…and I didn’t even write it. “When Hope Tramples Truth”. The actual subject matter of the piece — the Arab Spring and same-sex marriage — is irrelevant.

People interested in truth seek out those who disagree with them. They look for rival opinions, awkward facts and the grounds that might engender hesitation. Such people have a far more complicated life than the optimists, who rush forward with a sense of purpose that is not to be deflected by what they regard as the cavilings of mean-minded bigots.

By and large, this describes American society in the modern media-dominated era. More and more, we discard even the pretense of a search for truth in a headlong rush to be the most progressive, the best-informed, the early adopter, the bleeding edge. We treat fundamental changes to society, ranging from what we consider to be a legitimate marriage to the way we interact with our children, as if they were new iPhone updates to be downloaded without examining the contents and installed in our processing centers without the most basic check for memetic virality, so to speak.

This idiocy is far from an exclusive phenomenon of the coasts or the Left. Conservatives embraced Sarah Palin with a stunningly uncritical brashness that bore far more resemblance to falling in love than choosing a candidate. Time and time again, the sexy appeal of a new idea has been used to trample those who disagree.

Truth is worth finding. Every idea is worth questioning, even if — naw, fuck that, especially if — it fits comfortably within your pre-existing beliefs.