Try talking about politics without using the terms right and left.

Strike the root.

Careful readers may want to see if I really did attribute such bad things to left-libertarians in particular, or whether I had merely characterized “the left” in general.

It has been my impression that people move to the left because it seems “cool.” One reason I’m resistant to such enticements is that I remember my childhood and my youth. The coolest kids were often the most foolish. And now that Americans have elected a demonstrably cool president, we can see what that can mean.

On the right there seems to be a strong sense of disgust, especially at people who live differently from oneself.

You cannot get much more basic than “coolness” (which is a revival of honor codes applied to sexual riskiness and daring, usually) and “disgust” (which is one of the seven basic affects – when applied to decay and bodily fluids, etc.). But they are very tangential to substantive political issues.

They have everything to do with the style of evaluation and value-maintenance.