I took my dog to the dog park recently. As I threw his soggy tennis ball and watched him slide through the muddy grass to scoop it up, I overheard a fascinating conversation taking place between two college students.

A young man stood against the fence and introduced himself to a young woman sitting on the wood bench watching her poodle bounce around. After a few minutes of general conversation, they quickly found a mutual topic to discuss: politics.

Their intellectual prattling intrigued me.

"I don't know why all these people are freaking out about what Obama is doing. At least he's actually doing something, unlike Bush who only wanted to fight a pointless war." The young man shook his head in disapproval.

"Oh, I know. Like hello! There were no weapons-of-mass-whatever. Like we totally wasted all that money and all those people died for nothing." (I forced myself to not count how many times she would use the word 'like.')

"And then there's Fox News out there acting like a reputable news source, when everyone knows it's made up all those conservative whack jobs. Does anyone actually listen to them?" Okay, I thought to myself, he's completely unaware of the size audience Fox News has. He's never watched it. "What news do you watch?"

"Oh, me? I don't know. I don't watch much news. It's so depressing."

"Me too. I pretty much get all my news from 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.'" Did he just say he gets all his news from a show on Comedy Central???

"Oh, yea, that's a good one. Did you see last night when he was making fun of Sarah Palin and the whole 'death panel' thing?" She chuckles, obviously replaying the skit- I mean script- in her head.

"No, I missed it."

"Oh, it was soooo good! Sarah's so stupid. Like, you can tell she has no education like whatsoever, because 'death panel' isn't even in the bill. How scary would it have been if she were like in the White House."

"Everyone who is against the health care bill should just...die. That'll save us lots of money!" He grabs his beer belly and laughs.

"I totally agree! Like, seriously, and everyone who says we want to pull the plug on grandma. Well...maybe we should. I mean, old people don't exactly help us out that much anyways. The only people who should get health care are those who actually contribute to society, ya know?"

"I know. It's the same thing as socialism. Everyone freaks out when you say it's actually a good idea, but that's just because they don't understand it."

"Oh my god, totally! Like, I totally support socialism. Everyone would have a job, and money, and health care- so why is that bad?" The woman calls her poodle and stands to her feet.

"I support it also. It's the only fair way for everyone to have a chance. And just because it didn't work well for other countries doesn't mean we can't do it good here." They shake hands, leash up their dogs, and walk to their cars.

Biting my lips and debating whether I should chase them down and unleash upon them any and all common sense they apparently lack, I remind myself that it would do no good. Years of liberal education cannot be undone in a two-minute rant by some crazy woman at the dog park. (Common sense...okay, I would need way more than two minutes.)

I genuinely felt bad for them. Nothing is more oppressive than not knowing what you don't know.

And nothing is more liberating than knowing you're learning the truth.