Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal? 

You don't need to go to college. You just need to interact with a wide diversity of people, seek out information regularly, and be truly capable of critical thought. If our early education wasn't such a disaster, this would be easily attainable by anybody.

It always seems to me that most of the people who claim that universities indoctrinate students to be liberal must have never gone to one. You know what I learned about in my math, biology, and chemistry classes? Math, biology, chemistry. My professors weren't in the habit of discussing let alone pushing their political beliefs. I had a calculus teacher who I later found out was a creationist because of a poster I saw about him giving a talk to one of the umpteen Christian groups we had on campus. He never discussed that shit in calculus either. Even when I took a political science class, my professor just taught about the different political theories; he never took a side. Maybe it is just classic conservative projection. Conservatives are the ones who want to indoctrinate their kids into exactly the same views they hold, and so they myopically think that other people have the same agenda.

Highly educated people can also be conservative

Never confuse education with intelligence

And what's with this shit about universities being "soooo friggin liberal..."? Maybe in the humanities or sociology. But in Economics, Business, Political Science and Computer Science? Holy shit. it was as if I walked into a George W. Bush book signing.

Higher education equates to greater liberalism partly because conservative thought by its very nature is *rooted* (stuck) in the past. Education, by its very nature, uses the past only as an object lesson (a springboard) to move into the future. Look at what conservatives hold dear: a highly romanticized (and inaccurate) view of past times; religion and a belief in a highly improbable supreme creator; hero worship of (often despotic) authoritarian figures. Conservatives are either leaders or sheep. Liberals are contentious individualists who buck political correctness to advance untried new agendas. The world needs a bit of both, some conservatives to add a dash of caution and a bunch of "young turks" to move society forward into the unknown future.

I think education, empathy and exposure to many different ethnicities and cultures are some major factors that cause people to become more liberal.

Despite of how smart those liberals are, none of them have yet figured out how to change their own tire

Liberal views do not have to be in line with being a democrat and wanting bigger government and higher taxes - not even sure how this ended up going together.. classical liberalism / libertarianism is what often makes sense (not to an absolute extreme, of course) - keeping the government out of your bed as well as your wallet. There are also (sometimes) conservative democrats and liberal republicans :) The biggest problem recently though is the left, which is supposed to be liberal, moving toward extreme left (ie SJW idiocy) becoming more authoritarian and leaving truly liberal people in somewhere in the middle and thereby kind of destroying the left... that ultra left movement def needs some correction - otherwise the “left” will just lose..

Never confuse education with intelligence.

Because anyone with a functioning brain realizes that cutting taxes on the rich and deregulation hurts the middle and lower classes.

I'm largely self educated (due to a lot of different factors), but throughout my life, I've also had the privilege to interact with a number of incredibly bright, creative & thoughtful people. Not all were university educated. I've also had the misfortune to (through necessity) be forced to spend time with some profoundly arrogant, insufferable & downright idiotic individuals, who have had the opportunity to gain a degree & doctorate. From what I've seen, it's not necessarily the institutional education (from, say, an accredited university), that provokes people into changing deeply held sociopolitical opinions, but the broadening of the mind that comes from including varieties of people (who have significantly different perspectives to yourself) into your Dunbar's group of friends & acquaintances. It's much easier to be manipulated into an emotive "Us vs Them" point of view in an argument, if you've never actually had any personal experiences in interacting with someone who's being classed as one of "Them". This environment of mixing with people who are ethnically, racially, sexually & sociologically different from yourself, has profound consequences when juxtaposed with more authoritarian & exclusional social matrices, such as exist in many locations throughout America. Modern universities, by their very natures, attract people (primarily) based on intellect, as well as stimulating discussions of topics that are new to those individuals, who come to study there. It's not a huge leap from discussing the content of a set project, to discussing those more personal topics relating to individuals within your group. Having worked at a university, I have seen cliques of people who are deliberately exclusional, rejecting any contact with other people or ideas (other than those concepts directly included in the course syllabus). I have no doubt that people within groups like this retain exactly the same opinions & beliefs that they began with. My last point is that intellect alone does not confer expertise. Case in point is the online personality: the brilliant Canadian psychologist, Professor Jordan Peterson. Though he has both a rare talent in clearly explaining his ideas (while speaking to the public), an impressive personal intellect, a long list of advanced qualifications and - of course - great experience & expertise within the psychological realm, he has also made authoritative statements concerning such subjects as the Supernatural (that cannot be scientifically substantiated) and Economic Theory (which was completely erroneous). Obviously it's possible to discuss a topic without needing a university degree, but it requires you to educate yourself on that subject first. And finally, you must avoid arguments based on opinion & 'gut instinct', and instead base your statements on scientific proofs, facts & - above all - reasoned thinking (avoiding logical fallacies).

