posted October 23, 2006 12:21 PM            

Beware the liberliars
Posted: October 19, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Robert Ringer

A number of events over the past few weeks have again reminded me what a menacing condition so-called liberalism is.

First, there was Brian Rohrbough, whose 15-year-old son Daniel was killed in the Columbine massacre. During his interview with Katie Couric, Rohrbough said, among other things, "For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum. We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you, the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion."

Amazingly, on her Internet blog, Killer Katie wrote, "We knew when we decided to put on this segment that a lot of people would disagree with it. We also knew some might even find it repugnant." Hmm … I must have missed something.

Then there was the ever-gentle Barbra telling a heckler to "Shut the f–- up" because he was displeased with her skit portraying President Bush as a bumbling idiot. And I'll bet you thought Mr. Streisand married Babs for her money. Not so. It's her femininity that he found irresistible.

Finally, there was the near-riot at Columbia University when Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, spoke at that revered institution of higher learning. Brain-scrambled students made like savages as they overturned tables and chairs and shouted down Gilchrist.

Speaking of savages, it reminded me that today's liberalism is, as the title of Michael Savage's book puts it, a mental disorder. I use the term "today's liberalism," because the word liberal was long ago hijacked by a dysfunctional group of self-serving moralists who now use it to mean restriction of liberty.

A true liberal is open-minded and tolerant, which more accurately describes libertarians. The truth be known, hard-core liberals of today are conspicuously closed-minded and intolerant. Worse, as Shelby Steele points out in his revealing book, "White Guilt," today's liberals are inherently racist. They believe that people of color are not smart enough or responsible enough to make it on their own.

All of which is why I prefer to use the term "liberliar" rather than liberal, because to be so abjectly closed-minded, intolerant and racist, one must lie to oneself. Of course, there are many different kinds of lying. Some liberliars consciously lie with a premeditated intent to deceive. Others lie without really being consciously aware that they're lying. But the lying that all liberliars have in common is that they lie to themselves.

Why? Because liberliarism is so at odds with reality that the only way a person can remain a liberliar is to deceive himself. It's a form of cognitive dissonance, a psychological term used to describe the discomfort a person experiences when confronted with facts that contradict his belief system.

A true liberliar simply ignores such facts and clings to his firmly entrenched beliefs no matter how unfounded they may be. Which is why liberlying is, literally speaking, a mental disorder.

Because of my fascination with the human psyche, I've spent years studying this crippling cerebral condition. As a result, I've managed to isolate five distinct subcategories of liberliars, as follows:

Dumblibs. Dumblibs are liberaliars who lack the intelligence to accurately process information. They simply do not have the mental capacity to understand why their entrenched beliefs are immoral and contradictory. Think Deaniacs.

Emptylibs. Emptylibs do not lack intelligence; they lack knowledge. They tend to babble incessantly and incoherently in an effort to cover up their empty-headedness. To drown out those who dare to confront them with facts, they are adept at talking loud, fast and aggressive. When all else fails, they resort to shrieking. Think college kids wearing Che Guevara T-shirts.

Nicelibs. Nicelibs are for the most part well-intentioned but clueless liberliars. But don't be fooled. Well-meaning liberliars who act contrary to reality can be just as dangerous as malevolent liberliars who have an accurate grasp of the facts. The reason for this is that people tend to let their guards down against those who are seemingly well-meaning. Think Lanny Davis and Juan Williams.

Fakelibs. Fakelibs are the liberliars who have more in common with Marie Antoinette and the Upper Eastside dinner-party crowd than with the downtrodden they claim to represent. They thrive on hiding inside their mansions and babbling endlessly about helping "the poor" and disemboweling "the rich."

In reality, most fakelibs are extreme narcissists who worship money and material possessions and, notwithstanding their shameless rhetoric, harbor an obvious disdain for society's underclass. Think most of Hollywood.

Meanlibs. Meanlibs are liberliars who are out-and-out malevolent. They truly enjoy inflicting pain. They hate free speech with a passion. And, above all, they are inclined to violence. Meanlibs who achieve notoriety almost always transform into fakelibs as they become addicted to the goodies that go along with their increased power. Think James Carville and Dan Rather.

Can liberliars be saved? It's theoretically possible, but conversion to a rational, moral life must normally occur between the ages of 25 and 35. Before 25, a liberliar hasn't had enough time for the Marxist rhetoric of his college professors to have been tested in the real world. After 35, stubbornness tends to set in, because the liberliar cannot accept the devastating reality that he has wasted years of his life constructing a belief system that is unethical, immoral and harmful to others.

Liberliars would do well to heed the words of Eric Hoffer: "A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."