Ask the Neo-Con

This post starts a new, occasional, service providing pithy answers to readers' questions. Today's query is from Alan P. and others: "You often refer to a "tin-foil hat brigade. What exactly does that mean?"

Well, Alan, the tin-foil hat brigade is composed of liberals --MaxedOutMama would say "fake liberals"--who 1) irrationally loathe George Bush, e.g., "Bush-Hitler"; 2) claim to be peaceful or pacifist but advocate violence; and 3) receive extraterrestrial instructions via silent radio. The tin-foil hats partially shield nonsensical orders from the planet Tobor--but, alas, don't totally block transmissions. Charles Johnson calls them moonbats. The Wide Awakes equates them with Air America.

So much for who they are. In what do they believe? Historian Robert Conquest's description, on page 6 of Dragons of Expectation, is the best:

There are minds that, having risen beyond primitive, unthinking orthodoxies, often merely turn to a rejection of the traditional. Whoever has made this apparent advance is convinced that he or she has reached a superior condition. Minds that have improved their knowledge and remained open to more have indeed progressed. But we often find those who have achieved a critical attitude to the traditional have also adopted a largely, or wholly, uncritical attitude to untried, or even failed, alternatives whose attraction is verbal rather than real.

In other words, prejudiced, condescendingly paternalistic (link fixed scroll down to Dec. 25 1999) types who habitually limit liberty to emphasize equality.

I'll bet everyone knows someone in the brigade. . .

More questions? Email me: nofphost -at- hotmail -dot- com.