Republican college students…
…keep their views quiet at times due to fear of lowered grades.
No surprise there.
I was thinking recently about an incident that happened to me around 2005. I was having dinner with a guy who was—ahem—interested in me. He didn’t know anything about my politics, however, and when the subject came up (I think he brought it up) and I voiced some very mild opinions that could roughly be interpreted as being to the right of center, he physically recoiled.
It was interesting to watch his body language. One minute he was leaning forward, smiling, and the next moment he was way back in his chair, arms crossed, face in an expression of surprised revulsion.
I had no intention of leaving, because I was extremely hungry and had just ordered dinner. I really didn’t care if he left, however; I was certain I wasn’t especially interested in him. So I stayed quite calm as he said, lip curling, “You’re not, you’re not—a Republican, are you?”
Actually, I’m not a member of the party, except that I sometimes register that way for the primaries. But by 2005 I had already committed the sin of voting for Bush in 2004 (my first GOP vote ever), and so I understand what he meant and I said that yes, I was.
He stayed and talked to me, mostly about politics. I got quite a few words in edgewise, and somewhere along the line he said, in a tone of shocked bewilderment, “I don’t understand. You’re so smart; how can you be a Republican?”
To me that sums up at least part of what’s happening to the rank-and-file Democrat, especially those who live in blue states as this particular person did. He was no leftist, just a garden-variety liberal as they were defined back in 2005. But he honestly and truly believed that all smart people were Democrats and that Republicans were by definition dumb.
College campuses are strongholds of that position. But in the nearly fifteen years since the conversation I’ve described occurred, the basic position has changed dramatically from “Republicans are stupid” to “Republicans are stupid and evil.”
Now, you might say that plenty of people used to think that, even in 2005 and earlier. And that’s certainly true. But it is my observation that it has become more and more mainstream and widespread as well as more and more extreme and vicious. Puzzlement and contempt has turned more and more to contempt and hatred.
I too have noticed how people who consider themselves open-minded and tolerant (IOW, Democrats) cannot understand how a person who is well-spoken and apparently smart can be a Republican. So I go out of my way to let people know I am conservative and think Marxism and its “gentler” derivatives, like Socialism, are heartless, cruel and anti-progress. There was a time I would have tried to be more diplomatic (a term I generally don’t use since I was a professional diplomat for nearly 30 years and think people misunderstand what diplomacy really is) in social settings — now I believe Democrats generally deserve the truth. “Out and proud”, so to speak.
Hi Neo,
Who was the woman in 68 who lived on the upper east side who stated,
Nobody I know voted for Nixon!!!!!
Who was the woman in 68 who lived on the upper east side who stated,
Nobody I know voted for Nixon!!!!!
It was in 1972, and a variation of that sentiment was uttered by the film critic Pauline Kael. Kael lived and worked in the rather rarefied world of professional critics in Manhattan. Nowadays, wide swaths of those who work in provincial colleges – on the arts and sciences faculty, in the student affairs apparat, in the teacher’s college, in the social work program – have a similar mentality.
What’s interesting is that partisan Democrats have adopted stances that make them structurally beyond accommodation. Electoral fraud, the use of the IRS and the FBI contra the political opposition, ejecting the opposition from social media platforms, debarring the opposition from speaking at college campuses (employment on those faculties has been out of the question for a generation), constant lawfare, an ongoing war against law enforcement in general and immigration enforcement in particular, &c. They’re not the least bit anxious that any of this will go sideways.
Dating while being a Trump supporter in Manhattan:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/58647.html
Thanks Art Deco.
“the basic position has changed dramatically from “Republicans are stupid” to “Republicans are stupid and evil.”” neo
The cognitive dysfunction is literally psychotic, as the positions the democrat party now supports are demonstrably evil. That embrace of evil will, in time have a proportionate consequence. Good men and women have their breaking point… when evil can no longer be tolerated.
“What’s interesting is that partisan Democrats have adopted stances that make them structurally beyond accommodation. … They’re not the least bit anxious that any of this will go sideways.” Art Deco
Those who refuse to #walkaway are in for a surprise of literally biblical proportions.
I ran into the same problem at my work — coworkers (all physical scientists).
makes you wonder if a Carville Matalin marriage could occur today
I have hit the point where I simply won’t accommodate the snotty superiority from them. I return their disdain and hatred with gusto. Felt this growing over decades.
What’s next? A call for rounding up every Republican in the country into concentration camps? Because it all leads to that, eventually.
Couples divorce when there’s contempt for each other. The Great National Divorce is coming.
I have pointed out many times the leftists believe they are intellectually and morally superior people. This belief is simply hubris, one of the seven deadly sins. These people have seriously overdosed on self esteem.
1983 to 1988, University of California, Davis. BSEE.
Even back then I learned to keep my mouth shut about conservative views, but only throigh fear of docial ostracism. I never feared for my grades. But engineering curicula then was objective, not subjective.
