Why I Stopped Being a Leftist

Reasons Why You Should Also Consider Leaving the Beta Pool

For a good portion of my late teens and 20s I think I could comfortably say I was in the left camp. In law school I was passionate (or so I thought) about human rights, people seeking asylum and every other delusional ideal that was forced down our throats in my law school education that was part law-proper and other part, crazy left-wing indoctrination. Such indoctrination flowed well into my career after university, for example, at corporate and commercial firms and other places of employment or interest.

As I reflect on my journey of political and intellectual discovery, I remain an individualist committed to the views I think are the most moral, pragmatic and intellectually honest. Having said that, over the course of the decade that has been, I have mostly found the left or progressive sphere to be increasingly unhinged. They have come to represent the antithesis of values I cherish the most: free speech, free market and basic civil liberties under the rule of law.

This is not to say the other side is perfect, but they have become less insane. This is because I believe the average conservative or right-wing person has become a left-wing person from 2010. They are the actual moderates now, and much easier to get on with. I can disagree with a right-winger about God, or the Church and not be harassed for the next three months about it. It makes a difference. Though this critique works mostly though an American lens, it is relevant to all of the free world and the victim and oppressor mentality that has been mapped onto virtually all left parties and the people in the West.

In light of this, I thought it would be an interesting exercise for me and readers to go through the top reasons why I stopped being a leftist. A proggie. An SJW – whatever the most accurate term is. It started with the universities, but this nonsense touches almost all area of cultural life to media, to corporations via DEI.

Let us untangle the thorns.

1) Free Speech

The left once defended free speech like a sacred flame. Now it treats it like an outdated relic to be melted down and repurposed for a diversity statement. Say something even mildly heterodox, and suddenly you're a Nazi, a fascist, or, God forbid, a centrist. Campus speech codes, cancel culture, and social media inquisition tribunals have become the norm. In the name of “safety,” they've managed to make language a minefield and public discourse an endurance sport. If your ideas are that fragile, maybe they deserve to be scrutinized and destroyed.

But free speech is no longer valued in this political arena and people are not encouraged to ask bigger questions and express their true selves. Because if they were, most logical people would be able to peel back the veil and see the very bad ideas disguising as ‘critical theory’ and ‘solidarity’ in a quick minute.

Free speech is the bedrock for civilisation. The violation of it is an automatic nope from me.

2) They can’t Debate and it’s Embarrassing

Here’s a revolutionary idea: if you believe something strongly, you should be able to defend it with logic, not just shrieking and identity-based moralizing. My turn away from the left accelerated every time I watched another activist dodge actual arguments with slurs, slogans, or performative sobbing. Try to bring up any pro-sentience position on, say, abortion or animal rights, and you’ll be accused of being a misogynist or worse. The left doesn't argue; it emotes aggressively and hopes you'll get tired first.

I have not seen that this demographic values logic, rationality, and rigorous academic debate so I do not accept this is, in any significant way, a part of their culture or things they care about.

I should say I believe the liberal women are way worse for it than the guys, in this regard. I’m not sure what happened to them, but it seems like even the softest, most polite challenge to their views can send them spiraling. This is not something to aspire to be, this is very much something to run for the hills from. If I ever found myself to be this type of person, I would just end my life right there, because it would already be over.

This does not mean there are no good debaters who are ‘left’ (as far as mainstream debaters go, there is Destiny, for example) it just means they are the exception, not the norm, the norm is frighteningly incompetent and the thing I hate the most: timid and moral weakling vibes. I will not be identifying with such a group or set of ideas until there is radical reform within those sects/communities.

3) Too Much Socialism

The champagne socialist routine is tiresome. I got sick of hearing millionaires in Brooklyn lofts lecture the working class about redistributing wealth while sipping on $8 ethically sourced lattes.

The commie countries are places no one wants to live, and I am therefore unclear why such material is blanket-taught at every liberal arts class in existence. I do not accept that the commie places have simply “not done socialism properly!” Maybe they are doing it exactly right, and that is the problem?

Personally, I’m not against a social safety net, or some welfare benefits, and I’m glad Australia has them. But if your political plan requires infinite money, infinite compliance, and infinite government, then I’d like to opt out.

