One can point to numerous examples of urban liberals replacing thinking with tropes. I point to one I commented on recently: http://www.thepolitic.com/arch.....-religion/

The more interesting thing here is comment #1 concerning the history of manners. The author, Tom Cerber, suggests that the character and disposition of modern “liberals� or “progressives� can be traced to particular developments in social codes of “courtesy� and “civility�. Moreover, that modern liberals use these social codes as a way to divide the world into its liberal (good, civil) peoples and its non-liberal (evil, barbaric) peoples, and as a means to dominate the non-liberal other.

The interesting thing here is that the author of the comment himself seems to be guilty of the same sins that he assigns to the liberal or progressive, specifically, of artificially grouping people and then demeaning and intimidating the Others. This is most evident towards the end of his comment when Cerber describes all “urban liberals� (if such a group actually exists) as irrational, overdramatic and willing to use shame and intimidation to manipulate people. These could all be considered negative character traits, often associated with the “evil� and the “barbaric�. Interestingly enough, these are also traits that men have traditionally (and negatively) assigned to women. The urban liberal character is thus painted in very derogatory and feminine light – as being irrational, overdramatic, and manipulative.

This could mean one of the following. First, that Tom Cerber is himself a closet liberal or progressive. The evidence being that he exhibits the same character traits of dividing the world up into good and evil (civil and barbaric), and shaming or intimidating the Other. This would also entail that Cerber is himself irrational, overdramatic and manipulative (and possibly feminine). However, this would be a completely circumstantial conclusion to draw (not to mention a very rude thing to say to someone).

Second, it may simply be that this particular social code of courtesy and civility is not particular to the liberal character, but may be consistent with a wide variety of different ideological dispositions. In other words, the conservative, socialist and liberal all have the potential of irrationally dividing the world up into good and evil and of attempting to shame the Other in an overly dramatic and manipulative way.

Words of One Syllable Dept.

ThePolitic – Canadian Political Weblog » Hypocrisies of the Urban Li [...]

An Urban Liberal is someone who wants to free the working poor, but not until they’ve finished cleaning the bathroom. That’s why Urban Liberals love gay rights. They get to feel like Martin Luther King without affecting the neighbourhood….

The point of this is that “courtesy” and “civility” became ways to shame and control the “backward” and those “less civilized.” It would be used by progressives (the intellectual sources of Urban Liberals) to tarnish “reactionaries.” In short, combined with certain versions of progressivism, “courtesy” and “civility” turn into a kind of Manichaeanism that divides the world into the civil and uncivil, or the liberal and non-liberal. This is why many liberals view the influence of socons in politics in such apocalyptic terms. Raise the possiblity of pregnant women marching in chain-gangs and whipped by the editors of the former Alberta Report, and the civil intimidate the “uncivil” to keep their mouth shut. And if that doesn’t work, then file a human rights complaint against them.