There is, in human society, an effect one might call “conservation of seriousness”, whereby the amount of seriousness with which a person is taken is constant, and must be divided between himself and the rest of society. The more seriously a person takes himself, the less seriously everyone else will.
This, in my opinion, is why conservatives in the media always get mashed during “round table” discussions and the like. The liberals seem to know how to take the topic seriously, without believing so profoundly that they personally have to be taken seriously. It lets them “roll with the punches” as it were. The conservatives always seem to think that any attack on their argument is a personal one, and let anger take over long before it’s warranted. Even when they’re right, they still always seem to come off as blow-hards or buffoons.
