Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

[Rawley]

Uneducated conservatives will tell you that all colleges are liberal brainwashing institutions that only teach political propaganda. Not once in 6 years of my bachelor's and master's in electrical engineering did anyone even remotely discuss politics.

Not even in the classes for you minors in pretension and condescension?

 

[Tigerace117]

Two great quotes comes to mind


"The facts of life are conservative"- KLATTU ( ripped off by Margaret Thatcher)

"It's not that liberals are ignorant , it's that they know so much that isn't so" -Klattu( ripped off by Reagan)

Case in point- a gaggle of liberal not so long were claiming that the rise in gas prices was due to corporate greed!( GIGGLEfest)

Oh look, not one but two blatant lies. Thanks for proving the point

 

[Tigerace117]

Not even in the classes for you minors in pretension and condescension?

Another day, another round of Trump cultists weeping about how MEAN they fantasize “liberals” are to them. Yawn

 

[thelastman]

The main reason the uneducated working class vote conservative in modern times is because they are smart enough to understand that the modern left does not represent them - unless they happen to be a minority of course. The majority of the working class are white. The modern left tells the working class white person that it is their ( white peoples ) fault that minority members are disadvantaged in society and that because we need to give minorities affirmative action to create equality. Apparently it is also the uneducated white persons fault that they themselves are disadvantaged. They must be stupid or lazy - or both. So no affirmative action for them. Some working class people are smart enough to know that conservative parties hate them too but at least not openly. Most modern political issues are to do with culture and modern conservative parties do a good job of not insulting or attacking working class culture. Psychological wellbeing is important so when a working class person knows that both sides of politics serve the interests of the wealthy/elite then it comes down to which party aligns better with their values. Most working class Americans under Obama felt as though they were constantly being attacked with all of Obamas 'race relations' horse %$%$ and most people dont like being called a racist every day. Being told that everything is their fault. Being treated like the enemy. That is why these people love Trump rallies so much. Trump does not attack these people - he creates an environment where they feel celebrated and feel as though they can be proud of who they are. The left doesnt believe these people should be proud of who they are. So you dont even have to really give these people anything if you are Trump and you just won an election - they are just relieved that they dont have some guy standing up there every day telling them they are racists and that everything is their fault.


Modern leftists think a hell a lot of themselves and they dont think they can be wrong about anything. So if working class people are against illegal immigrants for example the only explanation must be that they are racists. High immigration puts downward pressure on working class wages but thats something they dont want to talk about apparently. Working class people do know that high immigration hurts them and many do indeed respond with racism but not all and even the ones that do dont change the fact that high immigration is hurting the working class. The lefts response? You are racists. All of you.

Leftists are out of touch with the working class. Like Australian PM recently saying he would not bring back covid sick leave payments for casuals because they can just work from home... Most working class people cannot work from home. Leftists said similar things at start of pandemic in USA and in response we saw conservatives making videos mocking them for thinking that working class people can just work from home. or that they can afford to be out of work for long periods during lockdowns. Reality is that not onoy are modern left out of touch with working class but they just dont care about them and do a terrible job of pretending to. It is at the core of the modern leftists identity to hate the working class..They get their kicks from mocking us and attacking us. The modern right is not so pathetic.

 

[poweRob]

Many people simply like easy, black/white "solutions" to nuanced problems that don't lend themselves to such simplistic thinking.

Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

Will's answer: First, let’s note that there is a difference between educated and intelligent. Now, let’s discuss what education looks like. You are taught science. You are taught economics. You are taught history. Maybe you’re even taught sociology or ethics. The more education you get, the mor...

www.quora.com

Educated people are harder to dupe and don't tend to look for authoritarians to lead them the way uneducated and conservative factions do.

 

[Lisa]

There will be some who won't delve into the link provided, but this is not a new phenomenon, there are indeed intelligent and educated people on the Conservative side of the political spectrum, but less so on the Far Right, those who believe in conspiracy theories and stolen elections. THAT is just par for the course.
It is worth noting though, a few lines from the above link:



Education by itself is not the be all and end all. Those who travel, allow themselves to be exposed to different philosophies, different religions (doesn't mean you have to follow them) and break bread with different demographics (blacks, Asians, gay people) tend to have a "broader" view of the world. Those who isolate themselves in a community of like-thinking people, tend to have insular views.

