What is the source of the Left's moral authority?

[Dutch Courage]

I pose this as a serious question.

If one were to ask a conservative where his or her moral authority comes from, the answer would usually be (in order of frequency): God and religion, the constitution and patriotism, Western Liberalism in general, and family. Depending on your political leanings, you might consider those stalwart sources of moral authority, or you may scoff at them and insinuate that those are the cornerstones of a corrupt and immoral system.

However, it tends to be liberals, not conservatives, who pose things as moral issues; everything from border security to BLM to gender to race relations to vaccine mandates to voting laws are framed in such ways that taking a stance is inherently moral or immoral. Through this lens, debate itself is immoral, because it has the potential to sway opinion in an immoral direction. In the end, the moral position must always win, by any means necessary.

If you asked a liberal if he or she considered himself or herself to be morally superior to conservatives, most would quickly say "of course"

So my question is: what is the moral authority from which Liberal morality springs? It can't be religion, the constitution, or even family, since liberal politics are frequently adversarial to these institutions. Does their morality come from Marx? Lenin? Confucius? Allah? Just "feelings" of being morally superior? What would a liberal seriously answer to this?

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

They have no “moral authority” and use arguments over morality to “win” against those with morals.

 

[Ingmar Aspergman]

Themselves

 

[Idiotron]

Christian conservatives have been the authoritarian censorious moral busybodies until about 15 years ago.
The woke lefties simply went: "We are the opposite of that, that's why we're the good guys".
That worked for a decade or so but now, the wokes are the new authoritarian censorious moral busybodies and it's the modern Christian conservatives who go: "We are the opposite of that, that's why we're the good guys".

Everybody thinks that they're the good guy if the other side is showing off the worst traits of humanity.
All this shit will repeat itself until we completely pollute the air and water and finally die off.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Aside from what comes with common sense, it’s all agenda-driven at the top. Any time a politician starts talking about what’s right and wrong, it comes off as disingenuous to me.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

"Society"

 

[KittyGremlin]

a futile narcissism poorly disguised as a chase for the path of least suffering

 

[Underperforming]

careful not to conflate liberal and the left because liberals can and do hold the same moral framework as the conservative. To the left it would seem that morality and power are intrinsically linked. One could make the over simplistic observation that what gives the group and its members the most social power is the most moral.

 

[Bongocat]

It's literally because it "feels good".

It's about short term vs long term harm. It "feels bad" to tell the illegal at the border he can't come in, and therefore it is morally superior to let him in. The long term disastrous consequences of doing so are less immediately obvious. If diabetes wasn't such a well known disease, they would be screaming at you for saying kids shouldn't just eat candy all the time.

In general people cannot think in longer term consequences and that's why the left always wins on every issue. That is, until it's too late.

 

[libRT]

Their genitals

 

[Troon Destroyer]

Their want to be the ruling power. It's that simple.
Whatever benefits left-wingers is moral, good and progressive, whatever benefits right-wingers is abrohorrent, bad and downright fascistic.
Also, they do not believe in morality, they just use it to get people to support their causes.
"Having morals makes you a reactionary, stop operating in such outdated, backward manner. Also being a leftie is a highly moral and virtious act."

 

[mindlessobserver]

It's as always the French Menace. While Britain and America traditionally derive their moral foundation from Locke, the French and the modern left derive theirs from Rousseau.

Rousseau has some pretty odious ideas, mainly that the State, being the expression of the common will is infallible. It's why they are constantly banging on about "our democracy". "Our democracy" being a stand in for Rousseaus common will and the sanctity of the State.

 

[KittyGremlin]

It's literally because it "feels good".

It's about short term vs long term harm. It "feels bad" to tell the illegal at the border he can't come in, and therefore it is morally superior to let him in. The long term disastrous consequences of doing so are less immediately obvious. If diabetes wasn't such a well known disease, they would be screaming at you for saying kids shouldn't just eat candy all the time.

In general people cannot think in longer term consequences and that's why the left always wins on every issue. That is, until it's too late.

Do they always win though?

 

[whogoesthere]

Leftism is capitalisms in one of its purest forms. What matters the most is the free market is held safe. Being tranny is good, because we (the state, which includes corporations) can make money off of it, and the market (people) must be free to do as they please as long as it increases money and power for the elite. No surprise they are some of the worst consumers we know of, and they will defend any old rubbish because even rubbish has a right to bring someone money.

Anyone who claims to be a capitalist and conservative, or even fucking worse, a patriot, is either a fool or a member of the elite tricking you into supporting them. Leftism doesnt need a holy text or well thought out philosophical concepts, money (one measure of power) is king, before all kings. A king of kings if you will.

 

[Bongocat]

Do they always win though?

Almost every time. Both parties only move in one direction, growing further and further left.
This seems to be the case just about everywhere except in iron fisted nations like China.

Complete economic collapse from disregarding long term consequences seems to be the only thing that can actually snap it back.

 

[Hangly]

The political left represents, broadly, the values of the French Enlightenment. Descartes, Rousseau, Voltaire et al. Or at least the vestigial remains of it.

Curiosly, or at least counterintuitively, the Utopia of Rousseau is based on the Bible, specifically the Garden of Eden story.

It captures the imagination because it is a rationalized and secularized version of what Westerners have always described heaven on Earth to be like: all are equal, no fighting, no killing, no meat eating, no work, no sex, people who eat of the knowledge tree get canceled.

 

[Sperghetti]

Their moral authority comes from “empathy”.

The arguments always seem to boil down to one option being more moral because it is either nicer (to a particular group), or because the opposing option is somehow mean or cruel.

Even going by the examples you gave: Securing the border is immoral because sending desperate, impoverished people away from our country for any reason would be cruel. Being lax about COVID is immoral because you're "killing grandma". Getting strict about voting laws is immoral because you'd making things harder for poor minorities.

 

[Hangly]

That’s classical liberalism though. What we call Leftism in 2022 isn’t an ideology and isn’t even a tiny bit political. That’s obvious enough, you could break your fingers listing all the internal contradictions.

It’s just mental illness. Mental illness brought on by decadence, mostly. Leftism tracks 100% with what a cowardly degenerate would say or do in any given situation. When you understand that you can predict them with total accuracy.

Their “causes” amount to their self-identification with failures and things they perceive to be weak and disgusting. Read the Unabomber manifesto, uncle Ted will tell you all about it.

 

[LolRaccoon]

Their asses where they pull it from.

 

[axfaxf]

I think the modern left has a lot of it´s degenerate morale views from Michel Foucault.

His Oppression/Oppressor theories is what I´m seeing being used in a lot of the bullshit pushed upon an unsuspecting public. CRT, Oppression Olympics, Equal Outcome and so on. And as far as I know, he´s seen as a sort of foundation for understanding the world in the optics of universities.

And he was a pedophile, because of course he was.