During high school I leaned more liberal, but after graduating I leaned more conservative, and it suits my own thinking process better. I respect those on the other side, so long as I am also respected. If we agree to disagree, I'm satisfied. Many people take things too far.

"Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?" Really? That depends on what you considered "high education". Is it "high indoctrination" or is it "high brainwashing".

I think another angle is that education can combat propaganda. It can help you recognize logical fallacies, the motives behind ethos & pathos arguments, and coded language.

Being liberal is great and all, but apparently doesn't include the ability to iron one's shirt. #DavidsWrinkledShirt

Liberals are just smarter.. Keeping it real. Don't get offended conservatives, don't get PC on me

Conservatism has never had a good theoretical position. Never a good idea. Prove me wrong.

It's due to religion. Educated people are less religious.

The more educated you are, the more you learn that conservative points/values are basically a load of crap. Everything I believe in is backed up by science and facts.

"Just fearmongering" is a crass dismissal without evidence. What makes sense to you is not empirical, especially if it's just a confirmation of your own leanings. We're not talking about mental open-mindedness, fearfulness, or some other psychological metric, we're talking about holding liberal political stances. The reason people are more consistently liberal, instead of mixed, the longer they're educated is simply because liberal political views are reinforced in educational settings more while conservative views are not. Teachers and professors are not a random selection, they are predominantly people who value the curriculum they're teaching enough to dedicate their working time to teaching it. If the curriculum is liberal so will be the teachers. It's difficult for socially conservative people to passionately teach the modern curriculum that is deeply "politically correct" and completely devalues what they think are important to a functioning society (mother/father families, personal responsibility, etc.) And it's difficult for economically conservative people to passionately go to work in a teachers union, for a government-funded entity, or live off of grant money and financial aid, means that are affronts to the free market they would consider a better method. Therefore, the number of liberal teachers and professors far far far exceeds the average for the population and is becoming more that way because of the curriculum and structure of public education. Now, if the authority in your classroom holds liberal political stances that doesn't mean automatic indoctrination. But other liberal students, faculty, etc. will comfortably speak their minds while conservatives will keep their opinions quiet to avoid argument, bad grades, being made to look dumb in front of the whole class by a trained orator, etc. Therefore, liberal views are reinforced while conservative views are not. Simply being aware that the "intelligent people" that are educating you have liberal views will tend to put those in a more favorable light. But if you really think "facts and realities" makes people more liberal than about 1/4 of post grads are apparently unconvinced by facts and realities. So you can get a post grad degree without grasping reality? I would say climate change pushers can't grasp reality at this point.

1994 is also when the internet started to become more mainstream. The internet has been the most driving liberal force in the history of the world, and more educated people most likely use it more often and don't confine themselves to certain corners.

I'm a liberal but I'm not a leftist.

I've never been to a college, but I once drove by one and became a liberal. Powerful stuff.

This how I see it: conservatism is about holding onto, liberalism about not. Changing one's views requires not holding onto. Education is about getting new information, acquiring new ideas.

Critical thinking skills are to blame. Nowadays, people have access to most of the facts. So learning the facts isn't the cause. It's learning how to assess them and draw your own sound conclusions based on that assessment which is challenged and you must then defend that conclusion with additional reasonable assessments of facts.

