This is why they react with rage when presented with any information that forces them to confront the possibility that their convictions are mainly a form of ego-defense and self-soothing. Even the most banal observations — “ICE is obviously not a modern-day Gestapo indiscriminately gunning down civilians in the street” — are met with rage. Probably, the more banal the observation, the more mad they get. Lucky for them, the rage serves two useful purposes, bullying others into submission and making their righteousness seem plausible. From there, it’s easy to dismiss anyone who sees through the behavior as cruel, evil and “lacking in empathy.” Again, the most cruel and evil and unempathetic people are not those who match their tone for the other side, but those who try to reason with them. This is what people like Lasch and TLP meant when they talked about narcissism as a generational pathology and they were right because it’s everywhere around us and more or less resembles what we call being a liberal.