Demonizing

I've heard a lot about demonizing in the past semester. It comes from fundamentalists in the form of demonizing homosexuals, atheists, abortion doctors, Muslims, ect. However, it also comes from the exact opposite place. I've seen plenty of demonizing of fundamentalism. We, in our college culture especially, are so quick to demonize fundamentalism and to say that what they are doing is wrong.

But what does it mean to demonize a group of people? Well, when you demonize, you are basically making an entire group out to be evil. This comes from everywhere, but it especially surprises me when I see it from the college culture. College culture in general is supposed to be more liberal. Undergrads, obviously, are going to be this way, but the surprising part is when professors and grad students do it. There is supposed to be a certain amount of cultural relativism involved in study and academia that seems to be missing.

College culture is so quick to demonize the conservative right or even the fundamentalists. We are so quick to label what they do as illogical or evil. It surprises me.