The Atlantic‘s firing of Kevin Williamson over his views on abortion sent political Twitter abuzz this week. Conservatives and libertarians generally condemned the cowardice involved, and the swarming pushback from progressives captured the pitch-perfect drone of the hive mind.

Perhaps there is a lesson here. Despite having achieved their goal, progressives felt it necessary with a torrent of widely-varying but equally flimsy rationales in support of the firing. Here is a handy guide to the seven most common (and dumbest) attempted defenses of the firing.

1. National Review Doesn’t Hire Progressives.

This response is based on the faulty premise that The Atlantic is the same as outlets like National Review. In reality, The Atlantic‘s founding motto was, “Of no party or clique.” It still pretends to this motto; otherwise, editor Jeffrey Goldberg would not have hired Williamson in the first place.

In contrast, National Review was founded precisely because conservative views were marginalized in the establishment media. Goldberg’s cowardly cave-in demonstrates the necessity for conservative media, even though marginalizing roughly half of America has corrosive effects on left and right alike.