Social What is the "liberal elite" and why is academic so liberal?

[Sean_wongster_wongmastter]

How come we don't have more conservatives in academia?

Why is academia full of flaming liberals? What is the liberal elite? Is it all these high tech liberals at Apple and Google with their higher education and big salaries?

Why don't we have more conservatives from the rural areas as part of academic and big tech?

 

[FIMN]

"Reality has a liberal bias"

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

yeah why does being more educated & being around more people have a strong correlation to being more liberal? can’t imagine why.

 

[weed]

what's a conservative elite?

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

what's a conservative elite?

the bush family, the waltons, the rockefellers, etc. hell, most of wall street could fall under that banner.

 

[The_Renaissance]

yeah why does being more educated & being around more people have a strong correlation to being more liberal? can’t imagine why.

Correct. More open minded people tend to be more educated in general. The problem is, most of these academics lead a Conservative lifestyle while preaching leftism - they're upper middle class, close to six figure salaries, live in crime free neighbourhoods that tend to be very "white" in general, their kids go to schools without the threat of gang violence etc.

But they claim to be the voice of minorities and "the people" when they don't really mingle in those circles at all.

It's the hypocrisy that gets to people rather than the Leftism itself. They're basically appeasing the great unwashed verbally as armour so if the mob comes, they might themselves be considered immune because they "support the issues".

Vote left, live right. The methodology of these people. Look at the head honchos of BLM as a prime example.

 

[Jack V Savage]

A majority of Republicans are creationists. And believe that climate change is either a hoax or not caused by humans. Trump is the frontrunner for their presidential nomination, and they actually nominated him twice already. Big portion profess to believe that tax cuts for the rich are so stimulating to the economy that they pay for themselves. They're totally obsessed with the idea that transgendered people are taking over the world. Etc. It's very hard for an educated person to fit in with the party these days.

BTW, it's kind of a myth that people move to the extreme left as they get more education. What actually happens is that uneducated people tend to have a mix of extreme left and extreme right views, and as people get more educated, they tend to become more consistent, which usually resolves to being consistently liberal.

 

[Sean_wongster_wongmastter]

yeah why does being more educated & being around more people have a strong correlation to being more liberal? can’t imagine why.

You say that like higher education is always a good thing, sometimes too much book knowledge just turns you into a flaming coward.

 

[Whippy McGee]

Academia is Leftist because they won't hire Conservative Professors. If you "out" yourself, you're gone. My PMO Director is also a Geology Professor here in OC. She keeps her political views very quiet as she feels if she didn't her career would be over.

I have a friend. He's a Hollywood comedy writer, recently retired for sitcoms everyone would know. He's gay, but he doesn't dare let it out that he's a Conservative. He worked on Will & Grace and they never knew his politics by design.

 

[The Diplomat]

A majority of Republicans are creationists. And believe that climate change is either a hoax or not caused by humans. Trump is the frontrunner for their presidential nomination, and they actually nominated him twice already. Big portion profess to believe that tax cuts for the rich are so stimulating to the economy that they pay for themselves. They're totally obsessed with the idea that transgendered people are taking over the world. Etc. It's very hard for an educated person to fit in with the party these days.

BTW, it's kind of a myth that people move to the extreme left as they get more education. What actually happens is that uneducated people tend to have a mix of extreme left and extreme right views, and as people get more educated, they tend to become more consistent, which usually resolves to being consistently liberal.

Yeah. But I think the extreme left and extreme right need to just like, chill out, man. Being passionate for something is good, but not when it's to the point of obsessive rage.

 

[Damien Karras]

The social sciences tend to have more left leaning professors, that's true. However some academic fields do attract a fair share of conservative thinkers such as economics and philosophy. I'm doing a master's in management sciences and I'm surprised at how openly progressive my professors seem to be. Maybe @Fake Doctor could weigh in as I know he's a PhD candidate.

Yeah I'm calling you out Fake Doctor! Where you at homie?


Edit: forgot to mention that theology does tend to have many conservatives amongst its ranks for obvious reasons.

 

[icemun]

How come we don't have more conservatives in academia?

Why is academia full of flaming liberals? What is the liberal elite? Is it all these high tech liberals at Apple and Google with their higher education and big salaries?