What does being highly educated really even mean? It definitely doesn't mean someone who went to university is more intelligent, knows more or has more valuable knowledge than another person who hasn't gone to university. I mean someone who went to university and studied gender, philosophy or whatever other impractical degree certainly isn't more intelligent, nor do they have more valuable knowledge than someone who works as an electrician.

With Republican parents, neither finished high school. I had an "A" grade average, went to college, and am very liberal. My schooling did not turn me this way, rather I think i had a wider view of humanity, and value right for most, more liberty for them, than the structure in which my parents voted for.I find the conservatives very restricting of personal liberties, and personal choice. I also found them to spend my money on stupid restrictions to restrict their liberties.

The most educated people and the most intelligent people are not always the same people. In this day and age you can learn a lot without being formally educated, and we all know people that have gone through higher education that aren't really that bright. This is just my opinion but sometimes I feel highly educated people overestimate their own abilities.

I have always thought of the left as the side of reason, science, and evidence. Until the sjw's starting going bonkers in last couple years. Now I worry that my fellow liberals are repelling their own by finding new reasons to call everyone racist.

Definitely not pro-science when it comes to abortion so don’t use that one😇

but what about people who are highly educated, and are also conservatives? Do you have the audacity to say that they're less intelligent? Or maybe they're secretly sadistic and lack empathy?

EQ = emotional intelligence = empathy The liberal mindset is based on empathy. IQ is given too much importance.

I appreciate especially the point about "increasing empathy". I used to be very conservative, but over time I gradually became what I'd now consider very liberal, and if I look at other changes I've made as a person over the years parallel to changes in my political beliefs, I think the one that sticks out to me more than anything else is a significant advancement in my ability and willingness to empathize with people I don't know.

people can call me liberal but the minority women and lgbt i am socially very conservative not because christanity but because i naturally feel that thing

LOTS OF EDUCATION DOES NOT MAKE ANYONE LOGICAL NOR DO THEY DEVELOP COMMON SENSE...

If we're talking about the more classic leaning liberals then yes. Modern day liberals are definitely not that. There needs to be a separation between Liberals and progressives.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Part of the problem here is how broad these definitions are. Too many people conflate social liberalism and economic liberalism. Two very different things.

I think it comes down to critical thinking skills, mostly. Highly educated people are more likely to have developed the ability to think independently and reach conclusions about issues based on evidence, rather than beliefs. Being in an educational environment, in itself, challenges people in many ways, particularly by introducing diversity of thought, race and culture. Not spending all of your time in a bubble of familiarity leads to intellectual (and emotional) growth because in that environment you aren't afforded the luxury of pretending certain people or problems don't exist. In university, you have to face certain things and process them.

Im in high school and am liberal, unlike my mom...

The GOP always vote against education bills, and unrelated but pisses me off they also vote against Vet bills

I view it this way. I can remember as a neuroscience student learning the story of Phineas Gage, and how neurological damage changed the person he was. This completely changed the way I thought of the world and what makes us the people we are. I think the more education you have, the more likely you are to encounter some type of knowledge that makes you realize that the world and the people in it are very complex. And it's liberal policies that usually reflect the complexity of life, because life doesn't truly operate on easy phrases like "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps".

Two thoughts: 1) 2:30 Saying the belief that colleges and graduate programs indoctrinate people into liberalism is "just fear mongering" and "not even worth entertaining" is crazy and really invalidates your arguments IMO. This video is clearly just a heavily biased opinion piece 2) I don't necessarily think the indoctrination of top universities is always from classes themselves (although sometimes). In my experience, it was mainly social pressure. I'm pretty politically moderate, and the few times I expressed any slightly conservative views to my college friends, they banded together to shame me, yell at me, laugh, and tell me how ridiculous my beliefs were. I superficially pretended to be a superliberal for the next few years just to avoid that crazy nonsense. I know my experience isn't unique. There's a recent video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7kXdpUdAwHg.html) where a guy asks UPenn students and regular people on the street 'can men get pregnant' and the regular people on the street readily give their honest opinions (some yes, some no), but the UPenn students ALL say "yes" even when you can sense that a few of them feel differently but they feel too pressured to say anything other than yes.

