What the hell is a "moonbat," and are they confined to Santa Cruz?

Today I'm rather amazed to watch the churning chaos in the blogosphere brought about by the actions of some UCSC students and hellbeast hate-blogger Michelle Malkin. I mean, wow...

You see, the initial press release from the student group UCSC Students Against War concerning the blocking of military recruiters from a recent event at UCSC contained phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the organizers. Malkin posted this contact info on her blog - very widely read - and bam, those UCSC students are recieving death threats. Now the left wing blogosphere is all sorts of angry, saying that this is indicative of the crudeness of the right wing blogosphere's readership. Nevermind that Malkin has recieved comparably ugly counter-threats from in response to this whole mess. Of course, Malkin is arguably a more public figure, and therefore more subject to such actions. Nevertheless, reflecting on this whole thing, I can't help but fault the UCSC students a bit, and here's why...

I went to UCSC. 1999-2003. I was there through the initial Bush "election," 9/11, Afghanistan, and the beginning of Iraq. And my political leanings are pretty goddamn left, though they are all laid out through a fairly libertarian frame. But at Santa Cruz, what I saw amongst my peers often made me feel downright, well, conservative. As liberalized as I was - and I certainly became moreso as I was there, though I attribute that to events post-9/11 and not UCSC brainwashing - I always felt unease with the Santa Cruz brand of liberalism. This was because I saw a huge degree of naivete in the liberalism around me. It seemed everybody spouting these crazy, far-left ideas and stances (I'd never been approached by actual Marxists before my tenure at Santa Cruz) had not arrived where they were because of reasoned and informed deliberation, but because they were straight-up out of touch.

Yes, in Santa Cruz, it was like Republicans were boogeymen. Yes, they were feared and hated, but no one really believed they were real. I mean, sure, they were out there somewhere, but somewhere was somewhere far-off and scary, like Texas. No one really seemed to have an understanding of how someone could hold right-wing viewpoints, of what could put a person in that stance. From within that culture, that bubble, it becomes easier to understand why some naive students might post contact information regarding a lefty protest and be surprised at recieving death threats - not that those death threats are excusable. It also explains how some might think the following form of protest is a good idea: Yeah. That'll work. That's exactly the kind of behavior that will bring about the momentum and popular sentiment necessary to stop the neo-cons' worldwide rampage. Demonizing the military is a great idea. That really makes people like you seem level-headed and sympathetic...

Another thought... Does it really do the left any good to keep students from an undeniably left-leaning university away from military recruiters? What might happen should some of these burdgeoning young lefties join the military? Why, an inevitable drift towards the right, some might say! Political brainwashing! Repression of homosexuals! Unnecessary deaths in unnecessary wars! Well, some of all that might happen, but something else might happen should more lefties join the military. They might exert influence. Think about it... A young, left-leaning UCSC politics grad joins the military. What if, instead of shifting right and aligning with the standard military culture, the student retains their UCSC-born disposition and enacts it in their service as a military officer? What if said student eventually becomes a general, a Joint Chief of Staff, even. What if they then, in that position of power, counsel a bloodthirsty neo-con president against an unjust and unnecessary war?

But then, inside the uber-left bubble that is Santa Cruz and UCSC, thoughts like this might never occur. When you live in a one-frame world, it's kind of hard to learn to be effective in the outside world.

In the end, however, I'm still left with one question. What the hell is a moonbat? Is that meant to be derisive? 'Cause if it is, I don't exactly see how... Call me a proud moonbat.