The New Face of the Campus Left (Reality: Same Burnt-out Face, More $$)

The Nation ^ | 1/26/2006 | Sam Graham-Felsen

[Pyro7480]

The assumption that America's campuses are impenetrable bastions of liberalism--where left-leaning faculty predominate, progressive student activism flourishes and conservatism is fiercely marginalized--still rules the day. But in reality, since the 1970s the conservative movement has become the dominant political force on many American campuses....

"We didn't have our act together," says Joshua Holland, a fair-trade and antiwar activist.... "We tried to keep things nonhierarchical and loosely structured, but at the end of the day... we weren't getting anything done."

...At the University of North Carolina senior Jessica Polk says students have long been "sick of what the left is doing--they want to walk to class without being handed a flier about a rally or vigil."

Meanwhile, student conservatives have managed to balance organizational and ideological discipline with ragtag rebelliousness, positioning themselves as perpetual underdogs on oppressively liberal campuses. Armed with their version of a screw-the-man mentality, the student right's activism is often shocking: affirmative action bake sales where white students are charged more for cookies than blacks....

The right actually ends up looking cooler than the left," agrees Mani Mostofi, who recently earned his master's degree at the University of Texas. "I don't know how this is possible, but it's true!"

...The most widespread disappointment has been the failure to generate a sustainable movement opposing the war in Iraq. While student mobilization in the run-up to the war was massive in scope and energy, the typical problems plaguing the campus left--ideological splits and lack of organization--have caused the movement to fade considerably....

How, I asked, would Campus Progress respond if students requested radical intellectual Noam Chomsky as a speaker? After all, right-wing groups like Young America's Foundation almost exclusively fund speakers from the radical end of the right's spectrum.

[Pyro7480]

There's reason for hope among college students. The campus Left is divided and in their own fantasy land, while the conservative groups are definitely "cooler" and on message.

[MNJohnnie]

Maybe it is their rabid emotional hysteria with NO intellectually rational platform of ideas other then being anti-everything, which defines the Modern Left, might explain the lunatics dismal failure to be even marginally politically relevent?

[MeanWestTexan]

Liberals don't get anything done for the same reason they are liberals: they are stupid and lazy.

[weegee]

The left says that America has not been this divided since the vietnam war.

The same agitators who were at work calling for (communist) revolution in America back in the 1960s and 1970s are the SAME agitators calling for (communist) revolution in America this time.

When you realize that, you realize the left has no power. Just a strong set of lungs and good location.

Abbie Hoffman offed himself before these days came back. Then again Hunter S. Thompson survived this long and offed himself anyway.

John Kerry's lucky that the masses never saw him for the traitor that he was.

[armydawg1]

maybe next to "Nation" the campuses are conservative bastions. But next to reality, they are cesspools of hardcore leftwing radicals.

[weegee]

I'll tell you what they "can" create. A new communist utopia in which THEY are in charge, and we can be done with these elections where idiots... er the masses don't make the "wrong" choices anymore.

That is how to a (wo)man, they see the world. It would be sooo much better if they ran things. A communist rep from the World Can't Wait was asked on Micheal Medved which communist nation she liked. She said there weren't any right now but she said she like Mao's China. She saw no hyprocrisy in never attempting to live in a communist nation for a year before insisting that we all move to this system.

Jane Fonda made similar idiotic statements back in the day.

[ClearCase_guy]

The nineteenth century anarchist Bakunin said: "The destructive urge, is also a creative urge."

What this means, in practice, is -- I blew up this building, but my actions were not purely destructive -- look! I also created a pile of rubble!!

I swear many of the Left think like this, and believe it to be a deep, nuanced view of the world.

[KC_Conspirator]

The right actually ends up looking cooler than the left," agrees Mani Mostofi, who recently earned his master's degree at the University of Texas. "I don't know how this is possible, but it's true!"

Maybe because on hateful leftist campuses, they are iconoclasts?

[VOA]

bump

[weegee]

As with Islam. They say the tyrannical nations and organizations are not "real" communism.

[tumblindice]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1075122/posts

Stinking hippies . . . . .

[NRA1995]

The right actually ends up looking cooler than the left," agrees Mani Mostofi, who recently earned his master's degree at the University of Texas. "I don't know how this is possible, but it's true!"

Amazing what bathing and grooming does to your appearance.....

[detsaoT]

The right actually ends up looking cooler than the left," agrees Mani Mostofi, who recently earned his master's degree at the University of Texas. "I don't know how this is possible, but it's true!"

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[Tzimisce]

University Admin often forgets that in this day and age, they are "The man" students groups want to fight against. This makes lefty student groups the conformist pigs they hate so much.

[Leisler]

I feel sorry for these young, idealist kids. It's obvious that reliving the 60's on campus isn't authentic. They need something to galvanize and bond themselves together as a generation. May I suggest the liberation of Tibet? Kind of like skipping the 60's generation and go back to more primitive roots of leftism in the Lincoln Brigads of Spain. They could take on and defeat PRC mechanized divisions with their air support. After liberation of Tibet, then they will bond as brothers and sisters.

Just trying to be helpful. Honest.

[Leisler]

Call the first unit, the "Rachel Corrie Brigade."

[L98Fiero]

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

[narby]

The nineteenth century anarchist Bakunin said: "The destructive urge, is also a creative urge."

What this means, in practice, is -- I blew up this building, but my actions were not purely destructive -- look! I also created a pile of rubble!!

I swear many of the Left think like this, and believe it to be a deep, nuanced view of the world.

Interesting quote from Bakunin.

I've been visualizing the left in this mode for a few months now. The "destructive urge" is like Bin Laden, who could not build like the construction folks in the Bin Laden family, but could be "great" like them, by destroying something great.

This is similar to the mental illness in assassins like John Hinkley, who shot Reagan in order to impress actress Jody Foster. In his twisted mind, killing someone great was equal to being someone great.

I believe that this same mental twist is in a lot of people, but not to the extent of actually attempting assassination. Instead they join earth first and burn loggers trucks, or join an anti-corporate activism group and riot at the World Bank convention. Cindy Sheehan comes to mind here.

They are failures, or are to lazy, to do great things themselves, so they destroy the work of great people in an effort to be equally as great. They believe that are "progessing", therefore they are "progressives", but they attempt to progress by destroying the work of others so that they will appear better in relation to their destroyed neighbors. Like burning your neighbors superior house, so that yours looks better.