(Title image: the shield marking the office of the Greek Communist Party in Corfu Town. Photo taken by me on 8th June 2024)
Every time I was in Greece, the only political propaganda I saw was from the leftists, particularly the Greek Communist Party (Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas, KKE). Start from yesterday, I am now in Corfu over the weekend. As the Greek people are electing their Members of European Parliament during this weekend, the communists have posted their propaganda advertisements omnipresently. Meanwhile, other liberal groups in the Hippie style are screaming about their thirst for freedom, i.e. privileges to use violence in protests, via posters, too.
Juxtaposed by the roaring complaints by leftists, I have rarely seen radical propaganda from the right, even rarely from the fascists such as Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In Mediterranean European countries, most, if not all, political graffities inciting hatred against everyone and accusation against everything were left-wing slogans. In the UK, I have seen many graffities smearing “Kill the Tories” on walls, but never seen any violent slogan against the Labour Party or Green. Zooming into personal interactions, I have frequently seen leftists claiming they don’t befriend any right-winger, but never heard of anyone who ditches lefties from his or her circle.
Leftism and leftist parties are threats against democracy. As they regard their moralities as the only correctness, they tend to use violence and disruptive tactics to paralyse people’s normal life, purposefully; the goal is to force everyone to recognise their political correctness, which is often used to masquerade their true desire for privileges. They market themselves as “liberal thinkers”, but their attitudes towards other ideologies and violent tactics to promote their political correctness have proven themselves true fascists, authoritarians and terrorists. Under their hijacks, general left-wing parties cannot brake the momentum sliding into left-wing extremism.
Unfortunately, the firewall against left-wing extremism is more feeble than the one blocking fascism. Left-wing ideologies can always satisfy the indulgence in our humanity; concepts such as Freedom, Tolerance, Equality and Diversity are always irresistible to educated people who don’t want to deny humanity. As such, as human civilisation is being challenged with wars, climate change and potentially abused artificial intelligence, imposing essential disciplines to prevent the society sliding into the indulgence of freedom must be a priority of governments.