Why does Drexel University professor George Ciccarielo-Maher want “to vomit” when someone extends kindness to a member of the military?

On a flight last Sunday, Ciccarielo observed an unnamed passenger giving up his first-class seat to a uniformed person. Wonderful gesture, right? Not according to Ciccarielo. Here’s what he tweeted. He later made it private, but you know how the internet never forgets.

Rob O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who was on the team which took out Bin Laden, appeared on Friday’s “Fox and Friends” to rip Ciccariello.

“How to Grow Facial Hair Without Testosterone.” Oh, snap!

Is Ciccariello feeling even the teeniest bit of remorse over his comments? Hardly. On Thursday he released this statement to a Fox affiliate in Philadelphia:

Two days after U.S. airstrikes incinerated an estimated 200 civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul, I sent a personal tweet in reaction to what I considered a smug and self-congratulatory gesture by a first-class passenger toward a uniformed soldier. Maybe predictably, my tweet has since been fed into and misrepresented by the outrage machine that is right-wing media. Needless to say, my personal views expressed off-campus have absolutely nothing to do with those of my employer, Drexel University.

Well, of course. Conservative knuckle-draggers are too ignorant to appreciate the prof’s academic genius and brilliantly nuanced remarks.

Or maybe we love our country, respect those who serve her, and despise arrogant asshats who sneer at patriotism. I know, that’s beneath the dignity of a genius like Ciccariello.

So just who is Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher, PhD?