An argument based on assumption is an argument based on faith:
 "There Is No Genuine Principled Opposition To Abortion"

Strict adherence to principle is not non-existant but it's rare. Atrios is mirroring the arguments of republicans who say that everyone intrinsically is greedy or lazy; he's giving us a choice between pedantry and hypocrisy, knowing we choose the latter. As with public parks, Palestinians, gentrification, race or class, issues are treated as obvious or one sided, and with himself on the right side, even when they're not and he may not be, or clearly isn't.

More stupidity.
Quiggin—see previous (generally) and this (specifically); now he's repeating the argument here, (comment 314)

The claims about Art criticised in Art, an Enemy of The People, are very similar to those made by most religions, namely that there is a special category of people (prophets or artists) and a special category of activities (Religion or Art) which yield transcendent insights into the human condition, and which should be accorded special privileges over other people and other ways of finding meaning and enjoyment in life.

As I said above, I don’t have a problem with people finding meaning in an experience they call God, or if they find it in Mozart. But if they find it in cooking, I’m cool with that too.

So the works of Plato have objective value and whether or not you like Sophocles is simply a matter of taste. Some forms of language use get the stamp of approval, some do not.

We live by experience, and we tell stories to ourselves and to each other. The problem's not in story-telling but in fundamentalism.

I don't have to love tv to prefer history and the arts to philosophy, and Shakespeare to the Pope.

“...the central event of the last century for the majority of the world’s population was the intellectual and political awakening of Asia.”

We're creatures of experience and sense. If reason were what it's claimed to be, the argument in that quote would be taken as a given by white moralists and everyone else, and there would have been no need for Mishra to write his fucking book. Reading it I can’t help but hear John Quiggin’s voice in the language of colonial administrators. The arrogance is identical. It has the same beginnings, and the same justification.