Republicans Hate College Now, Apparently

[Rational Agnostic]

Most universities are extremely liberal, socially, and this will be, at the very least, disappointing to people like me who feel a bit claustrophobic and outcast almost, suffocated by it all. I know at the university I would have attended the English department was so feminist that it deducted points from essays if the writer disagreed with many of those extremist feminist principles.

I am currently in college, and working on a Mathematics degree. STEM degrees are still very useful, and there is no politics involved in mathematics. Besides, most English and Sociology professors are idiots.

 

[Mister Emu]

According to a poll I saw several years ago, roughly 90% of all ph.d.'s that are either more Republican or Democratic tend to be the latter.

Maybe there's a reason for that.

According to polls of high IQ societies, members are predominantly libertarian; could that be for a similar reason?

This has never been my experience. In my experience the liberals just shout you down and make fun of you. The minute you mention you are against gay marriage you are labelled a homophobe and any friends you had quickly disappear. Could be a cultural divide between the US and UK.

It might be, in my campus experience, it was more of a mixed bag; there was a cloud of suppression hanging over the campus.I didn't have a care for what anybody thought and there were quite a few who viscerally did not like statements I'd made; some of these included professors. I think enough of their integrity as I experienced it to not consider any of the grading compromised by our disagreements.

Though, I did end up meeting some great people who even when you disagreed could have a good round of discussion on almost any topic and not feel animus towards each other. I also had some real great debates in the theology and philosophy departments with my professors and they took it swimmingly, maybe even happy to do it. So, it really went as I'd prefer in regards to who I was near and who stayed away. If that wasn't present I could envision the campus experience for anyone being bleak.

 

[Kapalika]

This has never been my experience. In my experience the liberals just shout you down and make fun of you. The minute you mention you are against gay marriage you are labelled a homophobe and any friends you had quickly disappear. Could be a cultural divide between the US and UK.

I was accused of being gay just because I said something when people were going on about gay people go to hell.

Conservative schools actively kick people out for being gay or if you support gay marriage. People in a liberal school might make fun of you, but they won't kick you out.

Also your example is pretty horrible. It's good to know many of my friends don't deserve to get married because it makes you uncomfortable. Of course some make fun of people against gay marriage, same as some make fun of racists or someone who says everyone else should follow their religion's rules.

It's ridiculous. But hey at least people are not kicking you out. Homophobia is now used to mean anti-gay, which being against gay marriage is in the same way segregation was racist.

Could be, but also could not be.

It was in this case for sure.

It might be, in my campus experience, it was more of a mixed bag; there was a cloud of suppression hanging over the campus.I didn't have a care for what anybody thought and there were quite a few who viscerally did not like statements I'd made; some of these included professors. I think enough of their integrity as I experienced it to not consider any of the grading compromised by our disagreements.

Though, I did end up meeting some great people who even when you disagreed could have a good round of discussion on almost any topic and not feel animus towards each other. I also had some real great debates in the theology and philosophy departments with my professors and they took it swimmingly, maybe even happy to do it. So, it really went as I'd prefer in regards to who I was near and who stayed away. If that wasn't present I could envision the campus experience for anyone being bleak.

This seems more representative of what I've understood it to more generally be like.

 

[Nous]

I've read recently that some of this negative talk has to do with student loans and that hurts the economy if people are burdened with overwhelming debt?

Thank you for that. I'm not sure that, if asked out of the blue, I would even understand what the question is supposedly asking: Do you have a positive or negative view of the impact colleges and universities have “on the way things are going in the country”?

I'd say “the way things are going in the country” right now is about as bad as it can get, and colleges and universities haven't pulled us away from the edge of the abyss.

 

[Laika]

Sorry, I was at work and couldn't watch.

no worries.

That source, Prager University, is known for making propaganda and outright lying sometimes to fit a conservative Christian worldview. It's kind of like Fox News but worse.

agreed. it was the best source for the (worst?) material I could think of.

