Here's an interesting interview by a student who became a conservative as a backlash against the pervasive miasma of leftist dogma at Brown University:

I was a junior by the time I finally decided to criticize particular segments of the campus. Again, I was a football player, and that took up a lot of my time. So rather than immediately join some leftist student-group, I was forced to be a spectator of campus activism at first. There was always a lot of controversy on Brown's campus, and I spent a lot of time observing the behavior of my classmates. I had an immediate repulsion to them for a lot of reasons. It wasn't that I was pro-life, and they were pro-choice. Or that I was against affirmative action, and they were in favor of it. Those weren't even opinions that I had formed or cared about. My objection to liberal activism was more about my classmates' zealotry, and the fact that I knew I was forbidden to disagree or disapprove of them. In other words, I had a negative reaction to the ethic and demeanor of liberals before I even disagreed with liberal thought. I found Brown's leading liberal forces to be deviant, oppressive, and improper before I reached any other conclusions. Ironically, they were viciously labeling everyone but themselves as mean, dumb, and racist. But I saw it in reverse. In fact, Out of Ivy documents the campus left's hypocrisy, and their readiness to lie, smear, stereotype, and discriminate--all accompanied by their assertion that they were the fluffy-hearted champions of tolerance and understanding.

It's a pre-emptive tactic.

Declare yourself a victim, then kill all those who disagree with you.

I think that both extremes of the spectrum go
overboard: the "far left" declaring that their
position is the one true Touchstone of Tolerance,
and anyone who disagrees with them is an "Agent
of Oppression"; the "far right" declaring that
their position is the true Touchstone of Morality
and anyone who disagrees with them is a
"Destroyer of Decency"... both of them are
examples of zealotry overriding intelligent
engagement on the actual issues and concerns.

The truth lies somewhere between "America is The
Problem!" and "America: Love It or Leave It!"...
There is no enlightment to be had in blind lust
for either extreme.

-dw

Polarization is bad.