Comments on: Hotbeds of Lefty Love-Ins?

By: mike

mike — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:55:48 +0000

Fascinating discussion! Was a double major with physics as second in undergrad in the early 80s. I identify in general as a conservative, less so on social issues and perhaps libertarian is the best term. In any event, the pivotal moment for myself and I believe quite a few others my age, the taking of the hostages in Iran, was a wakeup call if you will. In 1984 I recall the only Mondale supporter in my fraternity being teased relentlessly the night Reagan was re-elected, and this on the east coast. What I believe has change since are two things - 1) academics seem to feel it is now ok to espouse their own political views during a class, either outright or by off handed remarks or “jokes”. I honestly can’t recall any such remarks during my undergrad days. 2) A few posters intimate that the center has moved simply by a redefinition of what is the center, in the sense that “Republicans say this is the center and thus it is”, while underneath peoples real views have not changed. I disagree - I believe there has been a shift to more conservative values, or perhaps more a shift away from liberal values. But also, and I think this is the key, is that political discourse has left the center behind and is now determined only by the polar extremes on the hard right and hard left. Civility and rational thought have left the house to be replaced by pandering and gotchas. I’m sure there are just as many “R’s” as “D’s” who feel out of place within their own parties because those running each tend to demonize and exclude all but those who move in lockstep with their agenda. Sorry such a long post! But at least its at the end

By: Michael R Duffy

Michael R Duffy — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:12:43 +0000

The reason there are no numbers for Math and Physics is simple: those at the top of the intellectual food chain are too smart to reveal their leanings on paper.

By: spyder

spyder — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:21:25 +0000

“Here engineering has somewhat of a Right bias and other (less technical or theoretical) fields”

I am not sure if “antti rasinen” is suggesting that disciplines such as philosophy, language studies, and economics are “less technical or theoretical” but if this is the case, we have a failure to communicate. Literary theory, linquistic philosophy, etc. are some of the most arcana filled theoretical fields imaginable. Sometimes i wish semioticians were more willing to engage physicists, only to suggest that when forced to use (in this case) the English language one really should know what it is.

By: Dumb Biologist

Dumb Biologist — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 03:45:29 +0000

You gotta wonder. If chemistry is the “hardest” of the natural sciences listed, then on a scale from poetry to physics, there’s a pretty good fit with an inverse relationship between the “hardness” of the subject and the ratio Dems. to Repubs. I mean, why do people most often pick the subjects they do, if not for their innate talents and proclivities?

It’s interesting to reminisce about undergrad…I kind of exercised some ideological demons then, I think, and by the time I graduated I had a belly full of politics and was quite happy to make myself miserable with something else…like graduate school. As that pretty much ate my life, I didn’t spend much additional time debating the merits or deficits of anarchosyndicalism with a contact high and a five-beer buzz.

That said, my core political instincts really haven’t changed one bit since I had my head screwed on straight enough to discern them. Meanwhile, some of the things that come out of my Dad’s mouth make me want to ask him, “C’mon…who’s the guy who fathered me really?” I know he does it mostly because it tickles him to watch me make that “I’m going to have an aneurysm” face. Still, since my mother never spoke to me about politics, I’m at a loss to explain how upbringing shaped my political views.

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:27:28 +0000

Perhaps there is a neurological basis for this?

By: sisyphus

sisyphus — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 23:36:57 +0000

1984 center = 1999 left
1999 left = 20?? internment camp statistic.

By: Dumb Biologist

Dumb Biologist — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 06:22:09 +0000

Could be that some are just reticent. I know more than a few who kind of just wrinkle their noses at the whole sordid affair. Can’t say I blame them, but it’s putting a lot of reliance upon the kindness of strangers.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:45:33 +0000

Echoing Doran:

Being “aloof” does not necessarily mean that one does not hold a strong political belief though. It just means they rather prefer not to talk about it openly. At this moment in time, I think it’s hard to find someone who is “apolitical”.

By: fh

fh — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:06:24 +0000

This has been a sort of amusement to me. In southern Germany I’m left-center, in southern France I’m center-right, in the UK definit left and in the US I’d be bleeding heart liberal.

How did things change? A bit all over the place, though always with a left tendency. I guess it is natural that as we grow older our opinions become more sophisticated and fit less and less into the left/right spectrum.
Did Profs/Uni play a role? Not one bit. Then again University in Germany is quite a different beast from the UK/US so that’s perhaps unsurprising.

By: bradhoc

bradhoc — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:49:30 +0000

I’m a physics grad student at Berkeley and have had quite a meandering political stance over the years. I went into undergrad (at the University of Illinois) with a liberal stance on most things, but I was relatively apolitical. In my first year I became a staunch objectivist, but that may have been because they “got to me” first. After a while, that decayed and I managed to swing to the other side and become a relative “bleeding heart” liberal. That has been tempered somewhat since being at Berkeley. It may be a result of seeing the most radical part of the left side up close and how the far-left ignores rational thought just as much as the far-right.

All in all, I’d say my political stance was never directly influenced by professors either in physics or other classes. I was never taken in by a charismatic professor spewing objectivist rhetoric; I tried to analyze the issues myself and with friends. While I agree with most people in my department on political issues, I find the blatant jokes at the expense of the right to be inappropriate at times because it marginalizes these views. I can imagine the same sort of jokes being made at Bob Jones University at the expense of us “lefties”. The UCLA alumni hunt for liberals is discouraging and wrong, but I can understand how people who hold those views can feel persecuted.