Does attending University/College Change Your Political Outlook on Life

[GarzaUK]

Traditionally Univeristy/College and Professors seem to be more liberal than our non-university/college counterparts. Why is this?

Personally I was a conservative until I attended University, then within months I became liberal with my political outlook on life AND I never attended a political lecture.

 

[earthworm]

It is good that a man have his perspective of life expanded - from the board room to the unemployment line..
But how much can he take in ????
Whatever, it must be balanced - more or less....
I have found that the more I see, by direct experience, the better informed I am...
Also I have never been to any "university", having always worked about 90% of the time...

And I am neither liberal nor conservative..

Man should both work and learn....things would be better....

 

[RightinNYC]

It just exposes you to more, depends on how you take it.

I've met plenty of kids who didn't know anything about politics and then after coming here where its overwhelmingly liberal (Mock 2004 Election: Kerry - 86%, Nader - 8%, Bush - 6%), just became liberal to march in lockstep.

I also know plenty of kids who came here and became more conservative because they were sick of calculus and english literature professors spending all damn class talking about how awful Bush was.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Depends on how weak you are. College didn't do a thing for me, personally, in that regard.

Of course, I was a six-year Navy vet with some limited experience with nuclear technology and weapons, and I was also a 25 year-old freshman, so the usual commie-lib-cowardly-pants-wetting whining background drone typical of college campuses in the 1980's didn't penetrate my knowledge of the real world.

But a callow kid without a firm sense of reality could easily be swayed by the religious fervor of the lefties ruining campuses today.

 

[millsy]

I find that more than school most people I have met have pretty much the same political alliance as their parents. Same goes for the brand of beer they drink...........what's that about?

 

[RightinNYC]

I find that more than school most people I have met have pretty much the same political alliance as their parents. Same goes for the brand of beer they drink...........what's that about?

ew...... my parents drink horrible low carb beer.

 

[Ivan The Terrible]

I started out what I call now "Default liberal". I guess you could say the more I learned about the world the more conservative I became.

 

[George_Washington]

I've studied and followed politics pretty much all of my life, so college didn't dramatically change me in any way. My views have probably changed in certain ways since I was, say, 15 but I've always known that I lean towards the right.

 

[Hoot]

I graduated high school in '69 and immediately attended college afterward.

I think things are different today.

I remember in high school kids brought their rifles to shop class and cleaned them in school! We all had pocket knifes..it was a bit of a fad back then...some of these knifes had 3-4 inch blades! If there was a fist fight, no one ever gave a moments thought to pulling that knife out for defense...it just wasn't done.

My whole family was republican, but during my years away at college, I did become more understanding of the liberal viewpoint...especially concerning the environment...and no one has ever called me a tree-hugger.

I read some books in those days like "The Fate of The Earth," by Jonathon Schell, concerning nuclear waste, etc...books that could literally give you nightmares.

I became more liberal, not because of the professors' teaching classes, but because of the culture in those days...becoming more tolerant of other ideas and views.

After Nixon and Reagan, I began to see the corruption in the republican party. Then the witch hunt against Clinton finally pushed me farther to the left.

I still have some conservative leaning views, but let's face it...when is the last time we've had a true conservative in the White House?

I'll get flamed for this, but Clinton was far more conservative then the imposter we have occupying the Oval Office.

 

[Ivan The Terrible]

Hoot,

I'll get flamed for this, but Clinton was far more conservative then the imposter we have occupying the Oval Office.

To tell you the truth in some ways Clinton was... However, your attempt to enrage me has succeeded. Read this next sentence well...

 

[Jay R]

I'm at university now, and I can't say it's changing me. I have a few undeclared lecturers, no specific politics, certainly no agenda being pushed. I have another who is a Socialist, I agree with him on many things but not all. And I have another one whose a Marxist, top bloke but I'd never consider his politics.
I tend to decide my own agenda which overlaps with some people some of the time, but never matches anyone exactly. Better than my opinion of the national parties though, I really don't wish to compromise myself for their policies.