Conservatives : Do you feel like your views are hated on in the college setting ?

[jojoju1998]

Conservatives : Do you feel like your views are hated on in the college setting ?

[Republican Party Stalwart]

If the poll question for "conservatives" specifically, then there probably should have been a "not a conservative" option (if not two separate "yes (not a conservative)" and "no (not a conservative)" options) for any non-self-identified conservatives who felt compelled to cast a vote, such as to avoid misleading or inaccurate poll results.

My answer is "yes," obviously.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'm not a conservative, but they'd hate me for simply not joining in their protests or immediately hopping on every new social justice thing that comes up every ten minutes. Being a white male probably doesn't help with that either, and silence is considered violent now.

The best thing about these protests is that they're exposing all the Ivy League and other big schools for what they are. It ain't about education, it's about the money and prestige.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

College is taught not by only by Professors but TAs whom are overwhelmingly females they are getting their Master's Degree while teaching classes that's why College are Liberal

That's why I am so liberal 8th grade Civics Sophomore yr Civics and College Civics taught by females

[Upper Canada Tory]

'Hated' is a strong word.

I'm a conservative who graduated from university relatively recently. The subject I studied was in a STEM field, so politics was rarely ever brought up. However, when it was brought up, I'm not sure I would say hatred was ever explicitly expressed toward people with conservative views - it was more that it was assumed that everyone in the university setting had liberal or left-of-centre views, so expressing a different (aka right-of-centre) opinion was a bit of a gamble - you were never sure how you would be percieved or what other people's reactions would be. Professors would sometimes express their liberal views on something, and in rare cases try to 'bait' students into expressing opposing opinions, but that would never really work.

Sometimes, however, I would hear conservative views expressed in private conversations with students. So, I'm not sure there is an inherent hatred of conservative views on campuses, but just an effort to promote and push liberal or left-of-centre points of view as the norm, which can make it difficult to openly challenge those views.

[Farmlands]

No, but that's because I studied Engineering, which is a more conservative or at least apolitical field than the arts, and the age divide here is actually opposite from the United States. Thank God.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I'm not a stalwart conservative, but many have considered me to be leaning in that direction. My viewpoint is becoming increasingly unpopular as polarization increases and I believe that I'd be at odds with many college students on many of the issues that are the most important. But like most groups, I'm sure I could find common ground on a few of them.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Point of information: they're not "conservatives" any more than Aum Shinrikyo is about "truth" or the PRC is a "Republic".

Modern American "conservatives" oppose the status quote, reject our traditional institutions, support the centralization of power, favor huge public spending and deficits in support of their preferred policies, and want to radically reshape American society. They are not "conservative" in any way.

They are authoritarian revolutionaries who increasingly embrace violence and terror and reject America's present and past in favor of their own oppressive fantasies.

[Farmlands]

Point of information: they're not "conservatives" any more than Aum Shinrikyo is about "truth" or the PRC is a "Republic".

Modern American "conservatives" oppose the status quote, reject our traditional institutions, support the centralization of power, favor huge public spending and deficits in support of their preferred policies, and want to radically reshape American society. They are not "conservative" in any way.

They are authoritarian revolutionaries who increasingly embrace violence and terror and reject America's present and past in favor of their own oppressive fantasies.

No one who's commented in this thread so far fits that bill, but go on. It's a good example of why many well-regarded posters steer clear of the US politics boards though.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

YMMV but I think its more socially acceptable to be a conservative/Trump supporter today than it was 6-7 years ago.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

YMMV but I think its more socially acceptable to be a conservative/Trump supporter today than it was 6-7 years ago.

If true, what does that say about conservatives/Americans given that in that intervening time period Trump has been found in a civil court to be a rapist?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

YMMV but I think its more socially acceptable to be a conservative/Trump supporter today than it was 6-7 years ago.

Not sure about compared to 6-7 years, but, compared to 10 years ago, definitely not.  I was at Vandy from 2014 to 2018, and I promise you that conservative views were received way better (and probably more common in general) in 2014 than in 2018.  I'm pretty sure that the student body president my freshman year was a Republican or at least very moderate.  Even my sophomore year, while I'd doubt that the president would identify as a Republican, campus polling showed that the winning ticket won off of the support of the more conservative half of the campus.  Trump becoming the face of the GOP was the turning point.

[DaleCooper]

A lot of this is a moral panic from the right. I'm not surprised to see multiple "No, but that's only because I was in STEM" comments here. They're so insulated in their safe spaces that they're convinced that history professors are teaching their students to worship Stalin, or whatever. This reminds me a lot of the way evangelicals would warn their kids about how universities would force them to take atheism classes, back in the day. In reality, 95% of professors just want to do their jobs, 95% of students just want to pass their classes, and almost nobody cares about your stupid political opinions.

The real problem on campuses that I noticed was related to whatever the current leftwing social cause was. Right now it seems to be Hamas support. 10 years ago it was the fake anti-racism protests. A couple years later it was MeToo and all the scam Title IX statistics. "99% of rapists walk free," and crap like that. It was that kind of BS that it never felt safe to stand up against, but the idea that you'd get persecuted for having any particular conservative opinion is absurd.

