The Enemies of Truth Are Waging Asymmetric Warfare—and the Left Is Losing for Lack of Theory
- john raymond
- Jul 24
- 3 min read
We are not living through an age of mindless chaos. We are living through a planned war. The breakdown of truth, the rise of authoritarianism, the fracturing of liberal institutions—none of this is incidental, and none of it is accidental. It is the result of deliberate, asymmetric warfare waged by the enemies of truth and consensus: Putin, Trump, and the global autocratic axis, aided and abetted by monied elites who profit from disorder and decline.
The Left is failing, not because it lacks the moral high ground, but because it lacks structure. Not procedural structure—there is no shortage of committees and messaging teams—but theoretical structure. Progressives and Democrats continue to approach this epochal crisis as though it were a series of unfortunate events: Trump’s election, Brexit, January 6th, the erosion of reproductive rights, the assault on Ukraine, the collapse of consensus on climate and vaccines. These are not unrelated phenomena. They are coordinated disruptions—points in a single, strategic offensive aimed at destabilizing liberal democracy. But the Left sees symptoms, not systems.
This is a fatal mistake.
What the enemies of truth understand is that narrative coherence is power. Authoritarians don’t need to be factually right. They need to be strategically consistent. They need to know what they are doing and why—and they do. Putin wages this war not to restore an empire but to secure his regime. Trump serves Putin not because he’s an idiot, but because he's aligned—morally, financially, and strategically. Together, they represent a coherent worldview: one in which power is its own justification, in which truth is optional, and in which the weak exist to be manipulated into submission or destroyed if they refuse to kneel.
The Left, by contrast, is intellectually fragmented. It has its pithy memes, its moral outrage, its viral tweets—but not a unified field theory. Even satire, which I myself sometimes employ, cannot substitute for structured thinking. Our adversaries are not merely wrong—they are systematically wrong on purpose. And if we do not learn to respond with systematic clarity, we will continue to lose ground to their lies.
What’s needed is a new Darwin—someone who does not just catalog the brokenness of the world but explains it with an elegant, powerful model. Before Darwin, naturalists observed variation without understanding speciation. After Darwin, the idea of descent with modification unlocked the next century of scientific progress. So too now: we must build a theory that explains why liberal democracy is failing, and what can be done to save it.
And it starts with this: the billionaire class is not a collection of geniuses. It is a collection of winners in a rigged game—lucky, ruthless, and all too often aligned with autocracy. The liberal assumption that wealth equals virtue must be discarded. The idea that treason requires a signed confession must be buried. And the comforting myth that our enemies are merely stupid, rather than malicious and strategically cunning, must be incinerated. Trump is not misguided. He is aligned. His motivations are not incoherent—they are simply evil. And if we continue to underestimate him, we empower him.
It is not enough to say Trump is egotistical. That lets everyone off the hook. That explanation doesn't explain why he consistently serves Russian interests, undermines NATO, and echoes Kremlin propaganda. The truth—that he is an asset, and has been for decades—requires courage to state and discipline to defend. And that courage must be rooted in theory, not vibe.
The failure of the Democratic establishment is not just moral, but intellectual. Many are captured by money. Their incentives are misaligned with the needs of the people. But this does not mean we are doomed. It means the space is open for the rise of a new kind of leader—one who speaks not only with moral clarity but with theoretical rigor. One who understands that justice is not just a feeling but a function of power. One who understands that propaganda is not just misinformation, but a strategic weapon of the powerful against the people.
To fight back, we must start where all victories begin: with the truth. Truth about who we are. Truth about why we want power—not for ourselves, but for those who are hurting, exploited, and silenced. Truth about who the enemy is, and how they use lies, disinformation, and psychological warfare to subvert the republic and the wider West.
This is not a moment for cleverness. It is a moment for clarity.
Let the theorists rise. Let the structured thinkers lead. The future will not be won by those who simply oppose evil, but by those who understand it—and know how to defeat it.
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