paul ryan: extremist, of course. so we'll go through a few weeks of this sort of thing. honestly, everyone who disagrees with the new york times editorial page, even slightly, is an extremist. well the same is true of the wall street journal. this is the basic means by which we enforce a narrow range of possibilities - a political spectrum an inch wide - on our beautiful-but-wack nation. you know, gingrich is all about how obama has an extremist socialist vision etc. i'd like to cobble together an extremist party: we could strike extreme fear in the main stream by proposing a 2% tax increase on dog-owners or something. i do so love 'extremist' or 'out of the mainstream': the sheer fact that you are capable of a tiny bit of independent intellection disaqualifies you entirely. 'extremist extremist': all it means is " disagrees with me.' but it tries to shape this stunning criticism through inventing a people to apply peer pressure to even slight deflectors of the weight of public opinion as articulated by the writer. it is the rhetorical stance of extreme cowardice, proceeding from fear to try to strike fear. there's no argument at all except: look he's different than us! crush, batter, kill. i'm going to assume until you stop that slop that you've got no actual reasons to take the positions you do. or rather, that you have no idea what would or would not constitute a good reason to believe anything. i am going to treat you as a pitiable idiot.
i realize this is unlikely, but i'll make you a deal: you stop trying to manipulate me socially into agreeing with you, and i'll stop insulting you.
