Freud and the Hyena Chorus

Legal Fiction has an exellent hypothesis on the relationship of cognitive dissonance of Dubya supporters with the ferocity of their lashing out on seemingly inconsequential aspects of issues which in the larger context are indisputably true. Give it a read.

When you put these four stories side-by-side, you can see some common characteristics. First, and most obviously, they all include negative critiques of either the administration or the Republican leadership more generally. But more critically, they all involve specific types of critiques. With the exception of Jordan, they are all subsets of larger critiques that are almost indisputably true. These larger critiques are also the sort of critiques that trigger immense cognitive dissonance for Bush supporters. In my expert psychological opinion, the lynch-mob hyena attack is a defense mechanism against cognitive dissonance rather than sincere outrage against media bias.