Conservatives think Liberals are wrong. Liberals think Conservatives are stupid. There is a big difference between wrong and stupid. Wrong implies an understanding of argument and willingness to acknowledge different points of view. Stupid implies an elitist arrogance that is at times comic and sad and at others subversive and dangerous.
The Liberal Arrogance is that the Liberal establishment does not believe that Conservatives are capable of understanding or debate and so, like children, they must be tolerated while enlightened grown-ups go on running things in the best interests of everybody. This is why some Liberals are so outraged by President George W. Bush – they believe foolish children are in charge and can't stand the fact that their "expertise" is not valued as authoritative.
This arrogance is the self-defeating characteristic of modern American Liberalism. Without a check on its philosophy, Liberalism's weaknesses can never be improved. By not allowing the possibility that conservatives could even offer a valid criticism of a self-declared liberal "principle," Liberals remove themselves from the process of mature growth. The incredible irony is that the Liberal Arrogance that sees conservatives as children itself turns Liberals into untested philosophical younglings. This creates the culture of the liberal-whiner – the academic/political version of the spoiled brat.
The quest for only one version of "tolerance" makes the Liberal establishment the most intolerant force of cultural destruction and big-brother style thought police. If Liberals would act on their more sane and reasonable principles – and dialog with Conservatives, finding the right path to negotiate an "American" path through a highly polarized society – then they would find more Conservatives willing to work with them to create a truly "progressive" system. But while Liberals continue in the basic understanding that Conservatives are incapable of offering valid criticism, the Arrogance moves on – in further biting irony – expanding the circle of black and white distinctions, never evolving into a modern course of thought that appreciates the contributions all of our society is able to make, never truly becoming what they think they have already become.
Actually,
Liberals think Conservatives are stupid and Conservatives think Liberals are EVIL.
(Dr. Arnn: "I'm a proud member of the stupid party.")
Posted by: daniel silliman at August 25, 2004 12:24 PMDepends on the liberal and the issue. Evil liberals get the most press, but liberal does not necessarily equate with evil. This is a different view than that of liberals who define a "moderate Republican" as one who agrees with all the evil stuff Liberals have to offer, but somehow still wants to be on a committee.
Posted by: Blandus at August 26, 2004 10:23 AMAs a self-described liberal, I would have to respond that you have offered a specious analysis of the left's opinion of the right, or at least a half-formed one. In point of fact, many liberals do think conservatives are stupid. But as should be abundantly obvious from even the most superficial perusal of comments in many different formats, many conservatives not only think liberals are wrong and stupid, but their beliefs are immoral. I think thinking people, whether left or right, are less prone to make such sweeping generalizations.
In point of fact, many liberals DO think that there are articulate spokesmen and women for the conservative movement. The notion of liberalism in its purest form is that it is open to ideas irrespective of their source. That tolerance is thus being touted as intolerance strikes me as an Orwellian comment.
I would also suggest that the (quite common) accusation of arrogance that supposedly many liberals possess is in fact thinly veiled class warfare on the part of those making such accusations. Those who seek to associate education (and without trying to denigrate either, liberals tend to be better educated than conservatives) with arrogance create needless divisions in our society for political gain.
Ockham's Razor suggests that in general the simplest explanation is the most likely to be correct. Wouldn't you own up to the fact that the simplest explanation that accusations of stupidity and arrogance are really the products of political rhetoric?
Posted by: Geoffrey Nathan at November 8, 2004 08:02 PM