Liberals Don't Regularly Have Orgies (And Other Discoveries)

Mike

If you're conservative or libertarian, you can sympathize with this post.  In essence, a liberalish law professor actually listened to Rush Limbaugh and was shocked to learn that he's, well, a hedonist.  (Can you really get as fat as Limbaugh was without being a pleasure seeker?)  What got the ire of one conservative blogger was that liberals seem to discuss similar "discoveries" about conservatives all the time - as if these discoveries aren't banal and widely-known. 

Liberals write about conservatives and libertarians are some weird species that needs to be studied.  Saying, "Rush is a hedonist" is sort of like saying, "Did you know Bill Clinton likes oral sex?"  It's stating the obvious.

And what is frustrating is that liberals don't realize they are stating the obvious.  Imagine if I wrote: "I've been talking to some liberals, and I've learned that they don't practice paganism, have orgies, they aren't harboring any members of Al Qaeda, and they don't treat 9-11 like a national day of celebration."  People would think such "observations" were pretty hilarious.  While rolling their eyes, they'd say, "Wow, Mike, you're just having all sorts of deep discoveries lately, aren't you?"

And yet the more liberally-inclined members of society seem to find it fascinating that, e.g., conservatives have sex, drink wine, and smoke cigars; and that libertarians don't laugh at the homeless and wish poverty on people.

What is even more hilarious is that liberals claim to be the party of nuance.  How does, "You shouldn't have sex before you're married" lead to, "Conservatives hate sex"?  How does, "People should have the freedom to rise and fall based on their own abilities," lead to, "Libertarians like it when people fail"?  And yet, those are popularly-held liberal beliefs.  So much for nuance!