By: Mitja Iršič
Through evolution, humans have developed in the context of intense competition between different groups. Groups composed of loyal members were more successful than those composed of disloyal members. Therefore, selective pressures have shaped human thoughts to be highly loyal to their group (whether it be family, nation, ethnic group, religion, political party, or sports club). Nowhere does this trait manifest more than in politics – this social science activity that, unlike sports matches, actually shapes our lives.
In a recent meta-analysis, liberals and conservatives showed similar levels of party bias, but slightly more tribalistic cognitive tendencies (often attributed to right-wing conservatives, e.g., intolerance towards different people) were perceived among left-wing liberals. More fascinating than liberals being irrationally loyal to their “tribe” is that they are unaware of their prejudices, as they are bombarded by the media-political conglomerate at home and abroad with the fantasy that they are always right – that they are the progressive light that will lead us out of the darkness of conservatism. Who would not want to hear that?
In a recent episode of Marcel on RTV Slovenia, Urška Klakočar Zupančič shared her opinions on conservatism. When Marcel asked why more and more young men are leaning towards right-wing conservatism, Klakočar Zupančič stated that men might be right-wing conservative because they are “not enlightened”, but quickly added that she associates with enlightened men. According to her, right-wing conservative men might “feel threatened, perhaps men feel threatened when more women are actually entering high positions, they may feel threatened and resort to traditional values, to some backwardness, I don’t know”. If men turn to the right in terms of some political belief or traditionalism, then we need to consider what we are doing wrong. We need to raise real men. She also strongly hopes that young Slovenians will opt for acceptance, for multiculturalism, “absolutely not for the hatred sown by those who have no other arguments”.
THE LEFT “CENTER” IS THEREFORE CONVINCED THAT RIGHT-WING CONSERVATISM AND TRADITIONALISM IS SOME KIND OF MISTAKE – SOMETHING THAT IS A RESULT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES.
Such thoughts are of course comically tribalistic, but by no means an exception in the world of the Slovenian progressive socialist-liberal political scene. Let’s remember the words of the Prime Minister, who before the elections labelled the entire right-wing political option, which was then the core of the government, as fascism. Let’s remember the failed politician of the LMŠ, Brane Golubović, who once said on the national broadcaster: “Look, people wake up. People change. We have a journalist who wrote for right-wing newspapers and is now a normal journalist.” So, in Golubović’s world, which was also the world of LMŠ, but today inherited by the Gibanje Svoboda party, we know right and normal journalists.
The left “centre” is therefore convinced that right-wing conservatism and traditionalism are some kind of mistake – something that is the result of psychological issues, while they, the enlightened liberals, will lead us on the right path of progressive values. Left-wing politics does not see the opposite political pole as a partner for development, with different ideological views on the world, but as a harmful entity that must be defeated, suppressed, and its thoughts chased and censored for the good of the people. In such a climate, cooperation like the partnership for development in the first Janša government is simply impossible. There is no middle ground, as there was then. This is important to consider, especially with the upcoming parliamentary elections (considering the accelerated rate of Golob’s government’s disintegration). Voters must understand the game being played by left-wing politics: if they are not satisfied with the current form of governance or want a different political path, they must give enough votes to the right to form a coalition on its own. Coalitions like the three Janša governments with left elements will never happen again. Left-wing politics is completely ideologically homogeneous and isolated from different ideas – it sees the other side as mentally ill and is blind to its own mistakes. This status quo can only be broken by voters when they have finally had enough. Then even the left will awaken from the stupor of prehistoric instincts.