Leftists, Liberals and Conservatives

Dennis Prager offers 32 questions which serve to distinguish progressives or leftists from liberals and conservatives. He believes that liberals and conservatives are far closer ideologically than are liberals and leftists.

I don't know if he'd agree, but I think the word leftist in today's political parlance is pretty much synonomous with progressive.

By way of introduction, Prager writes this:

Virtually every value liberals have held for a century is now held by conservatives and scorned by leftists. Therefore, America, in serious jeopardy of being lost, will be saved when people convince the liberals in their life that the left, not the conservative, is their enemy.

This process begins by establishing whether a friend or relative is a liberal or a leftist. If it turns out that he or she is a liberal, it is worth engaging in respectful dialogue on the issues of the day. If the friend or relative is a leftist, you can probably only talk about innocuous subjects such as the weather (though not about global warming) or sports (though not about players taking a knee during the national anthem).

If you talk about the great issues of the day with a left-wing friend or relative, that could be the last time you talk to each other. He or she is likely to unfriend you not only on social media but also in life. Leftists generally do not dialogue; they dismiss.

That's certainly true. Leftists (progressives) are rarely open to dialogue or debate. Either you agree with them or you're the enemy and must be ignored or silenced. This is, in fact, a characteristic of people who sense that they cannot offer persuasive reasons for their convictions which they hold for purely emotional or psychological reasons. Logic and objective facts matter little to the leftist unless perchance these somehow support their beliefs.

Prager breaks his questions down into four categories of Race, America, Men and Women and Speech. Here's a sampling from each category:

Race:

• The University of California has declared this statement racist: “There is only one race — the human race.” Do you agree with the University of California, or do you agree with the statement?
• Is the goal of being “colorblind” — doing one’s best to ignore a person’s color and concentrating only on the person’s character and personality — a noble goal or a racist one?
• Do you agree that all white Americans are racist?
• Is it possible for a black person to be a racist?

America:

• Has the United States, overall, made the world a better place?
• Would America be better, worse or the same as now if all Americans dropped their religion and became secular?
• Could a good person have voted for Donald Trump in 2020?
• Should America have full control over its borders to prevent illegal immigration?

Men and Women:

• Should it be legal for a teenage girl to have her breasts surgically removed because she identifies as a male — or should there be a minimum age of 18 or 21?
• Should biological males who identify as females be allowed to compete against biological females in sports?
• Do you agree with the practice of inviting a drag queen into public libraries and elementary school classrooms to conduct a “Drag Queen Story Hour”?

Speech:

• If you believe hate speech should be banned, who do you believe should determine what is hate speech?

You can read the rest of Prager's very incisive questions at the link. He concludes with this:

You might want to send these questions to the people in your life whose views are to the left of your own. At best, you (and they) will realize that you have more in common than either of you previously thought. At the very least, their answers will bring you both clarity. And at worst, they will explain why there is a rift between you — and why you might want to restrict communication to weather, sports, recipes and warm memories.