They urgently need to bring back Nietzsche, JS Mill and the Federalist papers so they stop churning out morons who believe the people in North Korea have it better than the people Manhattan.

4) Terrorism/Islam-Apologetic

At some point, “diversity” became a euphemism for refusing to critically assess ideologies that are explicitly anti-liberal. The apologetics surrounding political Islam are particularly disturbing. There’s a difference between protecting individual Muslims from discrimination and giving theocratic nonsense a free pass. You can’t claim to support women's rights and simultaneously coddle belief systems that stone women for existing incorrectly. Ya’ll gonna have to pick one.

Remember when there was a very clear line between good and evil with respect to terrorism? The country throwing teenagers in prison for refusing to wear Hijab, was most likely the country you did not want to be backing. If this country possessed nuclear weapons, you would be thankful the State of Israel were ready to disarm them and possibly help the Iranian people form a revolution. Today, you need to explain why you are not a colonial white-Jew supremacist for holding such a view.

I can’t really say it any better than this guy:

Of course, there are reasonable liberals and people on the left with good views on this. However, they have insofar been drowned out by raging lunatics and for the most part, refuse to stand up to them.

5) Race-Obsessed

Every issue is now a race issue. Mathematics, punctuality, sleeping, possibly birdwatching. This obsession with racial identity over individual character is not just tedious, it's regressive. The left’s fixation on immutable traits has led to a cultural paralysis where merit is suspicious, and victimhood is currency. Ironically, it's the exact kind of essentialism they once claimed to fight against. Are you a dermatologist? If the answer is no, I am not sure why the color of one skin consumes any significant space on the moral spectrum of discussion and debate.

I am not interested in people’s race. In fact, I am very uninterested in it. It’s the absolute least interesting thing about a person, much like their gender, sexuality or any and every other physical (or otherwise) attribute that has been made centre stage in our political arenas.

6) Anti-Western

Here is my radical idea: Western civilization is not the root of all evil. The US Constitution, Enlightenment principles, human rights, all born in the West. If you truly hate it so much, I have some travel suggestions for places where you won’t have to endure these horrible freedoms. The left’s relentless self-flagellation about colonialism and empire is selective and hypocritical. No society is perfect, but the West at least gives you the freedom to whine about it on the internet (especially since Musk bought X).

This entire narrative mostly if not always also disregards one crucial factor in the game of moral comparative analysis of the West and the rest. The Brits and later, the Americas actually abolished slavery and risked their lives to end it. So out of all the countries in the world, why zone in on the regions that actually experienced moral transformation, and not, Idk, the ARAB world? Where much is left to be desired, morally speaking, it is a garbage heap, esp. for women.

Western civilization is not just the greatest on Earth, it’s literally the only one worth living in. Thankfully, we can say welcome home to Western greatness after the big ‘vibe shift’ in the US, and therefore, much of the Western world.

7) Anti-White Male

The most prevalent and dominant parts of progressive thinking is anti-white male. Which is mostly stupid since it’s this demographic that pioneered the modern world. If you look around you today, you are surrounded by comfort and technology that was, more likely than not, invented and developed by white dudes. They wrote the constitutions your rights are contingent upon, they are the reason we have things like civil liberties, due process, individual rights, and such and such.

Today, you will not find one liberal arts course which does not either directly or by implication, make it clear they believe it is a fact of the world that white men are the source of evil. I would argue the opposite, I think they have, historically been the primary sources of virtue, protection and good ideas. And I am not keen to be affiliated with groups who are hateful to anyone without just cause. This reason in particular has been a dominant factor in getting me out of the beta pool of bad ideas which is the current progressive brain disease.

8) Beta Mentality

Victimhood is now a virtue. Strength, resilience, even basic ambition? They are considered problematic. There is a certain ideological limpness to the modern left, a reverence for failure and a suspicion of success. Everyone wants to be oppressed, even if they have to cosplay it. If your worldview makes you fragile, scared, and morally righteous without effort, congrats, you’ve found your tribe. I’ll be over here doing things, thanks.

Thus, those are my eight major reasons for leaving behind left, proggy ideas and many people too. If they ever go through significant reform and stop being completely crazy, I will gladly reassess my position. For now, they are in the fruit loops section of my mental categories and shall remain until further notice.

PJN

15th June, 2025