I became so disappointed in my grandmother when I was in high school when she expressed this attitude. I couldn’t understand why it mattered as children still needed school.
You say that like some of the most educated people in the country don’t consistently vote Republican.
This idea that earning a MBA or a JD or an MD makes your politics good is completely wrong. The idea that failing to earn a HS Diploma makes you unqualified to vote is equally dogshit.
Politics is a consequence of your social affinity and your material conditions. You don’t just take a class and become a liberal Democrat if your grade is high enough.
Yes, but ceteris paribus, an educated electorate is going to make better decisions. Or rather, the number of obviously bad decisions rejected is increased as knowledge of history and concepts deems them unworkable. Society exists.
an educated electorate is going to make better decisions
I have seen no evidence to this effect. Consider South Africa under Apartheid. Once an individual realized how they benefited from systematic oppression of those below them, more and more fell in line. It is the “uneducated” underclass that made the revolution possible. And it was only possible through a strong social network that defied the “educated” understanding of micro-ethnicities that the Apartheid government sought to entrench.
Same with Israel. You’ve got tons of educated professionals in that country who are explicitly and knowingly there to participate in a genocide. The Palestinian opposition has no education infrastructure. They can only resist through social cohesion and trust networks predicated on faith.
The UK, another excellent example. A massive university system that largely exists to reproduce neoliberal ideological beliefs in a population that manages a predatory financial system and an arms export industry.
Yes, if you cut off those two proceeding words then hyper focus on a few examples (which have become examples of bad when once they were the norm- sort of making my point for me) without global or historic context, you’ve really made a strong case. Meanwhile, more people living in more places today have a better standard of life in more just nations than at any point in history and it correlates to increases in education.
This idea that earning a MBA or a JD or an MD makes your politics good is completely wrong
Well, on average… it does.
You don’t just take a class and become a liberal Democrat if your grade is high enough.
No, but being intelligent is correlated with both of these things. Dumb people are more easily tricked by right wing talking points. Dumb people also don’t get good grades. Smart people are, for whatever reason, more likely to agree with liberal or leftist talking points. Smart people are also more likely to get high grades.
Average. On average, people with degrees are more liberal/leftist. As a group. Separate the degrees from the non-degrees, and measure their liberalism/leftism, and find which group has the higher average. Average.
On average, people with degrees are more liberal/leftist.
On average, liberal neighborhoods and counties have more educated people.
Go into a red neighborhood, and the math changes. Mormons break 70 R / 22 D / 8 I for candidates while enjoying a 36% bachelor completion rate - 3pts higher than the national average.
Hindus break 46 D / 49 R and have a staggering 70pt college competition rate.
Meanwhile, historically black Protestants have a meager 24pt college rate, but regularly vote 80/20 Democrat.
No, it actually doesn’t. Within a Mormon community, I would wager we would still see that the most educated Mormons are also, ON AVERAGE, the most liberal/leftist Mormons.
Sure, if this is the only thing you knew, there could be a Simpson’s paradox situation, but we already know what the data looks like when we count everyone as one big group. Your “exceptions” can be true, and at the same time, are not evidence against the original claim. Even IF you found that, within EVERY group, education correlates with conservatism… it would just be Simpson’s paradox, because we already know that, on the whole, education is correlated to liberal/leftist attitudes.
Within a Mormon community, I would wager we would still see that the most educated Mormons are also, ON AVERAGE, the most liberal/leftist Mormons.
You’re welcome to check. But we can see very definitively that a higher-than-average rate of education does nothing to increase the partisan character of the voting block.
we already know what the data looks like when we count everyone
We know that we have an overall liberal voting demographic that is unevenly distributed across the country.
But we also know that age, industry, ethnicity/culture, and region play bigger factors in your voting habits than degree of education. We can even see shifts in voting trends over time within the same voter cohort. The trend you’re looking for is temporary at best, and highly contingent on the state, the school, and the field of study.
When you take broad averages like this, you very often lose useful information. In this case, just being “educated” in the abstract carries a weak correlation to political beliefs.
Signed - a native whose ancestors talked at length and wrote down (or had someone else write down) how dumb they were in the very beginning, before there was even a nation
That’s not the issue at all. It’s the curriculum, the no child left behind act implementation, and the overall indoctrination and corruption of a system of government that rewards the rich.
Most schools get plenty of money and just blow it on things they don’t need. Buildings way too fancy and overpriced educational subscriptions to crap, instead of spending it on more teachers and teacher salary. The money is plenty there. None of the rich fucks get a cut from cheaper buildings and teacher payrolls.
Stripping education doesn’t necessarily mean money. The GOP has waged an all out war on knowledge over the last few decades. Hell Fox News was recently saying “colleges make liberals” despite the fact that all the people saying it had college degrees.
No Child Left Behind gas been terrible. And I agree that money needs to go to teachers, not admins
I honestly thought that W was the lowest you could go. But in comparison with the current president you somehow wish you could at least go back to that level of presidency. Much bad to be said about him, but at least he was gentleman with respect for other people, institutions and the constitution.
America isn’t like this because Trump is president
Trump is president because America is like this
The truth many Americans don’t want to hear.
Trump is a mirror.
Decades of stripping education funding is taking its toll
It’s worse than that. Everyone has been brought up to be a narcissistic consumer and they approach public policy the same way.
The amount of times I’ve heard “why should I pay taxes for school, my kids are grown” is way too damn high
I became so disappointed in my grandmother when I was in high school when she expressed this attitude. I couldn’t understand why it mattered as children still needed school.
