I had some mild 'debates' with distant relatives at Christmas. The main thing I noticed among my liberal family members was that they always go back on their education. They use their flimsy major(s) in college as proof that they are somehow experts. Additionally, they always bring up their white collar jobs as somehow proof of their superior intelligence.
They also like to elevate the newspapers they read as gospels of truth. They will outright dismiss any other source, without addressing the argument. Their explanations are often overwrought with big words, and could be said in half the time. I also notice they tend to speak condescendingly when they disagree: they'll say things like, 'you misunderstand' or 'you don't grasp' or 'you lack comprehension'...
They will go to great lengths to parse words rather than to address the substance. It's like I'm talking to a human Snopes...
Well, you hit the nail on the head with your first point. They overvalue education. That's a huge problem. They think because they spent 4 years in post-secondary that they are somehow more intelligent than everyone else because they think education is worth far more than it actually is.
The big issue is that their sources of information are akin to a religion. Academic institutions are their churches, the studies they read are church dogma and their journalist sources are the sources which are most aligned with the church. Any dissenting view isn't a challenge to them but heresy and should be discarded simply because it doesn't align with their religion's outlook of the world.
These people aren't actually intelligent. You know the stereotype of some low IQ woman who knows nothing but then joins a cult and all of a sudden she knows everything but all she really knows is what the cult taught her? She acts though as if she's God's chosen one with all the answers and is the smartest person in the room because she's the greatest following of X cult? That is what you're experiencing with their liberals. Their "education" and liberal worldview is nothing more than a cult and they act like good cult members who now see life through the lens of the cult. They think they're experts but all they know is their cult doctrine and they really know nothing outside of what the cult tells them.
They are indoctrinated, full stop.
Well said. In a sense, they have abandoned religion, and replaced "science" and liberalism in place of religion. Now to question their politics or "settled science" is to question their faith, and that faith is where they get their self worth, and is a direct insult to their person. You can't disagree or have a debate, because "they know", but all they know is what the "experts" (with their own agenda)/media told them what to believe....