[Pres Mike]

Funny enough, I went to a rural college in the south. I had to keep my liberal and progressive views to myself.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

A few important things to note about this discussion:

1) "Conservatism" as it presently exists in the national discourse is increasingly toxic and unhinged. With MAGA, it's not just that their views are bad, they're incoherent. While I have Republican and libertarian friends, it's hard to imagine someone in my circle trying to argue that the 2020 election was stolen or that vaccines are bad - you're gonna get shut down pretty quickly if you have nothing to back up your statements. That said I've seen heated debate about stuff like charter schools so it's not like people are afraid of that.

2) College campuses are less reflective of the American political landscape these days due to many major universities becoming expensive academic tourism ventures for the children of wealthy foreign families - some kid from Guangdong whose father is a wealthy factory owner and CCP apparatus member is not going to give a rat's ass about gun control or gerrymandering or whatever. Even the American representation on college campuses seems increasingly, disproportionately from rich families.

There's been a push amongst far-right think tanks to demonize education. The Republican/Moms for Liberty dream is a nation of people who don't understand how a bill is passed or who is in charge of the groups that funded it. Don't go to college, become a mason tender instead - your back will be broken by 45 but at least you'll be voting for us your whole life. That's what the woke/DEI boogeyman is all about. Then when these people google something to try to learn about it, they'll be greeted with a PragerU video sponsored by Jiffy Lube about how public transportation was invented to take away their freedom.

All that to say, it's not a surprise you don't see conservatives on college campuses too much these days.

[Dan the Roman]

A few important things to note about this discussion:

1) "Conservatism" as it presently exists in the national discourse is increasingly toxic and unhinged. With MAGA, it's not just that their views are bad, they're incoherent. While I have Republican and libertarian friends, it's hard to imagine someone in my circle trying to argue that the 2020 election was stolen or that vaccines are bad - you're gonna get shut down pretty quickly if you have nothing to back up your statements. That said I've seen heated debate about stuff like charter schools so it's not like people are afraid of that.

2) College campuses are less reflective of the American political landscape these days due to many major universities becoming expensive academic tourism ventures for the children of wealthy foreign families - some kid from Guangdong whose father is a wealthy factory owner and CCP apparatus member is not going to give a rat's ass about gun control or gerrymandering or whatever. Even the American representation on college campuses seems increasingly, disproportionately from rich families.

There's been a push amongst far-right think tanks to demonize education. The Republican/Moms for Liberty dream is a nation of people who don't understand how a bill is passed or who is in charge of the groups that funded it. Don't go to college, become a mason tender instead - your back will be broken by 45 but at least you'll be voting for us your whole life. That's what the woke/DEI boogeyman is all about. Then when these people google something to try to learn about it, they'll be greeted with a PragerU video sponsored by Jiffy Lube about how public transportation was invented to take away their freedom.

All that to say, it's not a surprise you don't see conservatives on college campuses too much these days.

Both #1 and #2 are critical points, but I think they speak to something deeper. Namely, Republicans, as opposed to conservatives, were all but run-off elite campuses since 2017. The reason that happened was not related to the rise of safe-spaces, nor was it led by students. Rather, it was poorly conceived effort by administrators and faculty who made the same mistake Lincoln did in 1861. They greatly misjudged both the strength and ultimate loyalties of anti-Trump Republicans, and tried to aid them in taking over local Republican organizations. The net effect was to destroy them.

The reason I make the analogy with Lincoln is that during the winter of 1860-1861 he not only remained convinced that Southern Unionists were stronger than they were, but fatally misunderstood their unionism. He assumed it was based on actual attachment to the Union over slavery and loyalty to their states, when in fact most of them hated Lincoln as much as the secessionists and were unionists because they believed it was the best possible way to preserve slavery and oppose Lincoln. As a result, Lincoln was shocked when 90% rallied to the Confederacy and fought for it.

American elites made the same mistake with Republicans who did not like Trump from 2016-2022 or so. They assumed that NeverTrump Republicans disliked Trump because of his policy positions and views which were in line with the Republican party, rather than because he was a liability to achieving those ends. The reality is, 90% of Republicans who did not like Donald Trump agreed with him and disagreed with Democrats, and at the end of the day would favor his Administration over any Democratic one. This was in-line with a longstanding fantasy that if intelligent people disagree on economic policy, all educated people are social liberals. Hence  Republican friends and classmates only "pretend" to be Pro-Life or anti-immigration, secretly back BLM, and the whole Trans issue is an electoral stunt.

The result was faculty and universities tried to back "real conservatives" and "real Republicans" who in effect were Lincoln project types. This actually worked for a single student generation, as many College Republican leaders had bet on Trump losing and been outspoken in 2016. By 2018 and the Kavanaugh hearing, any Republican arriving on campus had stayed in the party after Trump won, and any Republican who ever wanted to work in DC pretty much had to have made their peace with Trump. At that point, any association with anti-Trump "Republicans" became a liability.