You say that like some of the most educated people in the country don’t consistently vote Republican.
This idea that earning a MBA or a JD or an MD makes your politics good is completely wrong. The idea that failing to earn a HS Diploma makes you unqualified to vote is equally dogshit.
Politics is a consequence of your social affinity and your material conditions. You don’t just take a class and become a liberal Democrat if your grade is high enough.
Yes, but ceteris paribus, an educated electorate is going to make better decisions. Or rather, the number of obviously bad decisions rejected is increased as knowledge of history and concepts deems them unworkable. Society exists.
I have seen no evidence to this effect. Consider South Africa under Apartheid. Once an individual realized how they benefited from systematic oppression of those below them, more and more fell in line. It is the “uneducated” underclass that made the revolution possible. And it was only possible through a strong social network that defied the “educated” understanding of micro-ethnicities that the Apartheid government sought to entrench.
Same with Israel. You’ve got tons of educated professionals in that country who are explicitly and knowingly there to participate in a genocide. The Palestinian opposition has no education infrastructure. They can only resist through social cohesion and trust networks predicated on faith.
The UK, another excellent example. A massive university system that largely exists to reproduce neoliberal ideological beliefs in a population that manages a predatory financial system and an arms export industry.
Yes, if you cut off those two proceeding words then hyper focus on a few examples (which have become examples of bad when once they were the norm- sort of making my point for me) without global or historic context, you’ve really made a strong case. Meanwhile, more people living in more places today have a better standard of life in more just nations than at any point in history and it correlates to increases in education.
Well, on average… it does.
No, but being intelligent is correlated with both of these things. Dumb people are more easily tricked by right wing talking points. Dumb people also don’t get good grades. Smart people are, for whatever reason, more likely to agree with liberal or leftist talking points. Smart people are also more likely to get high grades.
The Republican majority in Congress, the SCOTUS, and the White House all have advanced degrees.
Average. On average, people with degrees are more liberal/leftist. As a group. Separate the degrees from the non-degrees, and measure their liberalism/leftism, and find which group has the higher average. Average.
Average.
On average, liberal neighborhoods and counties have more educated people.
Go into a red neighborhood, and the math changes. Mormons break 70 R / 22 D / 8 I for candidates while enjoying a 36% bachelor completion rate - 3pts higher than the national average.
Hindus break 46 D / 49 R and have a staggering 70pt college competition rate.
Meanwhile, historically black Protestants have a meager 24pt college rate, but regularly vote 80/20 Democrat.
No, it actually doesn’t. Within a Mormon community, I would wager we would still see that the most educated Mormons are also, ON AVERAGE, the most liberal/leftist Mormons.
Sure, if this is the only thing you knew, there could be a Simpson’s paradox situation, but we already know what the data looks like when we count everyone as one big group. Your “exceptions” can be true, and at the same time, are not evidence against the original claim. Even IF you found that, within EVERY group, education correlates with conservatism… it would just be Simpson’s paradox, because we already know that, on the whole, education is correlated to liberal/leftist attitudes.
You’re welcome to check. But we can see very definitively that a higher-than-average rate of education does nothing to increase the partisan character of the voting block.
We know that we have an overall liberal voting demographic that is unevenly distributed across the country.
But we also know that age, industry, ethnicity/culture, and region play bigger factors in your voting habits than degree of education. We can even see shifts in voting trends over time within the same voter cohort. The trend you’re looking for is temporary at best, and highly contingent on the state, the school, and the field of study.
When you take broad averages like this, you very often lose useful information. In this case, just being “educated” in the abstract carries a weak correlation to political beliefs.
Idiocracy was the game plan all along.
It was idiocy all along.
Signed - a native whose ancestors talked at length and wrote down (or had someone else write down) how dumb they were in the very beginning, before there was even a nation
That’s not the issue at all. It’s the curriculum, the no child left behind act implementation, and the overall indoctrination and corruption of a system of government that rewards the rich.
Most schools get plenty of money and just blow it on things they don’t need. Buildings way too fancy and overpriced educational subscriptions to crap, instead of spending it on more teachers and teacher salary. The money is plenty there. None of the rich fucks get a cut from cheaper buildings and teacher payrolls.
Stripping education doesn’t necessarily mean money. The GOP has waged an all out war on knowledge over the last few decades. Hell Fox News was recently saying “colleges make liberals” despite the fact that all the people saying it had college degrees.
No Child Left Behind gas been terrible. And I agree that money needs to go to teachers, not admins
I’m in my mid 30s and Fox News was saying that colleges make liberals when I was in middle school.
Probably even before that, I was just too young to notice
Wait, Jesse Waters has a college degree?
deleted by creator
A liberal arts major, no less. From an East Coast private school in one of the bluest states in the country.
They use their money on the sports stuff because they can sell it.
You’d rather have uneducated strippers?
When the economy goes to shit, the practical trades are the great bastion of the working person. Strippers will thrive.
…/s? 🤔
That’s the best kind
well trump like strippers.
It a fair and accurate criticism and it probably shouldn’t have snuck up on us like this.
For those of us watching this ramp up from the 90s into the 2000s and the Tea Party and the 2010s… it… really wasn’t a shock.
Exactly. I gave up hope when W was elected a second time after an abysmal presidency and terrible performance in the debates prior.
I honestly thought that W was the lowest you could go. But in comparison with the current president you somehow wish you could at least go back to that level of presidency. Much bad to be said about him, but at least he was gentleman with respect for other people, institutions and the constitution.