I think Yglesias misses the point here :
I have a condescending attitude toward this op-ed. Of course I think my views are correct and based on fact and reason. If I thought my views weren’t correct and based on fact and reason, I would adopt different views—correct fact-and-reason based ones. Does Alexander really think that conservatives don’t think their views are correct? Does Alexander not think his own views are correct? Not based on fact? Not based on reason? I’m not sure it’s possible to be condescending enough to this op-ed.
Of course people think their beliefs are correct or they would change them. But people differ in how confident they are that they are correct. People who think political issues are obvious and clear cut are more apt to consider their opponents evil rather than simply mistaken. Which makes them more inclined to try to crush opponents rather than convert them. Obviously fanaticism is found on both ends of the political spectrum but I think liberals have greater tendency than conservatives to see political struggles as battles between good and evil.
Raw data: A cautionary tale
6 hours ago
My experience is quite the opposite. I observe that conservatives tend to label everyone whose views differ in any manner from their own as being "liberals", often associating the term with various pejorative words, such as "degenerate" and "fetish". Conservative phrasing frequently suggests that liberals are intentionally trying to destroy our way of life. For many conservatives the evils of liberalism are exacerbated by its supposed alliance with godlessness, which they regard as the ultimate evil.
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