The mind of a "barking moonbat" revealed?

People who appear to go to extremes in matters of ideology are often puzzling.

The "Instawife" posted a couple of excerpts from an article that provides some possible insights into the minds of those who seem to have gone off the deep end in matters of politics and ideology.

While the article refers to leftist ideologues, the same things might be said about people on both the left and right ends of the spectrum. For example, in this sentence from the article, it's easy to agree even after "right-wing" is substituted for "leftist":

Leftist activists are prone to believe that their own thinking is rational and objective, while that of their opponents is distorted and biased.

There seems to be something about the mind that makes many people tend to adopt a view of the world which keeps them from thinking rationally -- and part of the problem is the tendency to presume conclusively that one's opposition has no ideas that could be even close to correct.