I try very hard to use the language to transport what I mean and I hate if someone tries to misunderstood me by not reading and not quoting exactly:

IMO calling people "stupid" lacks coutesy also. (Alba)

That's the fundamental error of misattribution of a behaviour in a special situation to the trait of a person instead of to characteristics of the situation or the state. I have not called people stupid here (as if this were their general trait) nor do I think they are. Their behaviour in one particular situation and context makes them look stupid in my eyes in this context.

For me that is the same difference as between telling someone that she has asked a stupid question or argumented stupidly in one situation and that she is (in general) a stupid person. Two very different things. I tend to react quite differently to someone saying to me "You looked rather stupid yesterday in that situation" instead of "You are stupid".

Purple Fox,

Frank J. Sulloway is most probably the name you are looking for.

I have no idea what rarelamb's intention has been when starting this thread. But the content of the link is much more complimentary at the first glance (assuming one dares or bothers to go that far) to 'liberals' than to 'conservatives'. I'd rather discuss the content of that research than make guesses about intentions.

Wolfgang