Here's a fascinating illustration of the dead-end that a segment of the right-of-center has driven itself into: refusal to acknowledge that unions and the labor movement had a positive effect on early/mid-century America. 1/5 
You can see the logic, I suppose... if we acknowledge that unions did some good, then we'd have to both admit that the "free" labor market was delivering some pretty lousy outcomes and give credit to an actual government policy. 2/5
This is the problem of fundamentalism in whatever form it takes. When strict adherence to some basic set of abstract principles proves incompatible with real world experience, it's the real world that has to be denied. 3/5
For anyone interested, here's the full @Reinsch84 thread, which repeatedly restates some (pretty incomplete) theory rather than engaging with observed reality. 4/5
And here's the full @swinshi thread, which leans more heavily on the argument that there simply is not enough evidence to draw any conclusion, making professed ignorance the responsible position. 5/5
