not, she remained adamant that there must be a mistake — somewhere.

It was then that I understood the reality of the situation.  The nice lady had never been persuadable from the beginning.  Facts meant nothing to her.  The only thing that meant anything to her was her “feeling.”  The stated balance due just did not feel right to her, end of discussion.

When internet discussions became a popular activity in the late 1990s, I had my first in-depth discussions and debates with leftists.  It was there that I discovered that there were people who could not fathom why conservatives (such as myself) hold the beliefs we do.  How, they would ask, could anyone possibly be so coldhearted as to approve of the death penalty for convicted murderers, who had been afforded every right to defend themselves?  But they could not see their hypocrisy in putting to death an innocent fetal child who was afforded no rights at all.

Only after much interchange of messages, on many subjects, did I begin to realize that leftists are blind to what we consider obvious, logical certainties.  Their beliefs are, to them, axioms never to be questioned.  Anyone who disagrees with them must be either abysmally stupid or, worse, consummately evil. 

In that regard, I recall being characterized by some as a hayseed who had never crossed a county line.  When I informed them that I had lived seven years in two Asian countries, and spent a little time in the Middle East and Europe, they refused to believe that.  It simply could not be true based on my supposed ignorance.  I may not be cosmopolitan, but any error in my worldview is not for lack of exposure to foreign ways of thinking.

After much discussion with leftists, I have discovered that their economic arguments are nonsensical.  Economic realities are, in their minds, a mystery, a sinister plot by greedy corporations.  Free-market principles — competition, of supply and demand, limited government — are, in their minds, tools of capitalist exploitation.  Their favored remedy is always to tax more, and spend more, and you’ll see, you’ll see, it will all turn out butterflies and unicorns.  You’ll see.

When things turn out otherwise, increasing the problems instead of solving them, there is always an excuse.  If only the “right people” were in charge, if only it hadn’t rained that day, if only the stars had aligned, they would have been proved right.  Their remedy for failure is to keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result.

The reality is that the left is wrong on just about every issue, from the economy to the military, from law enforcement to transgenderism, from women’s reproductive rights to climate change — and, in short, every major disagreement they have with conservatives.  Not only are leftists wrong, but they are immune to persuasion by facts and reason.  They even dispute the math, calling it racist.

We must continue to make fact-based arguments from reason, endeavoring to rescue at least the (hopefully) ten good men in Sodom from the destruction they are bringing down on us all — but in doing so, we must not be unduly disappointed when the great majority remain mired in their folly.

It’s in the marrow of their bones. 

Image: Ilmicrofono Oggiono via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.