why offer so confident (and sneeringly dismissive) an answer, when he should have said, “I don’t know, you should ask someone who has studied the matter”? Instead, he’s just doing what most people do when faced with the Repugnant Cultural Other: claiming to be able to read their minds and reporting that your telepathic scrutiny has revealed fear and loathing. (This is what the Freudians call “projection.”)

My suggestion is this: if you want to know why groups of people are acting in a particular way, the first step is always to ask them.

— Alan Jacobs, expertise in action, The Homebound Symphony, 2025