I am not college educated but have very liberal views. That came from traveling a lot in my youth, talking to people from all walks of life, reading a variety of material - including history, science, philosophy, etc.

Also, well educated, OR well read or well traveled folks are less likely to get offended by threads like this one, those who feel "slighted" by the suggestions made in this OP will lash out. Watch for it.

Welcome back Snowflake.

 

[AmNat]

Many people simply like easy, black/white "solutions" to nuanced problems that don't lend themselves to such simplistic thinking.

Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

Will's answer: First, let’s note that there is a difference between educated and intelligent. Now, let’s discuss what education looks like. You are taught science. You are taught economics. You are taught history. Maybe you’re even taught sociology or ethics. The more education you get, the mor...

www.quora.com

Were are educated people more likely to be communist in the PRC?

 

[MAGAnificent]

Uneducated conservatives will tell you that all colleges are liberal brainwashing institutions that only teach political propaganda.

Not all colleges. It's largely the ivy league universities that hire ultra-librul professors and pay them ultra-fat salaries and then charge the students tuition that they most take out government guaranteed loans that many of you are still paying on decades later.

 

[HonestJoe]

Not everyone wants to be indoctrinated the liberal way

So you don't object to being indoctrinated, just as long as it is in the "right" way?

 

[Mithrae]

The modern left tells the working class white person that it is their ( white peoples ) fault that minority members are disadvantaged in society...

No, in general that's certainly not what the modern left (nor centrists and center-right Democrats) say... though it undoubtedly is what far-right media outlets claim they say. You're new here (welcome to the forum), but there've been innumerable threads on those issues. For anyone actually interested in understanding, it's pretty well understood that the racial disparities and tensions in America - like so many other things - at their root were always a divide and rule ploy of the rich and powerful, going back to the earliest days of slavery when dissociating and desensitizing poorly-treated working class European Christians to the even greater brutalities inflicted on slave Africans (many also becoming Christians) was an absolute necessity. The greatest societal division had to be black and white, not rich and poor; it's not as if poor Europeans were getting any benefit from slavery, but by instituting 'white' as a privileged category they gained "a sort of public and psychological wage" as W. E. B. DuBois described the similar phenomenon of the Reconstruction-era South. Similarly in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson said while campaigning in Tennessee that "If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you," and in the 1980s Reagan advisor Lee Atwater: "So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it." Atwater, like many others, thought that the racial problems were gradually fading away in the decades following the civil rights era, but as the demographic data showed most of the disparities persisted into this century (in some cases even widened IIRC)... and the rise of Trumpism and cult-like devotion garnered by the racist birther-in-chief showed that it was far more than just economic disparities in play.

Psychological wellbeing is important so when a working class person knows that both sides of politics serve the interests of the wealthy/elite then it comes down to which party aligns better with their values. Most working class Americans under Obama felt as though they were constantly being attacked with all of Obamas 'race relations' horse %$%$ and most people dont like being called a racist every day.

As you say, it's a question of where your values align: Do you think that ongoing racial disparities in educational funding, income, killings by police and so on are something which needs to be addressed... or do you choose to believe that they are merely "horse @#%$" and willingly swallow the propaganda lines that you are being personally blamed for all of those problems? Seeing a black man in the White House was obviously a major turning point for America, and the idiot racist birther conspiracy theories of which Donald Trump was the leading proponent were a rather sickening new low in its political scene. All poor and working class Americans are getting a raw deal from the under-regulated right-wing capitalist system which both Republican and (to a lesser extent) Democrat politicians largely uphold, an anger which far-right media generally and Trump specifically harnessed in terms of white grievance/nativist rhetoric against the black man in the White House, against immigrants, in his support for monuments to Confederate slavers, in calling peaceful black protestors against police brutality like Kaepernick "sons of bitches" and suggesting they shouldn't be in the country, and so on.