Unfortunately this is changing, even at UCD.
I’ve always appeared to people as a counter-culture type ( and I am) but I’ve been on the right politically since I experienced socialism having lived in Cairo in 1979-80. So people are always surprised at my politics.
But I’ve stopped altogether interacting politically. The real problem is they are phobic. It’s kinda like homophobia ( the real homophobia) where they are afraid of possibly being ‘converted’. Or like someone who’s been terrorized about drugs and addiction and they don’t want to ‘try’ understanding because that would change their identity and they’d lose their friends and status ( they might be right about that). That’s why they can’t listen, process or debate. They actually have an inkling we have some valid points. They are very afraid! Poor things…
The physical sciences and engineering are now becoming PC.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-future-of-campus-racism-new-stanford-courses-designed-for-minority-students
I used to take the New York Review of Books. Then I looked at the personal’s one day. They are filled with single women looking for men. I should add “were filled.” God knows what they say now. Anyway, this ad said “No Republicans.” I laughed and cancelled.
Neo: I’m reminded of similar sentiments I used to hear at work. (I went to some lengths not to talk politics at work.)
One time — just once — I spoke up, in November 2016, when my boss held a special meeting to explain that, yes, the election of Trump was traumatic for us all, and if people needed to take some time off, we’d all understand, and if you needed someone to talk to, there were company resources available for that.
I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I simply asked him if he wasn’t making some unwarranted assumptions. He didn’t understand. I continued, “You’re acting as if the election was a tragedy for us all. Why are you assuming that you know how everyone here voted? On what basis are you making that assumption?” He was, very uncharacteristically, at a loss for words.
That was enough for some colleagues to seek me out later. “You? A conservative?? But you seemed so smart and so rational!” (I pointed out that I never said how I voted. That didn’t matter. They clearly thought that anyone willing to defend the idea of people voting differently, well, obviously that must be a conservative. That says a lot, doesn’t it?)
I was later put on a path that resulted in me leaving the company. I don’t think politics necessarily had anything to do with it (although I don’t rule it out); it happened to others too.
Oh, you want to know which company it was? I used to work for Google.
True Liberals never believed they were smarter than anyone else. We believed the kind of stuff in Desiderata: Speak your truth quietly and clearly;and listen to others,even the dull and the ignorant;they too have their story….If you compare yourself with others,you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself….
But Liberals became Progressives and caught up in their superiority and True Liberals were forced to the right. I know I was forced to in order to live with myself.
Sadly, this is utterly antithetical to the real definition of liberalism.
“I don’t understand. You’re so smart; how can you be a Republican?”
That has been the reaction I’ve heard for many, many years.
In graduate school, many years ago, a classmate said something along those lines. When I answered that I wasn’t registered with either party; but, I tended to vote along conservative/libertarian lines she then followed up with: “Well, if you are so conservative, then why are you in graduate school? Everything here is liberal.” And, she asked: “What made you a conservative?”
My rhetorical answer “What made you a liberal?” went straight over her head. She actually tried to explain why she was a liberal. She totally didn’t see my rhetorical response as a way of calling out the shallowness of her asking such a stupid question.
This was in a night class. Being the “old-fashioned” conservative that I am, I used to walk her and another female classmate to our cars in the garage after class (around 11:00 PM) for safety’s sake. That night, the whole time she was grilling me on my political stances, despite my saying they didn’t matter. She got very upset when I refused to answer my stance on abortion. Even when I told her it didn’t matter; she claimed that she couldn’t work on a class project with someone she couldn’t respect. Therefore, she needed to know where I stood on abortion.
Later, I found out that she went to the professor and asked that we not work together. Nothing was done; except there were three of us on the same group project. I received a B+ while my liberal classmate and the other project member both received an A. What was the reason for different project members getting different grades? I don’t know as I felt to was better to let it go.
Oh, and BTW, this classmate is now a college administrator. Is that really a surprise?
Even worse than graduate school is partisan politics in the workplace. I work in NY and, there, loony liberals are all amok. Best to just keep your mouth shut and hope they don’t even suspect anything.
Just last month we had a meeting (of about 45 employees) with one of the higher-up managers which was suppose to be a “meet and greet” between this manager and the employees. This manager started the meeting with a 5-minute tirade against Trump. Did this manager really think that all of the employees would have voted the same way? And all of the employees would have been comfortable with such talk?
Really, I love my job, really get along with all of my colleagues; But, I do see this kind of political partisanship in the workplace, especially coming from someone who has power over you, to be downright rude.
This is more than just virtual signaling. I agree, Neo, “Puzzlement and contempt has turned more and more to contempt and hatred.” And, I find it downright scary. Will I be fired? Will I lose my 401K money? Will I be physically attacked?! Quite frankly, I (being paranoid perhaps?) could see any one of those three things happening, and no one at work coming to my defense.
