So is your mother

We're extremists.

In a war, we don't talk about 'the enemy'. It's ragheads or camel jockeys. Previous incarnations were slopes, gooks and nips. You get the idea, the list could fill pages.

In some ways that's useful for soldiers. It depersonalizes the person you're about to shoot. It can also make atrocities seem less atrocious.

But why is that process all over the internet? Time after time I see interesting discussions degenerate into mindless namecalling.

'That's a liberal way to say that' is very different from 'just what I'd expect from a liberal'. 'You conservatives' is not the same as 'that's a conservative point of view. This is just personal, but the terms 'Liberal' and 'Conservative' don't mean very much any more. You're trying to fit millions of people into one mold, and you're assuming they think alike on a dozen or more issues. That's not the world I see around me.

I've been called left-wing, right-wing, anarchistic, libertarian, and yes, liberal and conservative (the complete list would easily fill a page). I seem to be a nazi to everyone. Often my answer would be yes, on that issue. I don't think the majority of people are that different.

Sure there are extremists who fit these stereotypes in every particular. They're very useful, because otherwise we wouldn't have a full range of ideas.