This week, a small group of conservative students questioning the views of the liberal demonstrators during Earth Day 2000 at Cornell was physically attacked because of they disagreed with their views. The members of that mob are exactly what I mean by a college liberal.
To these conservatives, the fact that in the midst of a huge population of jocks, money hungry business students, detached drug users, and religious cult members, there are a small number of young people with ideals is unacceptable. This is especially galling to the Authoritarian personality in question because they have a complicated resent/envy relationship with those who have ideals.
They actually claim victimhood with the ludicrous claim that universities are repressive of conservative ideas. They often cite the fact that many of the humanities faculty have liberal ideas, completely ignoring the fact that the departments that really effect public policy, such as Economics, Political Science, and Law, generally have very conservative faculty and students.
They often like to cite the fact that college students are middle or upper middle class, as though this somehow renders their concern for the less fortunate and their concern for the overall quality of life in and direction of society any less valid.
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