I like your division of people into 3 tiers. Years ago, I divided leftist/liberal professors into 3 groups: Activists, Actives and Inactives. The Activists are maybe 5% and their belligerence sets the tone in the departments. Actives actively follow the lead of the Activists and make up probably 85-90% of profs who spew leftist garbage. They believe in the stuff, but are followers. Finally, maybe 5-10% of profs don’t do anything. They simply want to teach the kids, get their paycheck, and do some research. Also in this last group are the 2-3% who are conservatives who lay low so they don’t catch grief from the others.
Right...I think your post dovetails in with both my assessment and the article. And I agree there are conservatives in there as well.
I sometimes feel that conservatives hiding under a rock, by their silence, contribute to the boldness of Leftists in advancing their agenda. But I do recognize many of us have done that at one point or another in our lives, for various reasons.