...because nowadays I am sure to find someone who has bothered to write what I would have written, thus saving me the time and energy. So, thanks for that.

"Personally, the word suggests to me a person who has reached the illogical fringe of his or her ideological passion, and remains unable to see it."

Yes, "ideologue" is the word.

I suppose to people convinced of their Critical Righteousness, differentiating between the blind ideologue and the seeing bad guy is useful if one's project is to "Set to Right" someone who is wrong -- and one wants to decide whether to use persuasion versus a shotgun...though Kolya's continuum theory is a little worrisome...especially if a shotgun-leaning crowd takes him a little too seriously...since, well, shoot them all, and be efficient, no?

The sad thing about this group of people is that they have, to my mind, always shared that "elementary school" tendency to name-call and form in-groups. Which is really too bad, because it means that they consistently lose the posters they need to challenge their theories so as to improve them; instead, they opt for in-group jokes and pseudo-criticism.

Thanks, again. A delightful read, your posts...