Why is it

I'm just amazed that people who have a different viewpoint (um, pretty much the wide-eyed, Ayn Rand, conservative "taxes are bad, regulation is bad, government is inept" crowd) have to levy judgment that one's intellect is flawed rather than just acknowledging that there are different ways to look at the world.

I've been called unintelligent by a person I consider a close friend at one of my birthday parties because I don't subscribe to supply side economics (or, trickle down economics which even G.H.W. Bush didn't believe in) or welfare mothers in Cadillacs. Today, I was inherently called stupid by the sister of another friend for engaging in a conversation on facebook about Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

When someone advances these concepts, I must admit that I question why they're looking at the world that way. In the case of my insult hurling birthday party friend, she's still focused on how she always felt she had to work for things in her life and her sister got all the breaks without deserving it. It colors all of her opinions about people whose lives don't work but get assistance from the government or parental figures. Her belief in welfare mothers in Cadillacs stems from her anger with her father and her sister and from no empirical data or anecdote.

I don't know today why my friend's sister felt it was necessary to tell me I wasn't smart enough to understand "Atlas Shrugged." I understood it just fine; I just don't agree that it's a valid economic and societal blueprint. In fact, given that our society and government have been operated from this blueprint for the last eight plus years (I'd say more like 28 years) and it's a spectacular failure would put the bullet in the argument, but it seems to be ramping up again even as its spawn melts down.

So, what is it about persons of more conservative political and social views (wasn't it nice of me not to call them little Hitlers, fascists, bigots, haters, fear mongers, oppressive and superior white bastards or any number of other labels I could have used?) find people who disagree to be intellectually flawed?

How is it that these same people will ask my flawed intellect for instruction on how to deal with tax issues, or to recall historical facts, or to provide relationship advice, or to provide a shoulder to cry on? If my intellect was that flawed, then why should it follow that ANY of my mental qualities were reliable?