They aren't. This is just propaganda.

since I found out about religion on my own, I was liberated, I always leaned towards the left but after leaving religion superstitions now I accept and love more I am a stay home mom

I'm a proud educated independent. Both sides have issues.

Are you talking about liberal vs progressive or what?

Conservatives = Me Me Me. Liberals = Us Us Us.

Because you're less likely to be ignorant about things if you are educated about things.

Because being encouraged to think, makes people ( not all of them) more logical and compassionate as a rule.

One of the reasons why the percentage of Conservatives stays steady throughout education levels, IMO, is because Conservative views are often motivated by religious beliefs. Therefore they tend to deny facts and evidence even when confronted with them at school. Someone with a college degree who is religious and was raised by fundamentalists will probably stay a Conservative no matter what.

I would love to see this fool debate Ben Shapiro....Shapiro would mop the floor with him

No actually it's not that you get more liberal when you get more educated You get more liberal when you get more manipulated

It's not only in the U.S., but around the world actually

Alright, you are brilliant, well educated, superior and elite in every sense of the word. Happy now?

I'm starting to think that this channel is all about "look everyone how great and smart we Liberals are!". It's one ego-trip after another. If all Liberals want to do is congratulate themselves on how great and virtuous they all are, and how Conservatives are all stupid, then be my guest. However, I must tell you that most people find boastful self- flattery and pandering to be very obnoxious, and really not a sign of high intelligence. Besides, given the current situation on Colleges and Universities, quantity (as in the number of people enrolling in them) is no substitute for quality. Nowadays, you can have a Phd on Social studies (Gender studies, Women's studies,etc) even Star Trek lore for all I know. It's no longer an indicator that you actually know what you're talking about, or that you are even intelligent. Besides, shouldn't Liberals be worried that there is so little Intellectual Diversity in Colleges/High Education?

If the teaching staff is overwhelmingly liberal, wouldn't the students naturally start to lean left?

Conclusion: You can't fix stupid.

What about age? It seems as tho the older generation have a more conservative belief system than the younger generation, and people say that's just because of a generational gap and that belief system will change when millennials get older. But I know a few people, my dad being one, who had liberal beliefs when they were in their youth but have a more conservative mindset now. Could it be because as you grow older, you become a bit cynical and realistic about how ineffective governments can be that you begin to look out for your self more than others? That's just a theory but it'd be cool if you could do a similar analysis on this area as well.

Total B.S. I hold a doctorate and am extremely conservative.

There's no actual argument here - just claims without substantiation. To wit, the argument that conservatism is about doing things the way we always have isn't a description of conservatism. Furthermore, claiming that liberalism is about using science or how the university exposes you to a broader worldview do not automatically lead to a liberal viewpoint. If you are going to assume the position of an intellectually superior argument you need to actually present an argument. This is nothing more than a propaganda piece.

Uhm, this data was not broken down by degree or field of study. It has been shown that in the hard sciences (I believe in the same study), the liberal/conservative ratio is more consistant with the social order of the students upbringing and thus reflects pretty even with the state of the country. However, it can easily be observed that social sciences and other non-technical degree fields, the ratio is highly skewed towards liberalism. Why? Is it that the liberal "liberal arts" professors push their ideals onto moldable students? Or is it that the students that are drawn to such fields of study are more likely to be liberal minded? IMHO it is a mix. Yet with science and engineering, this is not the case, and thus suggests no correlation with "intelligence" but with preset ideals.

