Pete Abel's post went to the heart of what TMV is all about. Be reasonable; be considerate; listen to all sides; avoid ad hominems; don't assume that anyone holds “the truth”; stuff like that.

So jwest responds with this visceral, ad hominem laced attack on the post and TMV readers in general just to see what the reaction would be.

So, how'd we do?

I've read your things on TMV for a long time, as more of a lurker than anything. Your positions – like many at TMV – are left-of-center. However, they aren't presented in a mean-spirited way. Your latest post was a good one, and a reminder to all of us on this blog to listen others, and not to just talk. In the same way, as I post here at TMV with right-of-center ideas, I hope that my thoughts will be received magnanimously, and not just with ad hominem or silence.

Pete's comment has no arrogance and no anger. It's nothing more than a reminder to us all to be more objective in our thinking. To take a step back and recognize our emotional biases, which we all have. These are the goals of a good moderate, or we wouldn't be moderates.

And you reacted emotionally. You don't understand what this site is striving for. You just don't get it.

My comment probably was over the top, but its hard to describe how totally offensive this insufferable, pompous screed of Pete Abel's is to me.

“Oh, look how tolerant I am!” “I’ll try hard in the future to listen to the evil, racist, war mongering hicks”.

Well, thanks a lot Mr. Abel for being so open minded. As you and Frank Rich know (and is articulated nightly by such luminaries as Keith Olbermann and Ed Shultz) the world would be such a nice place if only the “extremist” on the right had the brains to agree with you.

It’s not Abel’s politics that set me off, it’s the attitude that he is being magnanimous with his time even considering another point of view.

Good lord.

Look I don't know exactly how to put this but there are just as many closed-minded people and wingnuts on the left as there are on the right. Don't worry about whether the extremes will listen to you, they will only listen to people who echo what they themselves say and then insult the rest. The less you worry about them the less important they become.

And jwest for pete's sake man, you have so many good things to say but why can't you be polite saying them?

There are those who would interpret a phrase like that to be an unprovoked, ad hominen attack on someone who was making an effort to bring comity to a diverse group.

No, I certainly won't lower myself calling someone “a f***ing foul mouth,” but I will tell you that it is pretty tempting sometimes.

My first reaction to this sentence was this:

“Kiss my ass you self-righteous prick.”

But I knew that somehow, this would be taken in the wrong light. There are those who would interpret a phrase like that to be an unprovoked, ad hominen attack on someone who was making an effort to bring comity to a diverse group. Far from that, the reaction was a natural stance to a frame of mind that views conservative thought outside of the estrogen-filled ramblings of David Brooks and Christopher Buckley as “extreme”.

On its own, should someone’s position in the center of politics evoke such a response?

Of course not. Until, that is, the same person starts to use his “moderate” and “sensible” air of reasonableness to tout Frank Rich as less than a raving lunatic leftist who viscerally hates and wishes death on all things conservative.

No, I won’t stoop to using words like “Kiss my ass”, and I certainly won’t lower myself by calling you a “self-righteous prick”. But I will tell you that you have none of the credibility that Hilzoy had in her writings, by virtue of your unbalanced and intellectually insulting depiction of partisan writers.

“Quite recently — a month ago, today, in fact — I explained why I was finding it increasingly difficult to listen to the contemporary right wing of American politics. Hilzoy’s parting shot encourages me to try again to listen to them, even though many of them clearly don’t want to listen to me and my ilk.”

I will try to follow your example