# Why are liberals the knee-jerks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 30, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838 "2008-09-30T13:45:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838/21 "2008-10-02T09:08:18Z")

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I think being a knee-jerk _anything_ a way of dismissing the intellectual merits of the other person’s position by accusing them of reacting without thought.

If you can say “you’re just saying that because you’re a liberal” it means you don’t actually have to attempt to understand the position that person has taken (or even whether they’re a liberal or not).

It’s an _ad hominem_ argument to the core: because of who I say you are, your argument is necessarily false.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838/22 "2008-10-03T14:20:44Z")

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> [@Starving\_Artist](#):
>
> I’ve always thought the term referred to liberals who see a problem or inequity of some sort and then reflexively latch onto the first thing that seems to ameliorate the problem, without appreciation or concern for the consequences.

No, the term refers to liberals.

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**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838/23 "2008-10-03T16:54:42Z")

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> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> No, the term refers to liberals.

It does now. But the term can be applied to anything. You can be a kneejerk anything, as long as you specify the anything. It’s just that the conservatives have so successfully linked the term with liberal that we now automatically associate it, because they thought of it first and applied it so assiduously that it caught on and became an idiom.

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-liberals-the-knee-jerks/465838/24 "2008-10-03T17:15:11Z")

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I regard _kneejerk liberal_ as a subtle variation on _bleeding heart liberal_: someone who is guided entirely by his sympathies toward the less fortunate. To a conservative, this person would be a coddler, a ninny, someone who’d rather give a man a lifetime supply of fish than teach him to angle.

_Kneejerk_ just intensifies the accusation of unreason: conservatives like to believe they embody logic and discipline. In reality, though, discipline can be totally kneejerk once it’s ingrained, and overwhelm logic.

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