Port Authority

Trying to make sense of it all
But I can see that it makes no sense at all
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor
'Cause I don't think I can take anymore
--Stealers Wheel

Because many of those who inhabit the left side of the Left/Right political spectrum often chastise those on the far right for employing authoritarian tactics, it seems likely that those leftists do not view themselves as authoritarian in nature. After all, folks on the left often voice disdain for violence, and advocate democracy over dictatorial edict.

Yet their policies are as authoritarian as their counterparts. As Trenchard and Gordon wrote in their early 1700s publication Cato's Letters:

It is a mistaken notion in government, that the interest of the majority is to be consulted, since in society every man has a right to everymans' assistance in the enjoyment and defense of his private property; otherwise the greater number will sell the lesser, and divide their estates amongst themselves; and so, instead of a society, where all peaceable men are protected, become a conspiracy of the many against the minority. With as much equity may one man wantonly dispose of all, and violence may be sanctified by mere power.

Tyranny by the few, or tyranny by the many.

Reference

Trenchard, J. & Gordon, T. 1965. "Cato's letters," In D.L. Jacobson (ed.), The English libertarian heritage. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co.