micheli You are simply not a nice person..I have no idea how old you are, but I'm guessing not very? Perhaps you are merely jealous of young Levi? And you are wrong, I like Levi, he is a 19 year old kid, trying to be a responsible parent. What have you done lately?

Todd He simply cannot handle the fact that the woman he supported for VP - and whose partisan attacks on Obama he loves - is a compulsively lying psychopath with no knowledge of the issues she lambasts others for. She is a bad person, but according to right-wing political correctness and dientity politics, she must be held pure (although, like Mary Magdalene, she must also retain the tiniest blush of sexiness, for the lads). Michael is a nice person, I think. He just has a few buttons directly attached to his limbic system.

Patrick Glenn

Todd :[Palin] is a compulsively lying psychopath with no knowledge of the issues she lambasts others for. She is a bad person, but according to right-wing political correctness and dientity politics, she must be held pure (although, like Mary Magdalene, she must also retain the tiniest blush of sexiness, for the lads).

Todd, if I didn't know any better, I'd suspect that you were a mediocre satirist posing as a petulant little leftist. In that case, I might have said, "Hey, your heart is in the right place, but the hard left already appears to be crazy enough on its own, no need to act like one them. Besides, your satire is just not that funny." But maybe you really are the genuine article: irrational, bitter, nonsensical, and prone to psychological projection? A psychopath is "a person with an antisocial personality disorder, especially one manifested in perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior." Yeah, that sure sounds like Sarah Palin. I guess now, when we disagree with politicians, we'll just call them psychopaths, since the Hitler card is kinda played out these days. I have to hand it to the angry left. They keep coming up with creative news ways of expressing their complex political viewpoints. Todd, when did you have the opportunity to get to know Palin firsthand as a "bad person"? I'm so glad that we have you around to let us know who is good and who is evil. While we're at it, maybe you can save me some time . . . Bobby Jindall - good or evil? Please explain to me how right wing political correctness and identity politics manifest themselves in American society and academia. Also, I would really like to hear your theory on how conservative female political figures "must be held pure" (like Mary Magdalene) . . . yet retain the tiniest blush of sexiness." That sounds very interesting, please enlighten us. Then, maybe I'll learn something and it won't be so easy to push my limbic buttons like it is with Michael's.

Icarus "Michael van der Galien" sounds like an immature, petty, lame, nasty person...just like Sarah Palin.

Todd "A psychopath is “a person with an antisocial personality disorder, especially one manifested in perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior.” " Perverted behavior? I think she actually fits the perversion condition (thanks for making the case for me) considering how deeply resentful she is towards reality the instant it doesn't serve her. "Perverted" has meanings outside of the sexual realm. But what is even worse is the following: a) Much (most?) of the right is *entirely, reflexively in love* with her. The only person more capable of lighting memeorandum up is Cheney. A compulsive liar and a man who wrote with crayon over the constitution - one of the worst VP candidates ever and the worst actual VP ever, and their word is law and anything they throw at Obama causes paroxysms of joy. Palin's supporters are utterly without critical impulses as far as she is concerned, they indulge her because they see her as a political beast of war. b) Because white, conservative christians have their own iterations of political correctness and identity politics protecting them, the media refuses to call her out. Well that, and the fact that the US mainstream media is about as useful as Italian television at this point. "Todd, when did you have the opportunity to get to know Palin firsthand as a “bad person”?" When she said Obama is "palin around with terrorists" and when she said democrats planned to employ "death panels". That's all it should take to get a person (politically) tarred, feathered and carried out on a beam - at least in a country that hasn't given up the ghost entirely. There are many democracies that would never put up with that kind of stupidity, but in America meritocracy has become marketing instead (this is, incidentally, a problem for Obama, who has to live up to product descriptions other made for him). In essence, you have your knickers in a bunch because I am (rightly) being uncivil and hostile towards a politician who gave uncivility and hostility in politics a (very marketable) face. It's just another expression of relativism - apparently, Palin may throw whatever tantrums she likes, and when I point out she is acting like a psychopath and lying like a horrible person, *I* get the "civility and moderated political debate" speech. Take a hike, drama llama, I'm not playing Calvinball with you. "I’m so glad that we have you around to let us know who is good and who is evil" Millions of people would still be alive if more people rejected relativism and upheld the golden rule in all affairs. Palin shows no good faith, and deserves *none* - she only survives because America is losing any pretense to meritocracy. It's quite obvious to me that a horribly large portion of the right is so incapable of admitting errors or learning lessons that they think it's perfectly viable and responsible to try with Bush *once again*, except this time they just changed a Y chromosome into an X. It's not just Palin - it's the fact that no one is standing up to her. "Please explain to me how right wing political correctness and identity politics manifest themselves in American society and academia." One word: homophobia. Homophobia is just as disgusting, and unacceptable as racism, but because this time the "reasoning" behind the bigotry is christian, the hateful get a pass. It is pure, systematic evil. "Also, I would really like to hear your theory on how conservative female political figures “must be held pure” (like Mary Magdalene) . . . yet retain the tiniest blush of sexiness.” " In the sense of "pure", I mean how she never must be criticized, on any point. Just look at how Levi gets treated at this blog after he casually reminded the world that he is Palin's better. As for the sexiness, that's just part of the marketing package.

