Sometime after writing yesterday's post it became clear to me that I may have hit on a very important principle in the language and behaviour of the left.

I have long been aware that the left in America argues politics on the basis of straw-men. These straw-men originate with the caricatures of conservatives which they have created in their minds. It appears to me that the left acts as though they truly believe that these caricatures are not caricatures at all but actually accurate models of how conservatives think.

It may be that leftists don't actually listen to what conservatives are saying because they have convinced themselves that they already understand what conservatives believe. Hence the apparent tendency to resort to straw-man arguments (along the lines of "defend this ridiculous belief of yours").

So last evening it dawned on me what leftists mean when they accuse conservatives of "hypocrisy". To a leftist, a conservative is guilty of "hypocrisy" anytime he does not behave in line with the caricature leftists maintain about him.

I have some confirmation of this in the meme I have read and heard today that it is "hypocrisy" for Speaker Hastert or any other Republican not to behave as a class-A "homophobe".

If there is a project to create a Leftist-blather to English dictionary I am all over the letter 'H'.