is berkely all that liberal?

ttgiang15
Wed, 05 Jul 2006 04:26:46 +0000

Fourth time: “Ground Level” experiences, that is, what one experiences in conversations, in class, and at general on-campus activities. Responding to an online survey behind closed doors is not an accurate representation of what the campus environment is like. It’s one thing to fill in the bubble “Conservative,” it’s another to turn that into physical expression. For example: Consider a school with 50/50 Conservatives/Liberals, and yet only 25% of Conservatives are active and 100% of Liberals are active- which is going to be more present at the “ground level?” Those “expressions” I’ve mostly experienced at Berkeley has been heavily in favor of those courteous enough to share their liberal viewpoints. And so while some 12% of the student population identify themselves as Conservatives (which, by any measure, is not a lot), if one does not sense that physical manifestion then what is the use of statistics? To try to quantify something that seemingly is at-odds with one’s personal experiences? Something’s gotta give. I’ve provided situations where Conservatism is met with a certain stigma on campus, and therefore I have at several times brought up the word “fear.” The OP asked if he was “screwed” by the fact that he’s Conservative. There is an element of anxiety there, a worrying that I contest carries over once you become a student. If anything, the “fear” factor is made worse once one arrives at Berkeley. This is why I presented the case with ASUC elections. It is a measure of how much confidence the Berkeley College Republicans has in the student body. One candidate, one. This is why voting is important. It is the physical act of declaring one’s viewpoint. Compare this to what somewhat identifies himself with on Facebook or OSR (which I didn’t participate in, by the way) and you can see why it has more significance than other data. As to Berkeley being the most liberal college, here is what I originally wrote as a concluding statement in Post 17: “However, my justification for calling Berkeley “very liberal” is that you’d be hard pressed to find many more colleges more liberal than Berkeley.” Notice that I did not say “most liberal” or anything to that nature until I heard incomplete arguments that failed to identify any other college (let alone 10 or 20) more liberal than Berkeley; I felt entitled to use “most liberal” thereafter. Don’t flip this around. Citing that I having presented “what, three things” is still much more than zero, unless you include those worthless student surveys. Here, you’ve turned the table and accused me of being hypocritical for providing such a limited set of data. Wait. Who’s the hypocrite?

Lastly, a lot of what I said in Post 34 was dictated by your explicit use of the word “apathetic.” Here is the context: “I’m just to lazy to deal with your demands. What part of apathetic isn’t clear?” However, saying that you are indifferent or without emotion does not make much sense here. Are you lazy and not willing to bring up data because you are indifferent (I took that to mean “don’t care”)? There was confusion there that led to things that wouldn’t have been said had the word “apathetic” not been used there. And the nature of my post was such to respond to the way the word was used in that sentence: another strong statement, on your part.

Regards,
TTG