I find that when a person goes away to college, they tend (for the most part) to adapt to those around them; sometimes this causes a temporal shift in their belief system and unless they are secure in themselves, they will abandon the sound teaching they received as young children. I've seen several young people go a completely different way from the values instilled in them when they left for college. I've also seen a few who have grown in their value systems and become remarkable young adults. I do not believe it is an either or matter. Education can be a deal breaker or a value shaper....it all depends on the person.

Because it's not really true. A guy I work with is very intelligent, and he's a republican trump supporter. But he has dogmatic views though.

Highly indoctrinated, not educated.

Do you think that the more free exchange of Ideas a cross boarders in part due to the previous EU co-operation with Britain?

This seems kinda obvious to me. If you have critical thinking skills which the American school system clearly try's to remove. And your are well researched on the issues of the world. Your not a arrogant bigot against Race, Religion, Culture, and the like. Your not the super wealthy trying to turn the system in your favor. Then you might just be a tad left leaning in your political view point. If you can see the propaganda and the clowns in the media trying to put on a good show. Then again you just may look over to your left. Just a bit. However if your compose points Christian then it can be a toss up. As you may have conflicting values with the political left. However if that's the case your not really supposed to get involved one way or the other according to the text. Personally I fit strangely somewhere in the middle. I feel I'm more progressive. But I agree and disagree on both left and right issues. One thing is clear. We need to get money out of politics.

Because they're smarter, plain and simple.

highly educated just means you can turn in assignments on time or regurgitate information, basically obedience

Education creates critical thinking people. An uneducated population is the wet dream for any oligarchy. Is it coincidence the U.S education ranked nr.5 on the global scale in the sixties,while It ranks nr.17 today ?

Very much also, because very few people are well learned in economics and more concerned for social issues. So they are more free thinking and progressive than they are conservative. If it was between people that care for economics and have studied them(either personally or academically) it would be a lot closer to a 50|50 split between liberal and libertarian as both value social persobal liberties.

Higher education definitely pushes a left wing agenda. This is empirically proven. FYI the more I learn about the more world the more conservative Ive become.

Highly educated people tend to be more polite and more inclined to the rule of law, being highly educated doesn't necessarily means that you are smart . So you don't need to be smart to be highly educated .

Still doesn’t fully explain the data. Based on this argument, the highly educated would have lower percentages of conservatives and higher percentages of mixed/liberals as those require more critical thinking and understanding of the world. He even points out at the start that this is not the case though. The percentage of conservatives stays relatively the same, yet the basis of his argument is that education and exposing yourself to different people makes you less conservative. He never explains why the proportion of conservatives stays relatively stagnant and only the percentage with mixed opinions shrinks. Not saying this argument doesn’t have any merit at all, but it certainly is nowhere near conclusive and doesn’t address the question outlined at the start.

That's all cool I would actually say the Highly educated are independent.... You know because you realize you don't need labels

I always feel really strange when I study this because I am a liberal-leaning moderate but I absolutely loath school. I love education, but...schooling is just not education. If it was, I would not have PTSD from it. Yes, real PTSD. I was treated as less than human by most of the people in charge. I got in trouble for asking questions, and for getting anything wrong. I was so scared of making a mistake, I would just go into my own head and ignore everything happening around me, hoping for it to end. I was in such a state of mind that I said, numerous times, "If real life is like school, I'm going to kill myself." Luckily, the real world is not as Authoritarian where I am. But, within it, I was constantly emotionally and physically abused throughout elementary school, and it became more emotional as I got older. My point is, I hate school, I want everyone to have their human rights, including children, and it is really scary to do research on the topic of education reform because as soon as I point out anything remotely liberal, the hate spews out from the more extreme conservatives on the internet. I just want everyone to be treated like they are humans who deserve love...is that so wrong?

Wow. This wasn’t incredibly skewed to the left. . .🙄

I think a definite factor is social cohesion. When people go from high school to college they often go from a smaller city to a bigger one and come into contact with more people. We all know the astronomically screwed distribution of liberals in the city vs conservatives in rural areas. I think college has a similar psychological effect to living in a highly populated city. Being around more people just makes you more likely to care about people.

