Conservatives have complained bitterly about liberal bias in academia since the 60’s. The hysteria became particularly shrill in the last 10 years or so, appending the pejorative ‘woke’ as a further term of disdain. The right believes that college and universities specifically hire and encourage liberal professors and administrators, and reject or ostracize conservatives. They consider this part of a liberal conspiracy to corrupt impressionable students and bolster ‘woke’ culture and America-hating.
But the simple fact is that across America (and, for that matter, the rest of the developed world) higher education is associated with more liberal political views. The Pew Charitable Trust conducted a survey on political views with people of various levels of education (https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/04/26/a-wider-ideological-gap-between-more-and-less-educated-adults/). People with postgraduate education and degrees were much more likely to hold liberal views, and people with high school and some college education were very likely to hold conservative views. The liberal bias in the well-educated is not simply a college professor phenomenon, but extends across the US population.
Every professor has a postgraduate degree, so it is no surprise that the majority of them hold liberal political views. And when a majority of people hold similar views, then there is always the potential for some level of bias in that population and it is certainly possible that students and professors who hold conservative views may feel unwelcome or in some way demeaned. My own experience in college was that professors did not hide their political inclinations, but they also welcomed other opinions and were never dismissive of them.
One might argue that people with postgraduate education have generally been corrupted by the liberal universities, but I find that to be a specious argument. Once people leave the university there are multiple factors influencing their thinking and it is unlikely that they would cling to views formed at the university unless they continue to make sense to them in the marketplace of ideas that they confront throughout their lives. And indeed, the tendency, as one grows older, is to become more conservative and less idealistic, as taxes and self-interest curb one’s zeal for liberal causes and ideology.
There is a better explanation for why postgraduate education leads to liberal political views. Better educated people recognize the contradictions and injustices in society and they tend to read widely and dig deeply into history, science, economics and other concepts. They have developed the skills and habits necessary for deep thinking and processing of more complex data. They have the same self-interest that less educated conservatives have, but they recognize the contradictions and the paradoxes and choose to err on the side of social justice and the social contract. In the balancing of liberty and equality, they are willing to push the scale a bit toward equality because otherwise it will steadily slip further away from it.
Yes, colleges generally tend to be liberal. But quite frankly, it is typically the only time in one’s life that the surrounding culture will tilt that direction. There is no broad conspiracy to indoctrinate our youth in Marxism, atheism or socialism or any other specific ideology. It is simply a great time to explore different ways of thinking and be challenged in one’s point of view. We should all have faith in the intellectual strength and the ethical and moral code that we have nurtured in our children. They will find their own way.
But if they get well educated, and don’t simply go to frat parties and football games, then there is a high probability they will lean left.
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