Reply #5: Not personally but

[Spinzonner]

Some people are commitment-philes.

They can't do things in moderation or apply what they perceive as half-measures. They get the emotional feedback they need by being fully commited to something.

Perhaps this makes them susceptible to credulity and becoming involved too readily and without sufficient contemplation.

I also suspect that the hopes and dreams of some progressives and liberals of the 60's were not attained some became disillusioned and sought both the emotional fulfillment of the commitment and the changes they sought through another movement.

Not to imply it's the same thing as with your parents, but I've speculated that in extreme cases of this you have people going from radicals of one stripe to radicals of the opposite. Case in point: David Horowitz.