- Author: Pedro Tellería
- Date: October 20, 2025
- Web: PedroTelleria.com
- Thought Capsules: Liberal Mind
Introduction.
The Left—the “Lefties,” the socialists (across parties), the collectivists. How can ideas that have failed systematically for more than a century—from Soviet socialism to the most recent Latin American experiments—still dominate public conversation? Why, despite a ruinous record, do collectivist discourses not only survive but also seduce and prevail in universities, media, and even family dinners?
Because they are not playing the same game. While some work, produce, and stay silent, others occupy language, emotions, and the symbolic space. And in today’s politics, that outweighs being right.
1. Language as a battlefield.
The first trench is language. Whoever names, rules. “Violence,” “Equality,” “Gestating Person,” “Hate Speech,” “Denialist,” “Hetero-Patriarchal,” “Fat-Phobic,” “Fascist,” “Neo-Liberal,” … Who decides what these terms mean? They do. And by doing so, they set the rules of the game.
This is not new: Orwell explained it brilliantly in 1984. Changing words reshapes what can be thought. And when “freedom” means “submission,” what room is left to resist?
The trick is simple: they attach their ideas to morally unquestionable concepts. Are you against their version of equality? Then you are an “oppressor.” Do you question their gender narrative? You are “transphobic.” No arguments required—only labels that work like smoke bombs.
2. Moral superiority without invoices.
The great power of the cultural Left is not truth, nor efficiency, nor results. It is Perceived Morality.
They come to “save” the oppressed… even if the oppressed is an abstraction and someone else pays the price. Their causes are always noble, even if their means are authoritarian and their outcomes catastrophic. What counts is the intention. And if you question that intention, you are the problem.
This mechanism shields them. They need not be accountable, because they are not here to “make money,” “be efficient,” or “create prosperity.” They are here to “fight for good.” And against that… who dares?
3. The myth of solidaristic redistribution.
The biggest intellectual fraud of our era is to present forced redistribution as “solidarity.” Solidarity is born of freedom. If it is forced, it is expropriation.
The narrative works because it appeals to the desire to “be good” without personal cost. They demand that “the rich give”… not that “they give.” And if the rich resist, they are demonized. In their world, creating wealth is suspect; living off it, a right.
4. Emotionality as a weapon.
“Data doesn’t matter if there’s a tear to show.” While liberals bring charts, Left advocates bring stories—build the Narrative. Stories of suffering, of oppression, of victims and oppressors. I repeat: “Data doesn’t matter if there’s a tear to show.”
This is their real advantage: they do not argue; they move people. And in an over-stimulated world, where reading is a luxury and feeling is a click, that wins. They sell stories, not reasons. In current politics, reason is a secondary luxury.
5. Occupying institutions.
While some build companies and pay taxes, others capture schools, universities, NGOs, ministries. From there they shape generations of thought. Political education? No—ideological molding. Equality of opportunity? No—imposed equality of outcomes.
The state apparatus is their refuge, springboard, and weapon. And it is paid for… by those who produce. Ironic—and effective.
Conclusion.
Collectivists have not won the battle of reality—they lost it. But they have won—at least for now—the battle of narrative, of language, of public morality.
If we do not want our societies to keep buying ideological smoke wrapped in emotive phrasing, we must learn to fight on that ground.
It is not enough to be right. We must know how to say it. We must occupy spaces, generate culture, and speak in emotional keys without abandoning truth. If we don’t, others will keep speaking for us—and charging us for it.