 

[Rival]

Also your example is pretty horrible. It's good to know many of my friends don't deserve to get married because it makes you uncomfortable. Of course some make fun of people against gay marriage, same as some make fun of racists or someone who says everyone else should follow their religion's rules.

I'm not expecting anyone to follow my religion's rules, just to respect my belief instead of screaming 'homophobe' at me just because I have a different opinion. Also, as if you just compared someone against gay marriage to a racist? Wow.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm not expecting anyone to follow my religion's rules, just to respect my belief instead of screaming 'homophobe' at me just because I have a different opinion.

Is your opinion just "different" or is it actually homophobic?

Also, as if you just compared someone against gay marriage to a racist? Wow.

Sounds like a fair comparison to me.

BTW: are you trying to imply that you oppose same-sex marriage but you aren't homophobic? If so, I'd be interested to hear how you pulled both of those things off at the same time.

 

[Rival]

Is your opinion just "different" or is it actually homophobic?

I'm not homophobic. I don't hate and am not afraid of gay people. I just oppose gay marriage. I also experience same sex attraction almost as strong as my attraction to men and, if given the opportunity, would likely act on it. So I'm not sure how I qualify as a homophobe.

Sounds like a fair comparison to me.

BTW: are you trying to imply that you oppose same-sex marriage but you aren't homophobic? If so, I'd be interested to hear how you pulled both of those things off at the same time.

There are gay folks who oppose gay marriage. Being against gay marriage is not homophobia. Calling it homophobia is a new leftist trick to make people feel guilty.

 

[Stevicus]

BTW: are you trying to imply that you oppose same-sex marriage but you aren't homophobic? If so, I'd be interested to hear how you pulled both of those things off at the same time.

Well, the easiest way to pull it off is to cite the fact that "homophobic" is not really a legitimate term anyway. It's a political label and has no place in a reasonable discussion.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm not homophobic. I don't hate and am not afraid of gay people. I just oppose gay marriage. I also experience same sex attraction almost as strong as my attraction to men and, if given the opportunity, would likely act on it. So I'm not sure how I qualify as a homophobe.


There are gay folks who oppose gay marriage. Being against gay marriage is not homophobia. Calling it homophobia is a new leftist trick to make people feel guilty.

...Whereas quibbling over semantics to excuse horrible acts has been a standard tool in the right-wing toolbox for a very long time.

Whatever word you choose to apply, denial of same-sex marriage hurts same-sex couples. Don't expect the people you're trying to hurt - or the people who care about them - to think highly of what you're doing.

 

[Rival]

...Whereas quibbling over semantics to excuse horrible acts has been a standard tool in the right-wing toolbox for a very long time.

Cambridge English Dictionary, a UK top standard dictionary.

homophobia noun [ U ]
uk /ˌhəʊ.məˈfəʊ.bi.ə/ us /ˌhoʊ.məˈfoʊ.bi.ə/


a fear or dislike of gay people


homophobia Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

So this is not 'quibbling over semantics'. I used the word correctly.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Cambridge English Dictionary, a UK top standard dictionary.

homophobia noun [ U ]
uk /ˌhəʊ.məˈfəʊ.bi.ə/ us /ˌhoʊ.məˈfoʊ.bi.ə/


a fear or dislike of gay people


homophobia Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

So this is not 'quibbling over semantics'. I used the word correctly.

I think you missed my point: you're trying to hurt people, but instead of addressing this issue directly, you're complaining that people are using the wrong word to describe your attempt to hurt them.

That's what I mean when I say that you're quibbling over semantics.

 

[Rival]

I think you missed my point: you're trying to hurt people, but instead of addressing this issue directly, you're complaining that people are using the wrong word to describe your attempt to hurt them.

That's what I mean when I say that you're quibbling over semantics.

I'm not trying to hurt anyone. You just can't see past your biases.