I never finished school, but because of my dyscalculia, dyslexia and ADD, although the schools would simultaneously agree and disagree, and after being assessed through many tests, I ranked higher in intelligence and logical thinking than most others my age. I'm no genius, but I'm smart enough to know the outcome of, well, a bad idea. Professionally, I'm a designer, artist and illustrator, and I'm actually rather educated thanks to some self starting when I found out that public schools had no interest in teaching me anything if they couldn't do it their way. So, I took it upon myself to teach me the way I found best. It worked. Most people will automatically peg me as a liberal, because of my choices and lifestyle, because of my lifestyle and the fact that I live in a democratic city. But I'm actually a Republican. And when I say that, the first thing I get is dirty looks and constant accusations like: "you must be racist" "why do you hate women?" "You're probably a conspiracy theorist." I wasn't raised in a racist environment. I didn't learn about racism, really, until I went to summer school and the black student's bullied me into submission. I believe in women's right, and abortion is one of the few things I do agree with liberals on, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist.lol I'm just not. And, of course, people assume I'm completely stupid and fear change. I don't, and maybe stupidity is objective, but I'm a Republican for one simple reason: Liberals favor socialist and communistic ideologies. And no matter how they they describe it, no matter who is in position of power, they never work, and they never will. It's made clear that liberals share more empathy than Republicans do and set up these unrealistic fantasy worlds where no one requires real money to live happily and the government is dedicated to their citizens and the freebies don't come with a price. But that too doesn't exist. Dreaming of a better world is wonderful, but the logic behind is not there, and understanding that people under socialist rule would eventually see change from vast wealth and prosperity to less money and eventually massive debt via the government's spending. And only them and their wealthy counterparts would sustain a lifestyle that the lower classes could never reach. These systems fail, and that cannot and will not change. Understanding how the human brain works in positions of power is the only way you can know exactly what's going to happen before it happens. An all powerful government does not care about the average citizen. Your will being in a socialist and communist reign holds no weight. You are a number. You are a worker. You are a slave.

I think being liberal vs conservative also has to do with personality and capacity for empathy. If you know someone is suffering and you can do something to help that person, even if you have to give some of your own wealth, you'll do it because you know at the end of the day, it could happen to you or anyone you know and you can empathize with that person. You don't have the capacity to feel empathy towards others, if you're selfish and self-centered, etc. higher education isn't going to change your political views.

Education is not the sole property of Universities. It's more that the greater amount of degrees you have, the more liberal you are.

You were lucky Vegan because college students call radio stations all the time and claim they are conservative but can't let it be known because they need the grade. I 've heard that for years. Many cannot read what they call cursive, in other words, they aren't even taught to read handwriting. THis doesn't just go on in universities, my sister has gone to her daughters middle school to complain because my niece went home and told her mother her teacher was berating Donald Trump and this was in 2016. My sister went straight to the school to complain and she wrote a letter to the Board of Education. So if you don't believe these kids are being indoctrinated you aren't paying attention. Years ago when I got out of school Bernie Sanders wouldn't have stood a chance because 90% of the students were conservative and very patriotic, another world completely. Now they come out of school as good little Socialists.

I think it depends on how being Conservative and Liberal are defined. I'm not very knowledgeable in politics, but intuitively, it seems to me that that is the problem. Most conservatives fall into a stereotype of being christians who never have any actual arguments for anything. "Global warming isn't an issue, because God will take care of it." "Abortions aren't okay, because fetus's have souls." "America was founded as a christian nation." I refuse to believe that all conservatives think this way. This stereotype can't be true. There has to be conservatives who are actually making intellectual arguments. But the fact is, I haven't met one yet. Right now, I'm living with conservatives, even my family is conservative, and none of them care about education. I'm the only one in my family to express interest in college. Hell, I'm almost the only one in my group of friends who want a PHD someday. I want to believe that this is anecdotal evidence, but it's starting to seem otherwise.

