Hugh Hewitt has diagnosed another bad case of Wal-Martophobia, for which he has coined the term "Wal-Mart Derangement Syndrome."
To review our discussion of the "-phobia" suffix earlier this week, as used in the political realm, it is powerful stuff. It means a fear of, hatred of, or aversion to something. It also implies that such fear or aversion is excessive and unreasonable.
Of course, what one person sees as "excessive, unreasonable" aversion to something may be seen by another person as common sense. That's why the use of the suffix "-phobia" is so powerful. It takes control of the terms of the debate by defining a fear or dislike for something as being akin to an infectious disease or a mental illness. It defines one thing as the norm, and any opposing viewpoint as bigotry.
With that in mind, we can all diagnose previously-unrecognized "phobias" in the political realm. Here are some phobias already identified here:
- Bushophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of President George W. Bush)
- Rovophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of presidential adviser Karl Rove)
- Cheneyphobia (excessive, unreasonable fear of Vice President Dick Cheney)
- Iraqophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of the Iraq war)
- Maternophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of turning into a soccer mom)
- Paternophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of becoming a minivan-owning dad)
- Conservophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hatred of conservatives or conservatism)
- Wal-Martophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear of or hatred of Wal-Mart)
- Unbornophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear of recognizing humanity of the unborn)
- Petrophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear or hated of oil companies)
- Incorrectophobia (excessive, unreasonable fear of being perceived as "politically incorrect")
As you can see, the world is full of "phobias," and those who are afflicted with too many political phobias cannot help but live angry, panicky, difficult lives. We can only hope that those who recognize some of these phobias in themselves will better educate themselves so that they can, in time, learn to rise above their fears.
In the case of Wal-Martophobia, this is a fear that goes hand in hand with ignorance of the basic laws of economics. You have to have both ignorance of how well-intentioned laws function in the real world and a little tinge of collectivism in your blood to think that the government should be in charge of deciding what health benefits Wal-Mart must offer.
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