The purpose of gen eds is to weed out the people who refuse to do things just because it doesn’t interest them.
The people you are competing against in getting a political science career are the kids who are just as passionate about political science and hate gen eds as much as you do. The only difference is that they bite their tongue and make A’s in them anyway.
But like you said, you are content with continuing a part-time job while learning about things online. If that’s your goal, you can do that now, without attending school.
Don’t know what’s ironic about partiers going to flagship schools. Intelligent people usually have time management skills to balance academic and social life. It’s not sad that Penn State chose students that can speak 2 languages, were on varsity teams, and played instruments over you. They put in the work in high school and now they get to enjoy themselves by partying it up in college, that’s how it works.