> I recently tried explaining the 1st amendment to a Syrian CS student of mine. His English is very good, but the concept of inalienable rights, freedom of speech, and freedom to yell at our politicians .. he was intellectually incapable of understanding this, his society had brainwashed him so thoroughly.

Have you tried explaining them to your liberal friends in San Francisco? Their English is probably even better, but for some reason they still constantly fail to appreciate those concepts.