There are (and, I guess, there have always been) a group of American citizens that believe with an unshakable passion that, for example,
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The war on terrorism is as ridiculous as the Salem witch hunts.
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Senator McCarthy was wrong and there were no Communists here.
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America is the most terrorist supporting and/or practicing country in the world.
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The current global fundamentalist Islamic threat is the result of America's policies and actions.
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Our leaders are war criminals of the Nuremburg variety.
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We are all deceived continually by our leaders who have a hidden agenda (in addition to that of being reelected).
People like this seem to me to really enjoy feeling angry, frustrated and, at the same time, superior. Their very frustration, caused by the fact that they see what others don't, causes them to feel superior because they believe that they do see what others do not! One emotion feeds upon the other and feeling superior is their life-blood. Typically, if they don't 'expound' in an angry fashion, they do so condescendingly. They believe with a deep and unshakable passion that they are THE true patriots.
Some of the characteristics of this variety of 'patriot' are:
When exposed to ideas they believe only what confirms their already held beliefs. All else is, at best, wrong or, more typically, part of a mendacious, sinister plot to cause them to stray from their 'yellow brick road'.
They behave as though they are targets of a continuous rain of abuse from those less enlightened then they are. Their lives are a constant agony (in spite of which they manage because of their superiority to "bear up") caused by those beyond enlightenment who persist in contradicting them.
They are absolutely incapable of admitting any possibility of error in any of their positions or of admitting that they have changed position if, in fact, they do so. Further, they are totally immune from criticism by their counterparts for erring in any pronouncement. Nothing of the reputation of one of their thought leaders can be damaged in the event his/her prediction or pronouncement is proven wrong. Such an occurrence may, in fact, enhance his/her reputation inasmuch as such an occurrence may subject him/her to being castigated by the untermenchen.
And they HATE!! For these Americans HATE is the major fuel, fear is the cement, and ignorance is the best defense against dangerous new knowledge. When one brings up arguments that cast serious doubts on their cherished beliefs one is not simply making a rhetorical point, one is threatening their whole Universe. That provokes anger and occasionally violence. One cannot reason with them and one even risks violence in confronting them. It is interesting to note that they hate (and fear) the very society that enables them to exist. They even hate the tolerance that exists in our society that causes us to endure their corrosive behavior. I submit that a state of war exists in American society today between those who are tolerant and those who are not just as one exists between most Americans and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. I submit that the only difference between these wars is that in one the enemy is using chemical explosives and in the other he is not (yet). Both have the same objective - to remove all traces of a people wishing to govern itself rather than to rely on self-proclaimed superior beings to govern them.