Friedrich --

At a liberal-media-elite party I was for some reason asked to attend last night, I encountered a lefty argumentation ploy I hadn't run across before.

Here's how it goes: A rightie was being discussed, and someone said of her that she just wanted to be respected as a rightie; she wasn't a homophobe, a fascist, an environment-despoiler, etc. She was just a conservative.

One lefty-media-elite type said: "So who's getting in her way?" Another lefty-media-elite type shrugged and said, "A little paranoid, eh?"

Of course the media elite lean left, and of course they type anyone to the right of them as racists/homophobes/etc. (And of course they'll never admit it -- less, in my experience, because they're devious and more because they aren't aware it's the case: Lefty-ness is simply the water these fish swim in.) Bernard Goldberg has them nailed good; and, loose cannon though she may be, Ann Coulter is spot-on when she describes their attitudes.

Still, what a great rhetorical ploy: Undercut the right's case by accusing them, in a very bored-and-blase tone, of paranoia, and of imagining things. (For all I know, apolitico that I am, righties may indeed tend to be paranoid.)

What kind of response to this move do you see righties coming up with?

Best,

Michael