Serious studies now show that many western universities, especially in the humanities, have become virtual indoctrination centers for leftist ideology. Even learned, reasonable conservative speech is often harassed on campus. Just as the extreme right rejects legitimate science on issues like climate change so the hard left rejects science on various issues, such as gender and race relations.

The problem is very much like the boy who cried ‘wolf!’ Leftists have so regularly misused terms like ‘racist’ and ’sexist’ to attack anyone who disagrees with them, even slightly or reasonably, that the terms have lost much of their power and people stopped paying attention.

Under many years of leftist government, Brasil has one of the highest murder rates in the world, one of the lowest educational standards, and one of the most corrupt governments. These conclusions come from scholars outside Brasil. I am not justifying an extreme right reaction to the extreme left performance, but that is typical human nature.

The real problem is extremism, left or right. History shows that in the 20th century, Marxists/Communists killed 10 to 20 times more innocent people than Hitler. Yet it is still “fashionable” among some “intellectuals” to identify with Marxism. This is abominable. One could say that Stalin, Mao, the Khmer Rouge etc were not “good communists.” One could equally say that Hitler and Mussolini were not good Fascists. But who would say that?

My personal experience is that it is very difficult to have a fair, rational discussion with someone on the extreme left, or the far right.

I’m afraid that unless the left can self-criticize, and recognize their mistakes, they will not be able to attract a majority of voters.