The Angry Left and the Angry Muslims

According to Arnold Kling, there has been a marked upswing in intolerance on the left:

I did not feel this sort of discomfort in 2000, which was the one other year when I attended Pop!tech. Back then, a conservative or libertarian attending the conference felt like a Jew among a group of tolerant Christians. This year, a conservative or libertarian felt like a Jew among a group of Christians whose main topic of conversation was the despicable nature of Jews.

I think a better analogy would be that in 2000, the attitude was similar to the attitude of Muslims toward Jews before Zionism whereas this year the attitude is similar to the attitude of Muslims toward Jews today.

You can think of neo-conservatrism as analogous to Zionism:

The basis for Zionism is that the land at the southeast corner of the Mediterranean, which had been run by Muslims for centuries, should be taken over by an even older tradition that Muslims had previously treated in a semi-tolerantly patronizing manner. This caused the Muslims to become much less tolerant. They initially tried to deal with the problem by the traditional means of military action but have recently turned to foaming at the mouth.

The basis for neo-conservatism is that the land at the U.S. government, which had been run by liberals for decades, should be taken over by an even older tradition that liberals had previously treated in a semi-tolerantly patronizing manner. This caused the liberals to become much less tolerant. They initially tried to deal with the problem by the traditional means of electoral action but have recently turned to foaming at the mouth.