"If you are under 30 and not liberal, you have no heart. If you are over 30 and still liberal, you have no head." {or something like that, i lost my file of famous quotes with my old hard drive}.

I started, but never got around to finishing, a debate about how the "cool" thing in college was to be liberal. Since I know i didn't make my point clearly, here it goes:

I think the main stigma with being labeled as "liberal" is that it's viewed as being naive and/or overly idealistic. Tree hugging good doers if you will. People who are liberal are dismissed as not taking responsibility and that it's a "phase" that they will grow out of when they enter the real world. And i think this major misconception comes from college where a lot of people practice in fake liberalism.

It's easy to be liberal in college for several reasons. First and foremost, it's basically a 4 year party where you have absolutely no responsibilities. Your parents are practically paying for your beer. It also doesn't hurt that kids experience newfound independence (albeit fake independence that is predicated on financial dependence) or the occasional "philosophy 101" that discusses such "radical" ideas as free will and relativism.

And so, these kids become the stereotypical hippie/liberal and are obsessed with freeing Tibet or mumia. Most don't actually take the time to learn about these issues, but rather get caught up in the whole rebellious nature of it. "look at me, i don't like police". This isn't real liberalism. They don't actually care about making a difference. It's a cliche and such a conforming way to rebel. And then they go and prove everyone right by giving up on this "activism" once they graduate and have to enter corporate America.

The real liberal is not the naive 20 year old that most of America would believe. It's not a dis-en-franchised (i had to sound that one out to even get close) generation x'er who hates everything. It's not the do gooding naive hippie who doesn't realize that 9/11 was a problem. It's the way we've gone about "solving" the problem that is the true cause of concern. In many ways its conservatives who can be viewed at as naive b/c they fail to see that their short term "solutions" are going to have long term consequences.

It really bothers me that liberals are looked down upon in this country. And i'm not talking about those idiots who label liberals as traitors committing treason. I'm talking about the average, moderately intelligent person who just dismisses everything as overly naive. I can't even tell you how many times i've heard people say "we lost 3000 american lives on 911. what would you have us do, NOTHING?".

Liberals are usually lumped into 2 categories. naive hippies or disgruntled bitter people who hate everything. I suppose the latter would be people over 30 who have nothing, while the former is young punks who are going through a "phase".

Whatever happened with Tibet anyway?