I have encountered people who say that insults to intelligence such as those hurt them deeply. I am not one of those myself, so maybe I’m the wrong person to argue this. I’m not making them up, but I won’t claim to know an abundance of them either. In any case addressing the issue or argument is typically more effective than a personal insult. Well, that may not be true, I guess. Conservatives get real power just by punching the opposition, but maybe we can be better than that?