Fellow RTB bloggers Shots Across The Bow And South Knox Bubba
are into a little back and forth over a Metro Pulse article by Willie Stern.

below I offer an exchange I have started with Shots Across the Bow

A little hypocrisy between friends
Willie Stern wrote a piece in the Metro Pulse about a little discussed phenomenon in polite society: Bigotry against conservatives.

Actually it was a story about a blind date who said “republicans are assholes”. There are Conservative Democrats and the Neo-con Republican is anything but Conservative in the traditional sense where the Constitution is paramount.

We know it exists; we've seen it in action.

We don’t know any such thing.

“We've seen it in our universities, where conservative professors are afraid to 'come out of the closet', because it could cost them a chance at tenure. As a result, college campuses are becoming increasingly dominated by liberal professors. Conservative professors and students feel they have to hide their convictions, or face repercussions from their liberal peers and professors.”

Academics and intellectuals are often confused with being “anti-conservative” since they tend to favor science over religion and devote their lives to teaching instead of the accumulation of wealth. They tend to prefer intelligent discussion and thought over Limbaughtomized lunacy and the didactic diatribe of Falwell, Robertson, Coulter, Hannity, O’reilly, Horowitz, and Scarborough et al. They are usually tolerant of intellectual conservativism i.e. Buckley or Ayn Rand. I was at the University of Tennessee from 1964 thru 1972 which was a high water mark of liberalism on campus and I never saw any repercussion against conservatives on the campus. The “liberals” however were subjected to arrest – Knoxville 22 and the Billy Graham Republican Nixon Crusade – when legally demonstrating over 400 liberals were arrested and charged with felonies for expressing their opinions. Name me one conservative who was prosecuted for expressing his or her views.

There are plenty of ultra-conservative and religious universities that have absolutely no liberal or radical presence. Far more of these exist than the alternative. And State Universities in this day and time are filled with Conservative and religious organizations.

We've seen it in blogs. I was told by one blogger that ALL conservatives are either misguided fools, or corrupt ideologues. He specifically denied any possibility of rational conservative thought. I challenge anyone to find anything I've written that says the same about liberals.

I think we have ample evidence here as to the depth of misguided opinions by Republican Conservatives.
What kind of paranoia caused them to believe that their professors or fellow students of progressive or liberal political leaning would cause them harm - either physically or intellectually?
It seems that Republicans think any intellectual opposition is a threat.
Is that because they are so insecure in their mindset
Or is the paranoia born of a deep feeling that they are WRONG?