I had been waiting for the first "Liberals Persecute Conservative at UW" article this semester, so I wasn't surprised to read Joe Trovato's piece in Friday's opinion section. His article was the usual lamentation, deriding campus leftists for silencing conservative speech — i.e. the "rude reception" David Horowitz was recently met with at the Memorial Union Theater. It is a shame that many well-meaning progressives give credence to this argument. I should preface with stating that the perception of Madison as a city unwelcoming — let alone hostile — to conservatives is, at the very least, not as true as Mr. Trovato lets on. A daily glance at the Herald Editorial section, for example, should satiate conservatives with a healthy serving of gun-totting, Muslim-bashing or American nationalism. Or they can take a stroll on State Street and spit on the homeless. But there is certainly no denying that Madison discourse is left-of-center. I'm just not understanding why this is a bad thing. In a university setting, debate is not only good, but necessary. The dialectic of ideas buttresses the truth better than any environment of intellectual conformity ever could. And yet, we all agree that some ideas — Nazism, Satanism, Stalinism — probably won't contribute to meaningful discussion. Our university's search for truth — likely accompanied by genuine concern for human welfare — mandates a transcendence of tribalism, superstition and prejudice of all kinds. Many conservative ideas fail this test. Ask yourself if the following ideas really contribute to intellectual debate: 1) Homosexuality is immoral because Hebrew tribesmen a couple of thousand of years ago said so. 2) If you don't believe that America is the greatest country that ever existed or ever will exist, then you are suspect at best, a dirty traitor at worst. 3) Most homeless people live as the do by choice. 4) Any American foreign policy decision must be considered a priori altruistic. 5) Racism in America doesn't exist. I could go on. The aforementioned ideas aren't given credence at UW — or any other elite university, for that matter — because they add nothing valuable to an argument. Conservatives have a right to say what they want, but they can't expect people at institutions like UW to take them seriously. I'm sorry that Mr. Trovato feels so persecuted, but rather than crying about it, maybe he should ask himself why his ideas are looked down upon. Maybe he should ask himself why only 5 percent of UW faculty political donations went to the Republican Party in 2006. Maybe he should ask himself why the American university has become synonymous with left-wing thought. Warning: the answer might be painful.