My business associate says that in order to believe in liberal principals, the liberal must be either stupid, misinformed, or evil.
It should be noted that “stupid” in this context is short for “acting stupidly,” because such individuals often are quite intelligent by the normal definition of intelligence.
The basic reason he believes this is that the beliefs they espouse are essentially irrational beliefs accepted on faith, with any relevant evidence in fact showing that the beliefs are not valid. Let’s take one example: the belief that “socialism works.”
You cannot show any evidence that socialism works. Any place it has been tried eventually leads to its breakdown and replacement with principals of individual freedom and the free market. When socialism is enforced, and does not work, its proponents argue that the reason it is not working is that it is not practiced enough. For example, the “economic stimulus failed because it did not go far enough.”
For a great exposition of the failures to socialist systems, please take a look at this great video from Dick Morris, Celebrating America’s Freedom.
Such thinking has always characterized Soviet-style totalitarianism. To keep the system going, it must continue to get more and more of a totalitarian nature, where the individual is suppressed for the sake of the “common good.” So the seemingly intelligent is acting stupidly, in continuing to take actions that in the past have always failed — the so-called “definition of insanity.”
So in this example, the belief that “socialism works” must be seen as either the belief of someone who is stupid, or is misinformed. Or the cynical view that the believer knows it does not work, but has an “evil” intent, which is hidden. For example, the evil intent of “control and domination of a people.”
Actually, “misinformed” is somewhat of a cop-out. You could just make the case that the misinformed are acting stupidly. So stupid, or evil. Take your choice.