From Brilliant to Moron in Ten Seconds Flat (or Vice Versa)

I just read a post by yet another left-winger who simply cannot conceive of two brain cells coexisting within the skull of a right-winger.

I will concede quickly that I have often read commentary like that coming from the right-wing end of the blogosphere and aimed at left-wingers. I find it just as regrettable there.

What gets me--when it's aimed at me, at least--is that politics is not the only thing I write or talk about. I've been in the position, more than a few times, of someone exclaiming about how learned and brilliant I am (Yes, the ol' IQ tests well above Mensa standards, if you want to know). As long as I'm talking about a subject that hasn't yet become a bone of contention, that is. But let the talk drift to politics--and boy...

...within seconds, I kid thee not, if that person is a leftist, more often than not, I, the formerly brilliant commentator on topic X, become a drooling halfwit. Clearly without the mental wherewithal to have done the reading and cogitating necessary to arriving at a well-informed, well-thought-out opinion. It's like leftists abhor the very thought that someone reasonably intelligent and well-informed might arrive at a conservative opinion, like that possibility somehow threatens them.

I've also seen this kind of thing in reverse, usually as regards homeschooling. When that subject comes up, invariably I am, at first, a drooling moron who doesn't understand how crucial government indoctrination is public schools are to this country. After a little explanation as to the real facts of the situation and the results we have obtained, I quickly become so brilliant that my results cannot be replicated by normal people: "Well, that may work for you and your family, MOTW, but you're clearly smarter than most people..."

Feh. After a while, you get kind of tired of it.