The intellectual disconnect that seems to infect some of the more rabid leftists in this country never ceases to amaze me. Between the almost fanatic recitation of the canon that is the modern day leftist and the devotion to dystopian ideals would be amusing if it weren't so scary. We've seen this again and again throughout history, particularly during the 20th century.
The modern version seems incapable of taking part in honest debate, mistaking repetition of the same talking points ad nauseum as debate and resorting to ad hominem attacks when their opponent refuses to recognize the brilliance of their rote memorized manifesto. Facts aren't important, nor is logic. Ideology trumps experience, and their favorite 'argument' to end debate is to state “the matter is settled,” as if that's all that's required to 'win'.
I see examples of this all the time in the comments section of various opinion pieces published in the Wall Street Journal, with these very witty and erudite leftists putting us in our place, [/sarc]
One of the more illuminating examples was seen today in this piece about the Keystone XL pipeline and how Obama is doing what he can to stall it, perhaps at the behest of his buddy Warren Buffett.
One of Obama's defenders immediately started the vitriol, slamming anyone who didn't agree with him as “right wingers” who “are junkies” who have been “cowed by the control of Big Oil.”
One claim he kept hammering us with was how the pipeline would “destroy American agriculture.” When asked to explain he lays out such a fantasy about a massive crude oil leak that will poison the entire aquifer in short order. Even though a few of the other commenters tried to point out the amount of crude required to do that was well above the capacity of the proposed pipeline and that it would take years to dump that much crude, but he was unconvinced. Apparently he believes that the amount needed to wipe out agriculture in the Midwest would take only a few hours to leak from the pipeline.
I could quote him directly, but I figured it would be more entertaining if you go read it for yourself. There will be no problem identifying him as all you have to do is read the comments. You'll see him again and again....and again...and again. He loves using copy and paste as if all he has to do to convince anyone is to repeat the same crap over and over again. He has absolutely no concept of science or the scientific method, and resorts to ad hominem attacks at the drop of a hat.
I wish I could say that folks like him are few and far between on the WSJ opinion page, but they are all too common. At times it's scary to think that people as delusional as this fellow are out there in large numbers. What's even scarier is that they are true believers, and true believers are always the most dangerous people because they can find ways to justify anything to prevent their ideology from being challenged.
