Liberals generally see themselves as enlightened and virtuous, adopt what they think are virtuous positions, and thus invest their ego in their positions. Any opposition to their beliefs is thus experienced as an attack against them personally— and must be defended against. There is no rationality to any of this, just emotion. And the common emotion elicited is narcissistic rage. Hence the readiness to descend into ad hominem invective and vituperation.
Well said. A formerly close friend a few years back came to visit. We’d not seen each other for months. One of the first things he says is “You know, there’s new study out that proves liberals are more intelligent than conservatives.” (Remember that?). I’d not heard that, and simply responded that one could easily come up with a ‘study’ showing the opposite, and really, what difference did it make? He became visibly upset, and immediately went ad hominem: “You just don’t want to see the truth! You just don’t value the truth!” Good Lord.
We all saw a good example of this, when Hillary told us that Trump supports are “racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, etc”
To the liberal, all opposition to liberal policies is because someone either hates certain people, or is simply uneducated as to the proper liberal position.
A few examples:
1. If you oppose abortion as espoused under Roe vs. Wade, then you hate women, and you want women impaled on a coat hanger.
2. If you oppose affirmative action, you are a racist.
3. If you oppose illegal immigration, you are xenophobic, and also a hypocrite, because we are a nation of immigrants, and your own ancestors immigrated here.
4. If you oppose transgender medical treatments, you oppose what are called “best practices” of the medical profession, and are transphobic.
5. If you oppose all this global warming business, you are in favor of dirty air, dirty water, don’t care if oil companies and other industry despoil the environment, and you are said to put corporate profits over the environment.
The liberals discuss the issues in such a way, that you are in the defensive position of saying you aren’t hating anyone, you aren’t racist, etc. This is how they “debate”, by simply dismissing any opposition as motivated by hatred or ignorance.
You've nailed it (for a lot of them). They're emotional because they believe that they're correct. Giving them facts is tantamount to a personal attack, and worse (*gasp*) is suggesting that they have spent their lives supporting destructive policies. A wasted life! Ergo, the histrionics.