A primer on how to practice the sophisticated bigotry of the left.

Over at Right Reason, Steve Burton discusses Brian Leiter - the Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin - who has taken the position that rudeness and name-calling are appropriate modes of public discourse. It seems that Leiter takes the position that reasoned argument with the Other - i.e., with anyone other than a committed leftist - is ineffective and the role of public discourse is to vilify and stigmatize.

OK, it's been done before. Much of Martin Luther's intemperate name-calling was a calculated strategy to drive a wedge between his followers and the Catholic Church, who he felt was nothing less than the "Anti-Christ."

So, Leiter's position is not without historical precedent. But let's face it, it does run counter to the idea of calm and civilized discourse which ought to exist if one is dealing with anyone other than the Anti-Christ. It also exposes one to the charge of irrationality and creates a tendency to overstate one's position for rhetorical effect.

All of which Steve Burton points out, without name calling. Burton also points out that he considers Leiter to be a friend, who is exposing himself to public ridicule by this kind of casual attitude to idea of truth.

Professor Leiter responds to this post with the very first comment - and doesn't that speak volumes about what may be an unhealthy narcissism. Leiter's comment is:

Try "former" friend. What happened to you, Steve? Does your ex, Scott--who was always the nice one--know that you've sunk to this level?

I always admired your philosophical acumen, and your contrarian views in aesthetics, and think it a travesty of our profession that you did not secure permanent employment in it.

Ooooh! Meeow! Claw-claw, scratch, scratch.

In case you missed the innuendo, Burton is gay! Quick run him off the sacred premises of conservative thought, which must not be sullied by carnal sin....

Whatever else he may have accomplished, Leiter has clearly demonstrated that he is - to employ the vernacular of the blogosphere - a complete asshat.

Leiter, and others, attempt to defend the gay-baiting with the strategy of widely opening their eyes and saying "what's the problem? I only said what was true. Are you ashamed of your 'ex, Scott'?"

What nonsense. Even dogs distinguish between whether they've been kicked or stumbled over, and here we have a person who admittedly practices ad hominem attacks gratuitously bringing Burton's sexual orientation into the game. It was intended to be a low blow, probably based on one of two assessments: (a) either Leiter thought that this revelation would undermine Burton's support among conservatives, because, after all, conservatives are knee-jerk theocrats or (b) Leiter believed that a conservative homosexual is an oxymoron which refutes itself, thereby metaphorically shoving Burton into a "null space" of self-contradiction from which no one ever returns. Either way, it was a disgraceful attempt at poisoning the well.

Moreover, let's assume that it wasn't gay-baiting. Then, what was the purpose of bringing a third person into the discussion? Is that person supposed to act as the arbiter of the discussion? Would it have been equally fair for Burton to wonder what had happened to Leiter since the days that Leiter's sainted mother taught him not to call other people names? Would it have been fair to invoke some randomly chosen historical or fictional character? What would Sherlock Holmes or Attila the Hun have said about the arguments being advanced? What endless fun.

Like I said, what an asshat.

Of course, Leiter didn't invent this tactic. We all remember last year when the Democrat candidates for President and Vice President apparently forgot the common decency of mankind and worked in gratuitous swipes at Mary Cheney. Those weren't accidental lapses and they weren't intended to be the laudatory commendations of Dick Cheney that they claimed. Obviously, those two and Leiter were looking for a reaction and we know, don't we, what reaction was expected in the fever swamp brains of the bigoted left. It seems that the party that used to practice "race baiting" thinks that it can recapture its glory days through "gay baiting."