Leftists love to brag about how they are so much more intelligent and educated than conservatives, and because of their advanced education and superior intelligence they are able to see things in a nuanced way. We conservatives are stupid and simple minded people, and we only see black and white. Leftists see black and white, but they also see vast shades of gray where things are more complicated.

Except it is often exactly the opposite.

I saw this last week a discussion of the dress code for pre-teen and young teen girls at Tri-North Middle School in the Herald-Times comment section. If you think modesty is a good thing and should be encouraged, you are no different than the Taliban. Having shorts or skirts be a couple inches longer is the same as forcing the girls to wear a burka. Maybe we should not allow girls to go to school at all! It is all or nothing: Total libertinism or an Islamic theocracy. Such is the level of "intellectual" discourse on the Left.

I am not exaggerating. These were literally the responses when I said modesty is a virtue and should be encouraged: Make the girls wear burkas or even ban them from school.

Look, this is ridiculous. It is not a burden on "tween" and young teen girls to have their shorts or skirts reach the bottom of their fingertips. (It is not a burden on boys, either.) It is not a burden to require a more modest top. It is possible to have reasonable modesty standards without diving headfirst into Islamic theocracy or The Handmaid's Tale. It is possible to have reasonable modesty standards alongside an expectation that boys will behave like gentlemen and treat women with respect, instead of acting like barbarians.

Intelligent, rational people can understand this. Those devoted to the cult of sexual libertinism cannot.