It's still the same trick; still exploiting racial divisions and tensions as a distraction from the rich and powerful harvesting vastly disproportionate wealth from the activities of poor and working class folk. As you imply, it doesn't seem like the Democrats did much to try to fix that actual root problem when they held power, nor since they regained it: They (many of them) were merely on the better side of that divide and rule division, siding with efforts to at least reduce those racial disparities and correct some of the injustices. The question then was where the voters' values lay; with the lesser evil, with trying to fix some injustices even if not the really big ones... or with nativism and white grievance rhetoric, pretending that there were no underlying societal problems, or indeed that white people are the real victims in all this?

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

Many people simply like easy, black/white "solutions" to nuanced problems that don't lend themselves to such simplistic thinking.

Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

Will's answer: First, let’s note that there is a difference between educated and intelligent. Now, let’s discuss what education looks like. You are taught science. You are taught economics. You are taught history. Maybe you’re even taught sociology or ethics. The more education you get, the mor...

www.quora.com

The accusations by the Republicans and Democrats like this are why most Americans registered as Independent.

 

[KevinKohler]

Simple.

Religion.

The right hitched their wagon to religious voters...specifically, evangelicals. A massive, and often unified, voting block.

The gaining of knowledge requires constant questioning and answering, which is the antithesis of christianity.

 

[Geoist]

Liberals are just so full of themselves it is ridiculous!

I have no problem with anyone who chooses a different route from college. But I have no patience for those who scoff at science and intellectualism, particularly the current GOP.

 

[noonereal]

Many people simply like easy, black/white "solutions" to nuanced problems that don't lend themselves to such simplistic thinking.

Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

Will's answer: First, let’s note that there is a difference between educated and intelligent. Now, let’s discuss what education looks like. You are taught science. You are taught economics. You are taught history. Maybe you’re even taught sociology or ethics. The more education you get, the mor...

www.quora.com

Biased post you linked to but still much truth in it.

 

[NolanVoyd]

Liberals are just so full of themselves it is ridiculous!

But those are facts.

 

[RealityNow]

Many people simply like easy, black/white "solutions" to nuanced problems that don't lend themselves to such simplistic thinking.

Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?

Will's answer: First, let’s note that there is a difference between educated and intelligent. Now, let’s discuss what education looks like. You are taught science. You are taught economics. You are taught history. Maybe you’re even taught sociology or ethics. The more education you get, the mor...

www.quora.com

VERY GOOD SUMMARY !!! (Most everyone who participate in these Forums should read it)

• It's a very good condense overview that has a great depth of info in its summarizing messaging of content)

Quote
Why are educated people more likely to be liberal/progressive in the US?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-educated-people-more-likely-to-be-liberal-progressive-in-the-US
If you study history, you learn things like how Republican Herbert Hoover took office with a Republican majority in the Senate and the House and we wound up with the Great Depression. And you’ll learn that Democrat FDR took office with a Democratic majority in the Senate and the House and pulled us out of the Great Depression. You’ll learn that the next time Republicans controlled the Senate, House, and White House was in 2001, and that we immediately had the worst terrorist attack in US history, started two wars with countries that didn’t attack us, and had the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Then Obama took office with a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress and ended the recession and started the longest bull market in American history. Then Trump took office with a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress, and immediately doubled the deficit, flatlined the economy, mishandled a pandemic, and we lost millions of jobs and a half million lives, and wound up in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Again. [Edit: then Biden became President with a Democrat majority in both chambers, and we experienced the fastest economic recovery in history with record job growth, record new business startups, record cuts to the deficit, record consumer spending, record corporate profits, the best GDP growth in forty years, and the Dow literally set a record for most records set in a year.] And suddenly voting Republican doesn’t seem like that good of an idea.

 

[noonereal]

Another day, another round of Trump cultists weeping about how MEAN they fantasize “liberals” are to them. Yawn

I gotta be honest. I am in my 60s with a home in the county and a home in the city.
My entire life has been like that. I traveled in both environments. I never looked down on the country boys, never through the 57th st. crowd snobs.

Well, today I can't stand the country boys.
Why? Trump.

 

[RealityNow]

Liberals are just so full of themselves it is ridiculous!

So, Is that to mean, you resent people being educated and becoming intellectually competent.

