Leftism is the belief that society contains a system of oppression and that society's most pressing need is the dismantling of this system. For example, most Am

Leftism is the belief that society contains a system of oppression and that society's most pressing need is the dismantling of this system. For example, most Americans are opposed to racism IMHO, but being opposed to racism is not enough to qualify a person as a Leftist: the Leftist believes that dismantling the racist system almost always trumps other considerations whereas the non-racist non-Leftist tends to think that many thorny problems would remain in our society even if miraculously all racism, sexism, etc, were eliminated. Ideology might be necessary for healthy human mental functioning. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad for having a commitment to an ideology. But there is so much scorn of the rationalist community here in this comment section that rather than reply to every falsehood and every exaggeration, I thought it would be more effective to point out that a commitment to and identification with technological progress can rise to the level of an ideology. I kind of wish I hadn't brought up ideology here: it would probably have sufficed for me to point out that many here on HN hope to strike it rich (and many who hope to make a career) in the AI boom and to point out why these many would see the rationalist community as an enemy.