Up The Hill Backwards

"Anti-affirmative-action activists Ward Connerly and Abigail Thernstrom are seeing greater historical significance in an Obama victory than many Obama supporters themselves. To them, large numbers of white voters willing to vote for a black man signals a welcome sea change in whites' attitudes toward blacks. And to them, that means that what they've been saying all along is right: Race-based policies designed to redress inequality and past discrimination have outlived their usefulness. That's an idea many Democrats are loath to accept."

-- Gregory Rodriguez, on the NewAge Left's insistence on the demonizing of whites, in the Los Angeles Times

"Evidence that fits with our beliefs is quickly waved through the mental border control, while counter-evidence must submit to close interrogation and, even then, will probably not be admitted. As a result, people can end up holding their beliefs even more strongly after seeing counter-evidence. It's as if we think, 'Well, if that's the best that the other side can come up with then I really must be right.' This phenomenon, called 'belief polarisation', may help to explain why attempting to disillusion people of their perverse misconceptions is so often futile"

-- Cordelia Fine, author of "A Mind Of Its Own," on why NewAge Democrats won't challenge their own wrong-headed ideas, for The Guardian

"A belief system is meant to be a comprehensive network of ideas about what one thinks is absolutely real and true. Within that system, everything is adequately explained and perfectly reasonable. You know exactly how far to go with your beliefs and when to stop your thinking. A belief system is defined by an absolute authority. The authority can be a text or an institution or a person. So it's very important to understand a belief system as independent of religion. After all, Marxism and Nazism were two of the most powerful belief systems ever."

-- James Carse, who slipped into mentioning what NewAgers have decided are more attractive options to Liberalism, on Salon.com.