 

[longview]

Perhaps it is worth noting that just because someone is conservative, does not mean they are right wing,
just like if someone is liberal, does not make them a progressive.
In many ways progressive ideology, is the anthesis of liberal ideology.
If we want people to have the most personal freedom possible (liberal) the path
there is not through the ever increasing control of the progressive movement.
The conflict is similar to a conservative who thinks the least government is the best government,
is quite different from right wing plans to control things like if a Woman can get an abortion.

 

[Doppelgangirl]

A close friend, whom I have known for decades, was raised in a very far-right-wing family. This friend, who is very intelligent, won a scholarship to an international private high school (which was in the city where the family lived). While a student there, they got to know kids from all over the world. When they graduated, they had changed from far-right-wing to a Bernie supporter. They attribute that to knowing people from all different cultures with different world, political and religious views.

I can relate. Living abroad as a teenager I went to a similar school. Maybe 7 total US citizens in my high school. My fellow students were from every country you could think of. That environment showed me a lot about the world, different cultures, etc. Complete change of perspective. Could not be more grateful for that experience.

 

[ultmd]

"Educated" people are liable to be liberal (at least in theory) because:

1. The more educated you are, the better the chance that you'll have a well-paying job.

2. With a well-paying job, you will be able to live in a safer neighborhood.

3. With a well-paying job, you can avoid mixing with (the) hoi polloi on public transportation.

4. Being "educated" means you were exposed to the "progressive" views of professors who themselves have never lived in the real world among (the) hoi polloi, so those professors idealize them in their lectures to naive students.

a. For example: Some young people commit horrific crimes of violence because of society's injustices toward them. So once we fix those injustices, this country will be paradise on earth.

......so, Mr. @TheParser .....tell us you lack any higher education....without actually telling us you lack higher education.

The average rightwinger's idea of "educated people".....reads like an idiot's manifesto. Sometimes, it's better for people to be silent and thought a fool....than put their opinions down on paper, and remove all doubt.

"Deplorable" seems to be applicable.

And the REALLY pathetic part of that is EVERYONE (including people like you) knows that you actually admire "educated people". We all know that if you people had the chance to send your own kids to an "elite" college, you'd do it in a NY second. And, if you have kids of your own, we both know you raised them with the intent (or hope) of them attending college.

The public disdain for higher education professed by you and your ilk is nothing more a pathetic combination of envy and "hate".

 

[CaughtInThe]

There will be some who won't delve into the link provided, but this is not a new phenomenon, there are indeed intelligent and educated people on the Conservative side of the political spectrum, but less so on the Far Right, those who believe in conspiracy theories and stolen elections. THAT is just par for the course.
It is worth noting though, a few lines from the above link:



Education by itself is not the be all and end all. Those who travel, allow themselves to be exposed to different philosophies, different religions (doesn't mean you have to follow them) and break bread with different demographics (blacks, Asians, gay people) tend to have a "broader" view of the world. Those who isolate themselves in a community of like-thinking people, tend to have insular views.

I am not college educated but have very liberal views. That came from traveling a lot in my youth, talking to people from all walks of life, reading a variety of material - including history, science, philosophy, etc.

Also, well educated, OR well read or well traveled folks are less likely to get offended by threads like this one, those who feel "slighted" by the suggestions made in this OP will lash out. Watch for it.

This will be the best post in this thread.

 

[Doppelgangirl]

Not all colleges. It's largely the ivy league universities that hire ultra-librul professors and pay them ultra-fat salaries and then charge the students tuition that they most take out government guaranteed loans that many of you are still paying on decades later.

Nope.
College opens your eyes, exposes you to different people, and gives you more choices.
Ultra conservatives that have never been outside their particular bubble of life go away, learn new things, and (shocker!) their minds grow and their views change. That’s not indoctrination. That’s growing up and thinking for yourself

 

[Lafayette]

Because:

A Republic Form of Representative Governance in a Representative Democracy... was designed for an "Educated Society'.

By educated people, meaning that those countries that do not make the necessary effort to educate their people in the "art of politics" are typically not Representative Democracies.

Which seems to be the major problem in places like central Africa ...

 

[Cardinal]

It's absolutely no mystery that educated people are better able to appreciate the complexity of difficult issues, and to a less educated person problems have simple, binary solutions.