When life was simpler it seems like we were better able to segregate the reasonable from the unreasonable, the passionate from the paranoid, the intense from the insane. Today, there is no longer a big bright line recognized by all separating the ridiculous from reality.Presently, two ongoing stories in the national press bring this sad state of affairs into stark relief: the nomination battle over Sonia Sotomayor, and the Dick Cheney national speaking tour. In both cases, folks with national audiences and plenty of resources are saying things that ought to get them laughed off the stage for stupidity and naked dishonestly.
The strange part is that none of the absurd lies, distortions, and twisted interpretations are actually fooling anyone, even those who are repeating them out of political self interest. That's right, I'm saying that most of the ditto heads and O'Reilly Factor fans who dutifully parrot the lines of the day DO NOT ACTUALLY BELIEVE that their claims are "true," in the strictest sense. Rather, they believe their claims are "right" or "righteous" means to achieve larger, more important, ideological ends.
Extremists of all stripes perform this kind of mental gymnastics in order to maintain prejudices that form the core of their worldview in the minds of impressionable followers. For such folks, sober self reflection would be self destruction. This type of behavior used to be confined to marginal kooks like Lyndon LaRouche or cult leaders. Now, argument by oft repeated (and often untrue) assertion is the method of choice even for "mainstream" political activists, to say nothing of so-called "political pundits."
The good news for you is that if you are reading this it is very unlikely that you are persuaded by anti-intellectual arguments. As far as Sotomayor's nomination and Dick Cheney's revisionist tour, her confirmation and the sober judgement of history on the Bush-Cheney record would (and I think will)help confirm the popular political wisdom that in the long run the people are by and large reasonable and tend to get it right.