The Evolution of Spanish Intellectuals and the Rhetoric of Infallibility

• This article analyzes the ideological shift of prominent Spanish intellectuals who have moved from perceived moderate or progressive stances to increasingly reactionary and inflammatory rhetoric.
• The author argues that these figures use retrospective admissions of past political errors as a mechanism to validate their current, often vitriolic, political critiques.

The Shift to Aggressive Commentary

• Long-time readers recall columnists like Félix de Azúa and Fernando Savater for their intellectual elegance, yet observe a drastic decline into coarseness and hostility in their current work for The Objective.
• Targets of this commentary have evolved from the early days of Podemos and Pablo Iglesias to a persistent, often insulting campaign against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his administration.
• The author highlights that these critiques often rely on unsupported claims—such as equating the current government to criminal organizations—rather than substantive policy debate.

Retrospection as a Tool for Authority

• Azúa’s public reflection on his youthful embrace of Maoism is seen by the author not as genuine remorse, but as a tactical maneuver to bolster his contemporary authority.
• By acknowledging past 'idiocy' shared by many in his generation, these intellectuals create a rhetorical shield that allows them to claim moral clarity in the present.
• The central thesis is that this generation of the 'Transition' era insists on being correct in every stage of their evolution—from radical to reformer to reactionary—effectively using their past errors to insulate themselves from any doubt in their current political convictions.
• Ultimately, the author suggests that the 'virus of madness' these intellectuals attribute to the left may instead describe their own inability to perceive reality beyond their hardened partisan animosities.