Patrick Glenn Todd, I got lost trying to follow your last response, which was all over the place. You made about eighteen different points, throwing out one hyperbolic, unsupported assertion after another. Maybe it was my fault. Let me try again, one last time, by asking you to focus on just one item: Please explain to me how right wing political correctness and identity politics manifest themselves in American society and academia. For example, you suggested that "the hateful get a pass" when it comes to homophobia, presumably meaning that when conservatives exibihit homophobic behavior, they are not held to account for their words/actions. Yet, political correctness is generally understood to mean social pressures designed to encourage adherance to particular orthodoxies pertaining to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Therefore, the failure to hold persons to account for words/actions would suggest the absence of "political correctness," not the other way around. Perhaps you meant to suggest that homophobia is part of the orthodoxy of the American right (conservatives, classical liberals) and that right wingers exert social pressures on persons who stray from that particular orthodoxy - i.e. a reverse form of "political correctness"? If that's what you meant, I would be interested in hearing your support for such a case. Otherwise, one might question whether you even understand what political correctness means. Or, one might wonder if you would like to completely redefine the term to better suit your ideological agenda. Anyway, I do think we're more likely to have a fruitful discussion if we can tackle one of your assertions at a time.

Michael Merritt I actually do have an answer to this. It tends to be politically incorrect to say anything bad about Israel. The government of that country, if that needed clarification (and it often does). You start going after the decisions of their government, and you better be prepared to be branded an anti-semite by someone. This political correctness isn't exclusively limited to the right, but it is the strongest there.

Doomed MM Your actually suggesting that political correctness is strongest with the right as opposed to the left? Because of their defense of Israel? A good exercise would be for people left and right to chime in and point out where they believe political correctness exists that is counter productive against one group or the other. I can think of a few examples. Israel is actually one of them. Immigration....You better not be against the immigrants or your a bigot meme. Anti Christian Themes popping up opposing CHRIST mas. Happy Holidays as opposed to Merry Christmas. Bad Mouthing the Military. AGW...Global Warming. If your a skeptic your a DENIER. The science is settled. Our founding fathers were Not Christians...they were deists so you better not use the argument this nation was founded under Christian values. Racial profiling for terrorism suspects. Barak Obama is black therefor any criticism of him is racist. Seriously Im trying to think of some political correctness that would affect the left but since Im mostly on the right I have a hard time shedding my natural affections to think like a Leftener.

Patrick Glenn Michael, that's actually a pretty good example. Although a lot of the American Jews who would enforce that particular orthodoxy typically vote Democratic, the orthodoxy itself is more aligned with the right. But I think Todd still has a long ways to go before he makes a compelling case that right wing political correctness is even in the ballpark of left wing PC.