ER caught on to one level of meaning in my post, as evidenced when he wrote 'As far as subjective reality is concerned, "insufferably smug, self-congratulating insults and simple-minded generalizations about your opponents" is exactly what prompted this thread'. Gotcha.

But there's additional meaning there of a recursive sort, because my comments about the cognitive filters of "the Conservative mind" will be interpreted differently through that set of cognitive filters than it will be through cognitive filters of another sort.

"The Liberal mind" might hear in my comments a call for more tolerance of Conservatives, based on a better understanding of what drives them. I also know that the very word "understanding" is one of the minefields in the Conservative Mind [how about just "TCM" from now on?]. Interestingly enough, in this case it is somewhat shaded with sympathy, which makes it a message more palatable to TLM [get it?] than TCM.

The trait that I think is deserving of some consideration by Liberals is also one the admission of which would be like unto the pulling of teeth for the TCM. We could just stipulate that you've shrieked bloody murder, and save you the bloody fingers and me the bloody eyeballs. OK? Here goes:

Conservatives are driven by fear.

Yeah, fear. Think of how many expressions of Conservative outrage are expressions of fear of loss: Of material things and the status they bring, of freedom, of life to Commies once upon a time, and to terrorists now; of a loss of a way of life; a loss of values and shared beliefs. Think of the compensatory chest-thumping and "bring 'em on!" bravado.

Also, no doubt there's fear that I could use understanding of TCM as a weapon. Fair enough. I know that when we've wrangled over the word "understanding" in the context of terrorism, I maintained that intellectual understanding of the mind of an enemy is a concrete strategic advantage. I, if you'll forgive the word now, understand why you might worry about that.

Transparency and openness are the only antidote for that fear. I only post these musings on TCM in public where people of all persuasions can examine them. I'm not building a secret cadre of Understanding Ninjas to eat your brains. There's no secret conspiracy to understand Conservatism out of existence. Only the desire to bring the world back into a proper balance where we can both prosper. Pursuit of absolute maxima is killing us; we need to pursue the optimum.