maybe he's just interested in having a less myopic view of the issue. Or he is a cyclopse, and trying to have a myopic view, but can't because he's an idiot, and cyclopses only have one eye.

Yeah.

He's either respectable or not is my inconclusion.

I think part of the paradox arises because nobody expects something called "Social Welfare" to be anything but a politically one-sided major, with professors and students reinforcing on another's essentially socialist beliefs. So perhaps this guy went in hoping to shake things up a little, present a viewpoint that often doesn't get brought up, even if it should be discussed more often in a legitimate debate about social policy. He might be hoping for a genuine discussion of a full spectrum of ideas. On the other hand, he might just like to get in arguments.