Nothing upsets progressives like disagreeing with them. Like children throwing a fit because they can’t get the toy they want, leftists become unhinged when confronted with a reality they don’t like.

The digital lynch mob that failed to destroy Memories Pizza is but one example of how progressives (liberals, Democrats, or whatever else they call themselves these days) operate now. But their irrational hatred stems from the insulated world we’ve allowed society to create for them.

Thanks to political correctness and leftists’ bullying tactics, it is entirely possible for people to live their entire adolescence and well into adulthood before they are exposed to contrary opinions. The “celebrate diversity” bumper sticker crowd is just about the most homogenous group on the planet when it comes to thought.

So, when members of the insulated class come across a contrary opinion, the advice spelled out so plainly on the back of their Prius falls by the wayside, and they revert to a hissy fit.

Such was the case this week with Memories Pizza.

An awful local “news” crew set out to find a sucker to reinforce the progressive narrative that Americans are just the slightest opportunity away from being hateful monsters out to destroy their fellow human beings. It’s the mentality that allows someone with a “COEXIST” bumper sticker to deem another human being unfit for a harassment-free life and still look at themselves in the mirror.

The gang from ABC 57 in South Bend, Ind., knew it had a hot narrative, if only it could find someone to play the role of villain. By their own account, these reporters set out not to report the news, but to manufacture it.

“News anchor” Brian Dorman, in setting up the “package” on Memories Pizza, said, “We went into small towns tonight for reaction to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. We found one business just 20 miles away from a welcoming South Bend with a much different view.” (Emphasis added.)

Enter Alyssa Marino, the “reporter” who found the narrative in the form of the O’Connor family, who made the modern mistake of believing “tolerance” meant “anyone has the right to believe in anything” in the United States in 2015.

The O’Connor family, who never had discriminated against anyone, was painted by the media as the modern version of the Klan, except without membership in the Democratic Party, of course. (Read and share my full account of just how awful the “reporting” of ABC 57, Dorman and Marino was here.)

The national media dutifully followed suit, goose-stepping along with the predetermined narrative – Indiana was a homophobic state full of bigots frothing at the mouth for their chance at official government sanction of their true hateful nature.

It’s a mentality that can arise only in a newsroom, college campus or some other setting where people are so insulated from contrary views that their mere existence is anathema. Either by design or by choice, the newsroom has become the landing strip for the participation ribbon mentality. It’s a safe harbor for sameness, where narratives go unchallenged and standards are a quaint memory.

Integrity is no longer earned in the media business. It is bestowed by committees of like-minded peers in the form of certificates and plaques at self-congratulatory dinners.

That people who are the antithesis of integrity, the Carol Costellos and Alex Wagners of the world, can label large swaths of Americans anything, let alone bigots, is a testament to irony. That some of the public would follow the media’s lead and be so bothered by the mere existence of people who might, for reasons of faith, not acquiesce to their will that they would threaten to burn down their business or kill their family is a testament to just how insulated progressives have become.

If you’ve never been exposed to a contrary opinion, when you finally are it can be jarring. It doesn’t justify the death threats, hatred and lies, but it does give a clue as to where they come from. With the progressive infestation of education and media, it is entirely possible those who perpetrated these character assassinations against innocent people never had heard people express an opinion based on faith in anything other than government.

Then again, they could know full well what they’re doing and be willing to destroy the lives of innocent people to gain favor with their fellow travelers. However they came to their ignorance, they live their lives in a bubble, and concepts such as religious liberty, or liberty at all, drain oxygen from that bubble. Since there is no popping it, may we continue to drain it through the 2016 election to the point there is no air left in it.