Yep. Emotion rules. And I'll go a step further and admit that for too many atheists, Liberalism replaces Religion as the locus of their self-esteem. "Am I a good person?" They wonder. If one is a religious person, one can get reassurance via belief, or prayer, or confession, or ritual, or baptism, or works, or salvation, whatever your particular denomination offers. But many atheists abandon religion while retaining the need for reassurance. And many have an uneasy, underlying feeling that they are selfish little brats (they are.) So they embrace higher taxes for the rich to compensate for their own lack of generosity to others. They virtue signal and poke at others, while keeping their own lives as comfortable and protected as possible.
One of my best friends was this way. She was incredibly self-indulgent, and she knew she was. But she compensated by endorsing liberal ideas, criticizing conservatives, and voting accordingly. But never did she put herself out personally for her beliefs. She didn't even recycle. And she felt guilty! But she never changed anything. It was weird.
No decision I ever made or conclusion I ever reached proved correct or permanent if it was based on emotion or even if emotion was a small part of the process.
THAT’S how I know emotion has no place in political thinking.
For Liberals, emotion takes the place of intellectual rigor and is an acceptable surrogate for proved facts. It isn’t