Or, how "reality-based" their continuous appeasement and betrayal of fundamental values is--from Andy McCarthy at The Corner who ironically notes:
I’ve been asking why the State Department has not designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization, and why Congress’s authorization for the use of military force supporting the war has not been updated to include the Taliban as part of the enemy, given that defeating the Taliban — a terrorist organization – is the stated rationale for our continuing combat operations in Afghanistan.
The obvious, if cynical, explanation seemed to be that we were planning to negotiate with the Taliban (or, at least, encourage Karzai’s negotiating with the Taliban). It is supposed to be U.S. policy — or, at least, it used to be — that we don’t negotiate with terrorists for to do so would reward and thus encourage their barbaric methods. Formally branding the terrorists as terrorists would thus complicate negotiations with them.
And, perhaps most importantly, don't ever allow yourself to believe that there is any real logic or consistency to their so-called "principled" stances:
[from cartoonist Steve Kelley]
Today's progressive left is all about emotional immaturity and casual cruelty; the celebration of appearance over substance; feeling good about themselves as a necessary and sufficient condition for all political policies. Indeed, the unbelievable cognitive dissonance and assbackwards style of at looking at events in the real world is only a clumsy mask (which when it slips, shows them in all their naked, unadorned glory) that hides their profound psychological denial and projection.
In a post called The Denialists, I wrote:
Many people have "creatively adapted"--in some cases, extremely creatively-- to the realities of a post-9/11 world. Denial of reality has become so much a part of their day to day life, that it seems simply amazing to an observer like myself that such individuals, groups, and even nations continue to be unaware of what is actually happening in the world today.
Unfortunately, their unwillingness to face the reality of the rise of Islamofascism and the barbarism it has unleashed around the world has had the consequence of facilitating that barbarism and even encouraging it.
I think of such people as beyond mere psychological denial...they are denialists, those who proudly and defiantly wear the multicultural and PC blinders of the psychologically obtuse. Usually they refer to themselves as "progresssive" and "reality-based"; which just goes to show how creative and imaginitive they actually are.
And, of course, even the most insightful and self-aware among us (which I most certainly do not claim for myself) are vulnerable to lapsing into a state of denial when we are too stressed; or simply when we are too lazy and don't want to examine our own motivations and inner conflicts too clearly.
Those individuals, groups, or nations who live in the world of deep denial are practically untouchable by reality or rational argument. They go through their daily lives secure in the knowledge that their self-image is protected against any information, feelings, or awareness that might make them have to change their view of the world. Nothing--not facts, not observable behavior; not the use of reason, logic, or the evidence of their own senses will make them reevaluate that world view.
All events will simply be reinterpreted to fit into the belief system of that world--no matter how ridiculous, how distorted, hysterical or how psychotic that reinterpretation appears to others. Consistency, common sense, reality, and objective truth are unimportant and are easily discarded--as long as the world view remains intact.
Since we are talking about ideological psychopathology; here is a rather fascinating discussion by James Fallon, who explains some of the key ingredients of psychopathology.
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