The temptation to intuit motive is not solely a feature of left-wing discourse, of course, but here it is far more common. It is partly a remnant of the deconstructive approach propounded by Jacques Derrida, with its focus on unconscious elements that manifest in any given text. Many on the left display an unfortunate – and frankly childish – tendency to dismiss those on the right as evil, whereas right-wing dismissals of leftist ideas usually come down to a suspicion that they are naïve, deluded, or a combination of the two. Neither prejudice is helpful, but one is certainly more pernicious
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