Regarding the last item you’ve mentioned here…that article’s comment thread features an itemized response that on first blush appears to blow all the author’s original arguments out of the water. I personally can’t decide whether or not the commenter was sincere or attempting satire, but it illustrates the folly of attempting to argue with modern-day “conservatives”. First, they draw upon “facts” that in their “reality” are as valid as anything you or I might propose, and secondly, they’ve been well conditioned to respond to anything that challenges their beliefs with a question, a deflection or a claim that’s so absurd that it places the burden of proof on their adversaries.

Case in point: Since the earliest day of the Internet I’ve received emails and seen Facebook postings by friends and relatives on the right, many of which are variations on urban myths that have been circulating since AOL constituted most civilians’ connection to cyberspace. We’re talking about stuff like “Nancy Pelosi’s snuck a mandatory-abortion rider onto the defense budget” or “Obama’s about to impose Sharia law”. Until early this year, I’d generally reply to a link to Snopes debunking the claim and an admonishment to the sender to check one’s facts prior to wasting people’s time with nonsense. More often than not I’d get an apology and thanks for setting them straight. Now, it seems most of them have been programmed to reply that “Snopes is owned by George Soros.” It isn’t, but that places the burden on me to find irrefutable evidence of who actually DOES own Snopes…which isn’t readily available because up to now, nobody cared.