Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Why Do Conservatives Oppose ObamaCare?

Robert Paul Wolff has an answer for us.  Ready?  The bolding is Wolff's own and is twice-repeated:

Because Obama is Black.

Is Professor Wolff serious? I'm afraid he is.  But given that the man is neither stupid nor the usual sort of left-wing moral scumbag, how could he be serious?  What explains a view so plainly delusional?  How account for an emotion-driven mere dismissal of the conservative position the arguments for which he will not examine? How is it that a professional philosopher, indeed a very good one, can engage in such puerile ad hominem psychologizing?  Wolff himself provides an answer in a later post:

My knowledge of the beliefs and sentiments of those on the right is based entirely on things I have read or have seen on television.  I have never had a conversation with a committed right-wing opponent of the Affordable Care Act, nor have I even, to the best of my knowledge, met one.  You would be quite correct in inferring that I live in a left-wing bubble [called Chapel Hill — before that, I lived in a left-wing bubble called Amherst, MA, and before that I lived in the right wing bubbles called Morningside Heights, Hyde Park, and Cambridge.]   If this strikes you as disqualifying my from having an opinion, you are free to ignore the rest of this post.

Need I say more?


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