The fact, that this analysis compares liberalism and conservatism as polar opposites is by itself the problem. Conservatism is opposite to progresivism, which are both pointless terms as nobody is absoulutely conservative or progressive on all issues. Liberalism is a specific political theory, that has a large government protect your liberty. It should instead be liberal vs libertarian vs statist vs communist vs anarchist or socialy progressive leaning vs socialy conservative leaning.

I think there are a variety of reasons for this but one of the primary ones is that you must meet a minimal level of intelligence and ability to think critically to get into college, so university students/graduates are disproportionately brighter and able to evaluate incoming information better than the general population. Many people may choose not to go to college, but it also sifts out people who don't have the intellectual capability for college.

Well you know what they say, reality has a liberal bias

Tho' I "mostly agree" with the major premise, the argument is in part ridiculous. ' Libs are aligned with science on climate change' ? The Lib refrain "the science is settled" is one of the most blatently closed-minded, anti-scientific statements possible. That "supply side is disproved" is an assertion of pure nonsense. Every econ growth model suggests an optimal level of capital investment vs consumption, therefore under-capitalization is possible (and many economists suggest it is prevalent in the US). This list of biased jingos masquerading as an argument is rather pathetic.

*IF* the supposition is correct that empirical thinking is part of the teaching of universities, AND empirical thinking is associated with liberals, how is this different from universities indoctrinating liberalism? Do we resist using the term "indoctrination" if and only if we perceive it as good indoctrination?

Does liberal means progressive/progressist for you US people? I'm french, for us liberal is more an economic point of view, some see it politically too but that's just one thing, while the two oppositions are progress and conservatism, to me the study sounds like an illusion of choice sophism if liberal have the same meaning than for us. Most of us apolitical left-extreme left wing hates both, I mean conservatism is...lol, while liberalism means mercantilism, competition, work-based society and the classic "bread and games", while we value education, altruism, ethics, science, "equality" + all we already aquired good like free speech and secularism for example.

I think this is is somewhat new phenomenon. As recently as the 1980s, the more educated actually voted more Republican than those without college. I think there are two things in motion that are tied together. The educational establishment has moved left, while the right has become more anti-intellectual. These polarizing forces have realigned identities and political forces.

A vocational skill,common sense,life skills and making money is more important than education

"The liberal side has become to side of science...this include abortion" get a load of this guy 😂 you go ahead and keep on killing clumps-of-human-cells bud

social liberalism has been found to be quite common in those with high IQ's, but so has fiscal conservatism.

Well educated people are readers. Readers learn both sides of a story, understand that nothing in life is black and white, and engage in critical thinking to form their own opinions rather than just adopting the beliefs of a cult leader.

Fun fact. Here in germany, our conservative party is the party with the highest procentage of acadamics. The socialist party and the green (left leaning) party are the partys with an enourmous amount of working class people and university dropouts (or useless degrees in gender-studies, music etc.)!

The self selection argument fails in my case; I was a conservative before college and am now fairly liberal with a Masters. I encountered new information and found it more persuasive.

I don't know about this, the most highly educated individuals I have ever met have almost all been very conservative. Not saying all individuals, just the majority. The biggest divide I have noticed is by age, maybe when you get older you swing to the conservative side of things and realize not all change is good. I guess my final stance on the issue is that it is probably a 50/50 split on highly educated individuals and the percentage swings based on location and background study and not necessarily how smart they are. Either way I feel a 50/50 split between the two viewpoints is a good thing.

More education causes folks to be more consistant in their beliefs. And when they move from the center, they move left. No amount of education causes them to move right or those already on the right to move left. Is that a fair summary? I was on the far right and moved rather far left, but I suppose I'm an outlier.

When debating whether university education should be tuition-free, the economics is usually discussed. But the social implications are never discussed or only seen in a negative light (as "indoctrinating liberals"). But would it not be better for the nation to have a citizenry with broader horizons, a more informed understanding of the world and a greater critical thinking skills? An informed electorate is critical for the preservation of democracy.