Mental Illness

A liberal is tolerant of others and the opinions of others. A liberal respects the views of those with whom the liberal disagrees. There is nothing tolerant about the American left.

I am talking about those unhinged folks that think – and loudly proclaim – that President Bush “lied” about his knowledge of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Ii am talking about those folks who think the Bush administration engineered the September 11 attacks on New York’s twin towers. I am talking those folks who would like to see President Bush assassinated and who delight in the idea of a film depicting his assassination.

I am talking about the people who shout down opposing opinions, like the hecklers at any Ann Coulter speech.

Such people seem immune to rationality and logic.

Take hecklers. They want to exercise their rights of free speech. But how does it further free speech to try to shut down the speech of those with whom you disagree?

The answer is that you have a right to free speech when it is your turn to speak. You do not have a right to free speech when it is not your turn to speak. People who shout down others whose turn it is to speak are hypocrites. One has a right to drown out opposing speech only if the speech is an incitement to riot or otherwise unlawful.

That is the answer to the hecklers, but what is the psychology? As far as I can tell, being on the far left is a form of mental illness that has yet to make it to DSM.