One of the most common debating tricks on-line is putting words in someone’s mouth, then condemning them for something they never said or even implied.  It’s dishonest, vile, and used almost exclusively by the left.

If you say you think the Feds taking control of health care is a bad idea they’ll ask why you want poor children to die in the gutter. Question the usefulness of the Department of Education and they’ll demand an explanation of why you want people to be stupid. Say you think the EPA is out of control and they’ll insist you think pollution is a good thing.

I can’t figure out why this douchebaggery is so common on the left and almost non-existent on the right.  Right wingers do it occasionally in articles or in other media, but hardly ever in on-line conversation.  There are just as many dishonest people on both sides and there’s no reason they couldn’t use this particular trick.  But they do it so rarely that when you see it in action you can assume, with 98.67% accuracy, it’s coming from a socialist nanny-stater who starts off every day by kissing their own Obama tattoos.

This isn’t a new phenomenon.  I noticed it back in the days of using 1200 baud modems to dial up BBSs.  But it’s become more and more common as the years have flown by, and I’m at a loss to figure out why it’s only oozed leftward.  Does Paul Krugman sneak into lefty’s rooms at night and whisper how-to-do-it lessons in their ears? Is it explained in some secret Keynesian tract that’s only given to Daily Kos readers after they’ve sworn an oath of fealty to George Soros?  Is it only taught, discreetly, as a secret part of college courses like “Michael Moore Film Appreciation,” “Why You’re Smarter Than Everyone Else” and “How Noam Prefers his Analingus?”

I could be suffering from confirmation bias, but I doubt it.  This isn’t difficult to spot – it’s about as subtle as Rosie O’Donnell doing a cannonball into a kiddie pool.

I can’t figure it out.  If you can, or just have a good hypothesis, please leave a comment and Smartenize® me.