Why don't we have more conservatives from the rural areas as part of academic and big tech?

You're asking why educated, forward thinking people who are steeped in learning aren't, "conservative" ?

Or why people who are into math, science, technology and, the FUTURE aren't, conservative?


Think about that.

Think about what the word, conservative means...

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

Correct. More open minded people tend to be more educated in general. The problem is, most of these academics lead a Conservative lifestyle while preaching leftism - they're upper middle class, close to six figure salaries, live in crime free neighbourhoods that tend to be very "white" in general, their kids go to schools without the threat of gang violence etc.

this is honestly a self-own. you are pointing out that that’s exactly how this country is structured. with more support, regardless of your political beliefs, comes with the phenomenon that people want to pay you to speak/vote you into office. with the country & its economics being structured based on a right wing capitalist machine, they don’t have a choice & not participating in the socioeconomic system is not an option. richer neighborhoods are kept away from poorer neighborhoods by design, and people with money have to participate in this society. your gripe is that leftists have no choice but to participate in a right-wing society which is illogical and silly.

But they claim to be the voice of minorities and "the people" when they don't really mingle in those circles at all.

It's the hypocrisy that gets to people rather than the Leftism itself. They're basically appeasing the great unwashed verbally as armour so if the mob comes, they might themselves be considered immune because they "support the issues".

Vote left, live right. The methodology of these people. Look at the head honchos of BLM as a prime example.

you are literally fully encapsulating this message. the entire society is set-up in a right-wing manner and anyone who is leftist should simply starve rather than participate in the society they have no choice but to live in. it’s asinine.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

You say that like higher education is always a good thing, sometimes too much book knowledge just turns you into a flaming coward.

i literally don’t even know what to say to this lol i guess it’s better to be completely ignorant and uneducated than the opposite. sure man.

 

[Bojka]

The social sciences tend to have more left leaning professors, that's true. However some academic fields do attract a fair share of conservative thinkers such as economics and philosophy. I'm doing a master's in management sciences and I'm surprised at how openly progressive my professors seem to be. Maybe @Fake Doctor could weigh in as I know he's a PhD candidate.

Yeah I'm calling you out Fake Doctor! Where you at homie?


Edit: forgot to mention that theology does tend to have many conservatives amongst its ranks for obvious reasons.

Economics has the most conservatives of the social sciences. It also has the highest average IQ. Engineering I think has the highest proportion of conservatives of any faculty. Also among the highest average IQs of any discipline.

Funny enough, although academia does tend to be very left wing, there is a rather inverse correlation between how left wing a discipline is and the average IQ of the graduates from that discipline.

 

[Damien Karras]

Economics has the most conservatives of the social sciences. It also has the highest average IQ. Engineering I think has the highest proportion of conservatives of any faculty. Also among the highest average IQs of any discipline.

Funny enough, although academia does tend to be very left wing, there is a rather inverse correlation between how left wing a discipline is and the average IQ within that discipline.

I don't mean to disagree with you for the sake of disagreeing, I just think you should back that claim up with a source.

I was always under the assumption that mathematics and physics scored highest in the IQ department.

 

[oldshadow]

It depends on what field you go into.

Say engineering I worked with a hell of a lot of them and the overwhelming majority were conservative. Including nuclear engineers some Dr.'s .

 

[Koro_11]

yeah why does being more educated & being around more people have a strong correlation to being more liberal? can’t imagine why.

Except one should not confuse woke leftist fascists with liberals, they are two very different things.

 

[FIMN]

From my experience economic academics tend to be fairly heterodoxical. But looking at data doesn't seem to match up with "conservative" ideas - such as climate change is a myth and tax cuts benefits everyone. There are radicals on both sides.

An honest examination of the facts don't push people to be "conservative" in an American sense.

 

[Bojka]

I don't mean to disagree with you for the sake of disagreeing, I just think you should back that claim up with a source.

I was always under the assumption that mathematics and physics scored highest in the IQ department.

Math, physics, engineering, philosophy, and economics are all rather close. The male dominated majors tend to have higher average IQs. They also tend to be more conservative.

https://randalolson.com/2014/06/25/average-iq-of-students-by-college-major-and-gender-ratio/

The most left wing majors have barely above average IQs.