To wander around America is to discover the happy reality that most liberals and most conservatives are perfectly nice, not particularly smug, and seldom if ever vitriolic. Both camps imagine more disdain existing “on the other side” than actually exists, a perception that has only deepened as social media connects us to conflict. But a bit more introspection from rank-and-file conservatives would also help them to be bothered a bit less by the presence of some smug, vitriolic liberals out there.

Their ideological movement has produced huge amounts of smug, vitriolic content from their most popular entertainers! It is openly disdainful of huge swaths of the country based on nothing but crude ideological stereotypes. Few object, despite bearing no personal animosity toward real-life liberals. So how a couple comedians treat you on TBS and HBO may reflect a cultural trend––and there is nothing wrong with lamenting it, as I have done––but it is not a reliable guide to liberals generally, a proper focus of mental energy, or a defensible rational for supporting reactionaries.

Or take Hillary Clinton calling you deplorables. She erred in doing so.

But be honest, many of you have called Hillary worse, or laughed as someone else did.