The Elites' Favourite Whine--Insouciant, But Not Terribly Amusing

It's not that we, the great unwashed who object to the spectacle of a triumphalist mosque rising on the site of a great jihadi victory, are "Islamophobic". As James Taranto explains, it's that our common sense is, well, just too vin ordinaire for hyper-refined connoisseurs, who, in any event, are in the grip of a very real malady:

The Ground Zero mosque is an affront to the sensibilities of ordinary Americans. "The center's association with 9/11 is intentional and its location is no geographic coincidence," as the Associated Press has reported. That Americans would find this offensive is a matter of simple common sense. The liberal elites cannot comprehend common sense, and, incredibly, they think that's a virtue. After all, common sense is so common.

The British philosopher Roger Scruton has coined a term to describe this attitude: oikophobia. Xenophobia is fear of the alien; oikophobia is fear of the familiar: "the disposition, in any conflict, to side with 'them' against 'us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours.' " What a perfect description of the pro-mosque left.

"Oik." Not to be confused with "oink," presumably.