The result was a weird situation in which more "conservative" speakers than ever before flooded campuses, while loyal "Republicans" ie those loyal to the administration and party leadership, found themselves silenced.

The culmination of this followed January 6th. Schools like Harvard ban any speaker who failed to acknowledge Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the 2020 election. Regardless of the factual merits of the policy, it meant that the Harvard Republican Club is unable to host Congressmen, Senators, or future Cabinet Secretaries or National Security officials. Frankly anyone who is likely to be able to distribute jobs.

Without that ability, the only way for Republicans at these schools to gain advancement is

1. Have a home-state Senator or Congressman
2. Become so prominent in national, off-campus right-wing activist groups such as Turning Points they can land a job with someone like Vance

What has changed since 2022, and what I think explains the divergent views in this thread, is that administrators have given up, and younger students, whose trauma was covid, not Trump, don't care. NeverTrump Republicans have proved useless as anything more than a grift, so  demands Republican classmates repudiate the party leadership have ceased. Furthermore, the far-left is so wacky these days with the Hamas stuff, a lot of the Trumpism doesn't seem so outside the norm. In fact, elements of what would be considered white-nationalism are seeping into the leftwing "mainstream" via the current anti-Israel movement.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

1.Conservatives/Republicans attack educated people as 'intellectual elitists' or some such thing and advise to not go to colleges, or at least, to not take liberal arts. To turn around and be surprised that liberal arts colleges are dominated by non conservatives/Republicans is then utterly stupid. It's basic math.

2.Should conservative/Republican ideas be looked at with merit? This is a DEI thing itself. Just because a lot of people may hold an idea doesn't mean it has merit. The 2020 election was stolen from Trump or vaccines don't work or Jews have space lasers are all insane ideas just because some/a lot of people believe them. If you can't back up your ideas, then they don't have merit and don't whine about it.

3.Contradictory to point one is that there are a class of conservatives who do see themselves as intellectuals: those who have a fascination with the history of ancient Greece/Rome. The problem here is that for many this still leads to conspiracy theories and notions of the 'Great Replacement Theory.'

[Del Tachi]

This is very much a choose your own adventure.  I went to two flagship SEC schools (Miss St and UGA) and found both to be very conservative. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

This is very much a choose your own adventure.  I went to two flagship SEC schools (Miss St and UGA) and found both to be very conservative.  

Bama too, but it depended on the circles in which you ran.  

[ProgressiveModerate]

I'm pretty Conservative in the context of my age cohort - don't really participate in (and often outright oppose) any of the "trendy" campus protests. I'm also Conservative in a lot of my internal value system - I don't drink, do marijuana, do random hookups, ect (though I'm not hyper-religious no sex before marriage type). I also tend to be more optimistic than most around me when it comes to thing such as capitalism, income inequality, and so on - so many young people seem to be stuck in this negative mindset of "I'm doomed to do worse than my parents, will never be able to win a home, ect" where I don't really believe that.

I do get the sense that a lot just don't understand my values and may even look at me as "less than" because I don't agree with the mainstream ideologies on campus and am generally not an angry person about many of these things, but I think people underestimate the number of relatively a-political people on college campuses - I go to a liberal arts college in NY and known many people who have little to no interests in politics and generally get along with them just fine.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I'm not a conservative, but they'd hate me for simply not joining in their protests or immediately hopping on every new social justice thing that comes up every ten minutes. Being a white male probably doesn't help with that either, and silence is considered violent now.

The best thing about these protests is that they're exposing all the Ivy League and other big schools for what they are. It ain't about education, it's about the money and prestige.

I'm sort of in this camp as well and what I've realized is I don't really care if those types dislike me - they aren't even a majority on most college campuses and not the types of folks I'd want to hang around all the time. I've found my home more with less political types - I think people underrated how many college students have relatively little to no interests in politics.

[wnwnwn]

How much leftists students are there on the average american economic major college classes? (I'm talking about intermediate macroeconomics, industrial organization, monetary theory, etc, not intro micro or intro macro which to my understanding are also studied by people of other majors to complete their general studies requirements).

[ProgressiveModerate]

How much leftists students are there on the average american economic major college classes? (I'm talking about intermediate macroeconomics, industrial organization, monetary theory, etc, not intro micro or intro macro which to my understanding are also studied by people of other majors to complete their general studies requirements).

From my experience college students in STEM fields like CS, ECON, and math tend to be less political but not necessarily Conservative.

[wnwnwn]

How much leftists students are there on the average american economic major college classes? (I'm talking about intermediate macroeconomics, industrial organization, monetary theory, etc, not intro micro or intro macro which to my understanding are also studied by people of other majors to complete their general studies requirements).

From my experience college students in STEM fields like CS, ECON, and math tend to be less political but not necessarily Conservative.

Economics ain't STEM. Maybe the econometrics majors and the 'math economics' MIT majors, but not the rest.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Yes.

So what?