‘Go to Berkeley’: Ron DeSantis said students seeking ‘woke’ classes should study elsewhere

[ThatRobGuy]

That is absolutely outstanding. No wonder the Right is afraid of Unversities.

I don't know if "afraid" is the right word.

But if a particular institution was all but captured by the opposing political team, would you be itching to drop thousands of dollars to send your kid there so that they could be in that bubble and come back in 4 years hating all of your values?

I don't think any parent would be too keen on that idea regardless of their political stripe.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Or they're only being given one viewpoint.

If it was purely case where something about conservatism was turning moderates off, then the pattern wouldn't be more pronounced the longer they stay in college, correct?

The chart you posted is a bit messy. The middle decade seems to be largely different than either earlier or later. I wonder if the methodology changed. But, if you want to speculate, then I would speculate agreement with your speculation. The question is *what* puts off the moderates. (Perhaps I can be a case study as I was definitely a "moderate" when I finished BS, and was still calling myself a "moderate" when I finished grad school.)

If there's something about conservativism that's off-putting to moderates, then I wouldn't expect having a PhD vs. a Bachelors to impact that the way the chart reflects.

I'd venture a guess and say that most college kids on the Master's and PhD path in public colleges aren't getting exposed to a whole lot of conservatism to begin with. However, they probably are getting exposed to a lot of "conservatives are evil" rhetoric while they're there.

I don't think we discussed politics much at all in our grad student offices, mostly football, other sports, silly things like creationism and other pseudosciences. As for in the classroom, there was exactly *ZERO* discussion of politics in my graduate work at a public university not from the professors, nor from the TA (me). I did go from a satisfied member of the Church to one who was so dissatisfied I would leave after a few more months. IIRC PhD holders are significantly less religious. I suspect that phenomenon is related.

Here are things I have noticed that might be relevant:

1. Unlike BS/BA programs where most attend in their home state (as you and I did), most graduate students travel out of state for their degrees (as I did). That exposes you to other cultures (like evangelicalism in my case) and at the same time keeps you from tight maintenance of tight reinforcement of your home culture. (I went home once a month in undergrad and worked in my hometown in the summer. In gradschool I mostly went home at the end of each semester for a week or two and stayed on campus in the summer.)

2. It is a lot easier to complete a BS/BA with out acquiring reasoning skills than a masters degree and almost impossible in a PhD program.

3. Both religious positions and conservative ones tend to thrive in the "not questioning" anything mode of thinking. Being well traveled, living away from your home/culture, and developing strong reasoning skills are corrosive to maintenance of religious and conservative positions.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Right, but that influence (under normal circumstances) is one that's usually confined to a person's area of expertise or aptitudes.

For example, if someone loves the guitar playing of Eric Clapton so much that they want to style their own playing after it and be able to sound like him, that would be what I would consider typical influence.

If someone looks up to Eric Clapton so much, that in addition to being able to play like him, they also want to adopt his views and positions on a variety of other subjects outside of music, that would be something more than just typical influence.

And in some cases, it's not even a professor in particular on an individual level, it's the appeal to credentialism as a whole in the soft sciences in ways that don't present themselves as much in the hard sciences.

Where, because someone has a certain title or academic credential, even in a subjective topic that may not be even directly in their wheelhouse, their opinion is given more weight.

You're conflating a bunch of different things. Do some people exhibit the sort of fandom you describe? Yes. Is it commonplace on university campuses? Not at all in my experience.

Again, I've seen it much more often with media personalities who have a clear financial incentive to cultivate this sort of personality cult. Trump is easily the most prominent example of this at the moment.

It's not a pet issue, but it's one where the perception of "taking the issue seriously" is often packaged in such a way that they make it synonymous with "going with the approach we want"


For example: In your opinion, is there any way a person can perceived as having taken that issue seriously without landing on the conclusion of some sort of single-payer/state run/medicaid for all type of solution?

You're putting words in our mouths.

In the 15 years since the ACA passed, Republicans haven't developed a health care plan of any sort. We're not even at the point of evaluating a plan to see if it's serious or not.

 

[BCP1928]

I don't know if "afraid" is the right word.

But if a particular institution was all but captured by the opposing political team, would you be itching to drop thousands of dollars to send your kid there so that they could be in that bubble and come back in 4 years hating all of your values?

I don't think any parent would be too keen on that idea regardless of their political stripe.

A kid who is that impressionable shouldn't be allowed in college, especially if his parents have filled him with crap about "opposite political teams."