But it goes back to the lib/concerv, pro/amateurs divide that Expat mentions; most conservatives I know don’t care that you don’t wear a bra, or that my mom (double mastectomy) doesn’t wear a bra, so long as it’s not, ahem, disturbingly apparent that is the case. Even then, the most I’ve ever seen happen is a tendency to offer a jacket.

On the other hand, I’ve been chewed out on ideological grounds for wearing comfortable foundation garments. Never mind that not doing so would effectively remove me from doing heavy *laundry*, let alone the more physical jobs I tend to do– the ideology is all. (Tried to write “idiotology.” >.

LOL!!! Well, I’m about as conservative as they come, and I haven’t worn a bra in years!

These are the kinds of things that remind me of the fact that, in the old Soviet Union, political dissidents were often placed in mental hospitals.

And then there’s also the fact that, when I read Wretchard’s post this morning (happily quoted by Neo this afternoon), I was yet again, and no doubt not for the last time, reminded of the Illuminati Trilogy: http://tinyurl.com/2dswbfy

I know sophisticated folk are not supposed to believe in conspiracy theories. But still, one wonders sometimes. . . .

Their tolerance, or their show of it anyway, is additionally patronizing–in some nearly indefinable way. They patronize those whom they believe (in true life), by accident of birth and culture, to be inferior. They don’t, I think, really imagine Muslims, or black Africans, or Indian Hindus, or Orientals, or any “other,” to be their equals. But they cannot comprehend that Americans, with whom they share a culture, an education (at least roughly), and a heritage, might think differently from them. They cannot comprehend that we do no see the same things when we look out of our eyes that they see when they look out of theirs. It dumbfounds me, I’ve tied my brain in not a few knots trying to figure out why it is so. But it is. They will not tolerate white Americans who think differently from them. They seem to think that, for example, a really religious, believing American cannot have a legitimate case to make. Oh, now and then one or another of them will study us as might an anthropologist, but it’s only an exercise–they really hate us, and think us not worth tolerating. But they have no trouble thinking that a Muslim can legitimately believe teen-aged daughters should be murdered for dishonoring their families–that’s what the Muslims believe, don’t you know, so it is real to them. It is simply patronizing.

And I do not for the life of me understand it.