I'd love to be kind, patient, tolerant and fair, but I really have a hard time of it. Oh, I'd love to be oh, yes, conservatives! I see your point! But I have very little sympathy for conservatives in this case. I think it's because of pop conservatism and its heavy dose of white supremacy. Let me explain. I like to believe there is a special breed of conservative. They've looked at all the alternatives, read a few books, and taken a few courses, they've thought about what they learned, and came up with their view point.

These people usually tend to have good ideas, not too kooky. I don't mean those who pretty up the ideas of the other type in prettier words either. On the other hand, we have pop conservatives. They come off, spouting a bunch of stuff usually along these lines- my brother's friend's cousin's mother's sister didn't get a job, and a black person did, so that means whites are oppressed, or if we didn't have all this multicultural(their kid had to read 'Things Fall Apart' in English class) in schools, kids would be smarter, or the schools fell apart when they took Christ out of the schools(Christ is supposed to be in your hearts- if he's in your heart, not making every kid pray to Jesus in the morning won't take him out), or the poor should just get a job!

I have very little patience for this type. I know, kindness, tolerance,etc. But there seems to be a high amount of intolerance ingrained in this world view- like if the idea that if we teach all of American history, people are somehow shortchanged, has a sort of bad ring to it. How come the history of people of different skin colors should be omitted? Is it that they don't think it's 'important' enough? If Jesus is taught in all the schools, what does that tell the kids of other religions about theirs? And so, if the poor are just lazy, and of bad moral character, does that make the rich somehow better than them?

If I was a more mature, kind, saintly type, I'd reach right in my huge heart full of saintliness, and even though they trivitalize the nature of oppression by claiming they are oppressed when they are not, I'd be full of love. I'd say yes, conservative views should be represented more on campus! However, in the real world where I am really grumpy, I'm like I'm sure it's not the conservative that knows his stuff that is going to benefit from this- it's the crazy ass pop conservative. I think it's because of the ratio. It's like liberals- for every single liberal who is smart, and knows his stuff, there are 5 who think that we should hug all the animals or something. While having someone who thinks we should hug all the animals teaching a class doesn't bother me, because if the student disagrees, it can easily be dismissed. It's not part of the mainstream.

But white supremacy, the canonization of wealth, and religious bigotry are in the mainstream. Instead of teaching kids against the grain, we just help them become snug in their little Foxnews cocoon... No sir, I don't like it.

Another thing is that I think people talking about affrimative action have pissed in the pool for me on this issue. After seeing the readiness to scream, cry and whine every time they had to make some little concession in the culture wars, I am duly suspcious of this. Some professors may be asshats, but I think that many of these ancedotes may be a case of "yea, I did it at midnight after two beers, but I'm sure he just marked it down because I'm conservative.'. I think the readiness to call yourself a victim after you've just told real victims to shut up contributes to my lack of charatiabilty in this turn. I know, it's not fair to the kind gentle conservatives that actually have brains, but sometimes you have to wonder- why don't they say those other guys are nuts?Why don't they stand up, and say 'hey....chill out with the white supremacy?" I have no clue.