 

[metis]

Because they've been taught to believe that? Had it drilled into them at uni.

Ya, that's why they're so ignorant enough to have ph.d.'s.

 

[metis]

This has never been my experience. In my experience the liberals just shout you down and make fun of you.

Oh, you mean like Trump and his gang did during the campaign on numerous occasions, including actually threatening protesters?

 

[Valjean]

Most universities are extremely liberal, socially, and this will be, at the very least, disappointing to people like me who feel a bit claustrophobic and outcast almost, suffocated by it all. I know at the university I would have attended the English department was so feminist that it deducted points from essays if the writer disagreed with many of those extremist feminist principles.

I'd be interested to know more about this essay assignment. I should think points would be added for one successfully defending an unpopular point of view.

For someone raised in a culturally homogenous part of the country, I can see how suddenly finding oneself surrounded by strange individuals with eccentric lifestyles and odd points of view might seem overwhelming, and a bit threatening. Likely such an individual never had the occasion to question his own cultural values and so lacks an intellectual understanding of them and the skillset to defend them.

To my mind, college is an opportunity to become more tolerant and appreciative of alternative opinions; to learn research methods, analysis and critical thinking skills. A professor stifling a point of view solely on political grounds, rather than on the merits of the argument, strikes me as a political apparatchik more than a sophist.

Colleges generally appear to have a strong pro-Democrat & anti-Republican bias.
It was so at my school back in the 70s.

My experience, from the '70s and '80s, (perpetual student) was of a liberal, tolerant and cosmopolitan community.
But recently I've been hearing about a disturbing trend toward liberal intolerance (how's that for an oxymoron?) on various campuses (see video #2); a suppression of ideas and opposing points of view. Such views, it seems to me, should be encouraged.

Why, for example, should a university pay for a politically correct speaker who would only be preaching to the choir, when it could get some political heretic for half the price who would really shake up some minds?
Why would a teacher not encourage dissenting opinions? Isn't part of his job to help students hone their analytic, argumentation and debate skills?

If you can't argue both sides of an issue, maybe you're not familiar enough with it to hold a valid opinion.

 

[metis]

According to polls of high IQ societies, members are predominantly libertarian; could that be for a similar reason?

I haven't seen such polls but that may be possible, especially since intellectuals tend to be free-thinkers.

 

[metis]

My experience, from the '70s and '80s, (perpetual student) was of a liberal, tolerant and cosmopolitan community.
But recently I've been hearing about a disturbing trend toward liberal intolerance (how's that for an oxymoron?) on various campuses (see video #2); a suppression of ideas and opposing points of view.

I agree with you, and what we have been seeing over the last couple of decades is a polarization of our political system whereas the "other side" becomes the "enemy". Even Congress reflects this as even going out for a drink with the "other side" has largely become a thing of the past. Even within my extended family, we now have an agreement not to talk politics because we're so divided, and discussions can all too easily ramp out of control as they did with my son's in-laws a few months ago.

 

[Quetzal]

I just oppose gay marriage. I also experience same sex attraction almost as strong as my attraction to men and, if given the opportunity, would likely act on it. So I'm not sure how I qualify as a homophobe.

This is a unique perspective, can I ask a follow up question? What is it about gay marriage that you do not agree with?

 

[Valjean]

I'm not Republican but for me its not colleges and universities that are bad but the push for all students to attend college's and universities even for degrees that don't amount to anything after college.

My nephew was a talented carpenter pushed by his parents to go to school, he chose engineering. Now finished he's a manager, I wonder how happy he will be as he gets older.

Universities, it seems to me, have two separate and different missions:
Higher education, who's goal is increasing appreciation of the world by creating intellectuals and polymaths, and
Vocational training, aimed at training technicians, doctors, businessmen &c.
One makes you happy, the other makes you prosperous. Your choice.

Many universities have a liberal bias, that is pretty well noted.

reality has a liberal bias.