Everybody's Crazy

John Avlon tackles the wingnut Left.

Lunatics on either side are of course, equally dangerous. The cretin muttering in the corner about Obama's concentration camps is just as berserk as the denialist waving a communist flag in the face of millions dead. That said, at least in this current political season, I find the Left unhinged fringe a bit less threatening than that provided by the Right.

I say this not because policies enacted by an empowered Left fringe would be any less dangerous than those enacted by an empowered Right. I say this because at this point, I trust that the Left fringe is more controlled. The fringe exists within a larger Left that still entertains debate and discussion.

If there has been a great political tragedy of late, it's the abandonment of hard (and arguably cold), intellectualism by the Right. Buckleys rationality has been replaced by Becks screaming.

What's particularly problematic is that as opposed to leftist daydreams of where society can be (we're all happy, healthy and wearing beige!), the Right has substituted a nightmare of where society is at right now. It's this sort of worldview that encourages a shut down of rational argument and substitutes pure feeling instead. From the current Right fringe perspective, they will not discuss with the Devil.