Following a piece by Gerard Henderson noting the preponderance of ex-leftists on the Australian intellectual right, quite a few bloggers have revealed themselves as part of this tendency to a greater or lesser degree.

It has always struck me how much of the tone of the Australian and US right is set by ex-leftists and particularly by ex-Marxists. Particularly noticeable is the fact that, despite having been deceived by one ideology claiming to have all the answers, the ex-Marxist rightwingers are just as dogmatic in their new faith as in the old one – Keith Windschuttle is just the latest example of this.

Another feature which is almost as universal is the persistence of whining about persecution. This was always rather tiresome when leftists were complaining about being persecuted by ruling classes (‘Dennis’ in Monty Python and the Holy Grail captures the tone perfectly), but after all there was some basis for the complaint. The left was routinely spied on by security agencies and the Menzies government did try to ban the Communist party. To hear the same whining tone when highly paid employees of well-funded thinktanks are complaining because a few students call them nasty names is just pathetic. David Horowitz is the prime exponent of this, but it’s the central characteristic of the whole right-wing campaign against ‘political correctness’.

The final noteworthy characteristic is over-compensation for past sins. Undoubtedly it was a mistake to support dictators like Ho Chi Minh and Castro, as many leftists did in the 60s and 70s, let alone Stalin and his successors. But recognising that obvious fact shouldn’t blind people to the fact that there are plenty of very nasty types on the other side, starting close to home with Suharto and his cronies. Nor should an appreciation of the faults of communism lead to automatic endorsement of capitalism. This latter point was recognised by consistent anti-communists like BA Santamaria and Robert Manne, both of whom moved sharply to the left once it was clear that communism no longer posed a threat.

I don’t feel any need for such compensation myself. I don’t go in for protest marches these days, but when I did, I was just as keen to demonstrate against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan as I was to protest against apartheid and the neutron bomb. The spectacle of people who were once far to my left whizzing past me on their journey to the far-right leaves me bemused, especially when the tone in which they attack social-democratic views like mine remains essentially unchanged.