In their posts about Patricia McGuire’s awful Washington Post op-ed, Ramesh and Kathryn only scratch the surface of what’s wrong with it. Begin with the straw man in her first sentence: “Mindless dogmatism is not part of the Catholic intellectual tradition.” Disagree with her interpretation of Catholicism, of course, and you’re mindlessly dogmatic. And my favorite, from her second paragraph: “Critics of Catholic higher education” oppose The Vagina Monologues etc. Notice how facilely opponents of her liberal views are transmuted into critics of Catholic institutions tout court; you’re not criticizing the policies of Patricia McGuire, you’re criticizing Catholicism and intellect. Liberal Catholics, and indeed many conservative Catholics and others, think it’s ridiculous when e.g., Bill Donohue accuses those who disagree with this or that Catholic idea or individual of being “anti-Catholic” bigots. Patricia McGuire demonstrates that this sort of thing is just as common on the Left: The left-wing Catholics claim to be against an authoritarian, top-down church, but they’re no pikers when it comes to top-down authoritarianism, and the stigmatization of dissent.