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Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#11

Post by pron »

newacct23 wrote: post #8

51% of college graduates voted for Romney in 2012 while only 48% for Obama Romney actually lost with highschool educated only and he lost significantly with postgraduate studies only getting 42% of the vote with Obama getting 55%. So really the trend is that academics are liberal, not the highly educated. (That 3% gap in college grads likely accounts for a larger percentage of the population than the massive 13% gap…

The article defines highly educated as people with advanced degrees. They are not academics. I doubt anyone would classify the general population of all college graduates (i.e. from all colleges) in the US as highly educated.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#12

Post by laksjd »

Fej wrote: post #4

The two parties have been getting more polarized, that much is clear. The problem with the GOP from an educated person's perspective is that many, if not most of its politicians get elected through anti-intellectual rhetoric. Trump is the most extreme example of this. He makes no actual arguments and just attacks his detractors. An educated group taught to embrace science will certainly take issue with leaders who ig…

I'm sure many intellectuals are driven away from the GOP because of these issues, however the studies mentioned in the article seemed to be about people's actual political beliefs, not just which party they end up voting for.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#13

Post by [deleted] »

raverbashing wrote: post #10
petewailes wrote: post #3

Pithy answer: because you aren't going to be afraid of something when you understand that it's not something you need to fear. When you have a simple world view, nuance is always going to escape you. An educated person can understand that the world isn't simple, which will lead to a more liberal view, as liberal views tend to be based on the assumption that angry, narrow world view responses aren't a good thing. Some…

However it seems the majority of anti-vaxxers are liberals

[deleted]

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#14

Post by tempestn »

raverbashing wrote: post #10
petewailes wrote: post #3

Pithy answer: because you aren't going to be afraid of something when you understand that it's not something you need to fear. When you have a simple world view, nuance is always going to escape you. An educated person can understand that the world isn't simple, which will lead to a more liberal view, as liberal views tend to be based on the assumption that angry, narrow world view responses aren't a good thing. Some…

However it seems the majority of anti-vaxxers are liberals

The fact that most highly educated are liberal doesn't imply that most liberals are highly educated. I would guess (and hope) that most anti-vaxers are not highly educated, liberal or not.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#15

Post by sandworm101 »

For perspective, what in the US is called "liberal" in the rest of the world is rather to the right of centre. The two parties are pulling apart from each other but to outsiders they remain very similar both in policy and ideology, at least at the national level. Neither is talking of actual reform, only incremental change.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#16

Post by random_upvoter »

petewailes wrote: post #3

Pithy answer: because you aren't going to be afraid of something when you understand that it's not something you need to fear. When you have a simple world view, nuance is always going to escape you. An educated person can understand that the world isn't simple, which will lead to a more liberal view, as liberal views tend to be based on the assumption that angry, narrow world view responses aren't a good thing. Some…

Perhaps the real answer is closer to "it's easy to be tolerant and broad-minded if you don't feel threatened".

You're answer boils down to "because liberals are right and the others are wrong". But there isn't really such a thing as a wrong political opinion. People's political choices are based on their experience of the world. The whole premise of democracy is that if you take the mean of everybody's personal experience you will arrive -- more or less, and with some difficulty -- at the right answer.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#17

Post by petewailes »

raverbashing wrote: post #10
petewailes wrote: post #3

Pithy answer: because you aren't going to be afraid of something when you understand that it's not something you need to fear. When you have a simple world view, nuance is always going to escape you. An educated person can understand that the world isn't simple, which will lead to a more liberal view, as liberal views tend to be based on the assumption that angry, narrow world view responses aren't a good thing. Some…

However it seems the majority of anti-vaxxers are liberals

Fear and ignorance don't respect party lines. There's things liberal people are likely to be wrong about, and there's things illiberal people are likely to be wrong about.

The issue is where people fear a situation or outcome, and then draw their answers from their peers, who are also either un or ill-informed on the subject. Then you get bad answers to important questions, which no-one goes back to question (because now disagreeing with the answer means disagreeing with your social group).

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#18

Post by blowski »

And I guess the converse question which has vexed socialists for decades - why do so many of the poor vote for centre-right, business-friendly parties? For example, why did so many working class people vote for Thatcher in UK in the 1980s? Why are they not massively in favour of Jeremy Corbyn right now?

I'm not saying it's irrational. But sometimes it's odd to hear people who need the government to subsidise their minimum wage zero-hours income just for basic survival defending the Conservative Party's economic manifesto. I read "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" some years ago, and this question really stuck with me.

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#19

Post by gallonofmilk »

Fej wrote: post #4

The two parties have been getting more polarized, that much is clear. The problem with the GOP from an educated person's perspective is that many, if not most of its politicians get elected through anti-intellectual rhetoric. Trump is the most extreme example of this. He makes no actual arguments and just attacks his detractors. An educated group taught to embrace science will certainly take issue with leaders who ig…

> GOP is the party of creationists and climate deniers...

how is this statement different than e.g. "the democratic party is the party of socialists and communists"?

they're both bold assertions on a large group of people that are unlikely to be true for the majority...

to be honest it just sounds smug

Re: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

#20

Post by sandworm101 »

tempestn wrote: post #14
raverbashing wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However it seems the majority of anti-vaxxers are liberals

The fact that most highly educated are liberal doesn't imply that most liberals are highly educated. I would guess (and hope) that most anti-vaxers are not highly educated, liberal or not.

Perhaps not highly educated in the sciences. Many US schools allow students to graduate without any real exposure to science.
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