Oh come on repudicans may be sissy surrendersl at times, but they are not leftists democrats seeking to kill me because I am not their useful idiot.. if you can not see this clearly, you are a leftist useful idiots. FOAD
Charles wrote,
Sadly, I think Charles is understating just how bad things are.
I’m in a pretty fortunate position. I’m a lawyer in a solo practice. Almost all the attorneys with whom I associate are also solo practitioners. Our political views scan pretty much the entire spectrum, and other than rolling our eyes at positions we each take, we engage in politic discussions with humor.
On the other hand, I enjoy the reactions that neo described. Quite often in discussions with new acquaintances here in Los Angeles about purely local issues or even completely non-political issues, the new acquaintance will harrumph, “So you’re a Republican.” For example, I received that comment from someone in a cafe who saw my t-shirt logo “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These new acquaintances typically gape with open mouths when I respond, “Republicans are no’t nearly conservative enough.”
The colleges have also, due partially to info wars and other conspiracy land networking, been broken open by a combination of Questioning Authority Socrates style, Red Pill Awakening, and other conspiracies that Neo doesn’t want anyone to even read about here.
Don’t you just HATE it, when you’re wrong?
The hate for Reps comes from the Dems feeling, which they are NOT allowing themselves to think (tho they do feel it), that the Dems might be wrong. And they hate being wrong. So they have this anger / hatred of mistake at themselves that they feel, but can’t direct it accurately at themselves.
So they blame Reps, speaking the disagreeable truth, for their own positions, which are wrong. Which they hate.
They actually have a strong desire to BE “morally superior”. Almost a need. So they actively look for, in a hugely biased & prejudiced way, reasons to confirm that Reps are stupid, and Reps are evil. Because if Reps are not that way, they would be wrong. Which they hate.
Reps strongly need to fight against the college and K-12 anti-Rep indoctrination which has been going on. They need to have college students sue their “diversity advertising” colleges for false advertisement, since their are almost no Republicans. And they need to win such suits.
Employees need to record their anti-Rep bosses when they rant against Trump, and sue for them hostile workplace. And win.
Without winning in lawsuits, the culture won’t change. The Dems, and no US politician runs as a “Leftist”, they have been winning lawsuits to help their cause. And NOT losing when James Damore (google) sues, as the National Labor Relations Board shut it down:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/16/17021714/james-damore-google-nlrb-complaint-diversity-discrimination
Cutting Fed loan money from colleges who oppose Free Speech would be a start.
A special “college endowment tax” on the richest colleges would get my support — as VDH says, colleges today do more cultural harm than good.
We need a lot more on-line testing to determine office work ability, and getting rid of the current gov’t legal requirements to hire college grads. Rather, more civil service type testing, which allows good HS grads to get hired over lousy college grads.
It’s going to get worse, before it gets better.
With Trump haters today, how should we answer them when they claim Trump is Hitler?
a) You’re really lying to yourself, aren’t you?
b) Why do you hate Republicans so much?
c) Have you ever heard of Democrat Derangement Syndrome?
In 2024, if not before, it will be seen that this hate “for Trump” is really a hate against all Reps. That’s why I call it Democrat Derangement Syndrome.
Dems full of hate are deranged. We’ll see it more clearly after Trump, but it was evident already under Bush (BDS) and used against McCain and Romney. It was also used against Kavanaugh, and will now be used against most conservative Reps. (RINO) Reps opposed to Trump or other conservatives will still get media coverage.
Well, I’ve been strolling around this neighborhood since I went away to college in 1966, and I have had to fight the perception that most lefties are stupid.
I think most of us think our own opinions are smart, and we are confident that people that share them have real insight.
Liberalism is spread and enforced along social lines, not intellectual ones. Just like high school.
We all knew Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich in high school.
“The colleges have also, due partially to info wars and other conspiracy land networking, been broken open by a combination of Questioning Authority Socrates style, Red Pill Awakening, and other conspiracies that Neo doesn’t want anyone to even read about here.”
Ymarsakar, I’m not sure which colleges you are talking about here. Care to cite an example? I have one data point: the small, private New England college I just retired from. Republicans/conservatives are ritually hated and despised on the campus, and the situation has worsened in the past 10 years. The college recently put in place a new GE curriculum which expressly promotes the progressive agenda. The result is that the admissions are up due to a new influx of parents from NYC, SF, etc looking for such a “progressive” school. Just as I was retiring, the progressive faculty were turning their sights on the STEM departments to make sure they can bring them in line as they are seen as the last bastion of rational thought.
I’m sure there are counter examples of some schools breaking out of the progressive church, but I’d like to know which ones. It would be interesting to know of college “changers”; especially those that went from progressive to moderate or conservative.
makes you wonder if a Carville Matalin marriage could occur today
At the time she took up with him, she was cross-examined by a reporter about it. She says, well, she’d never date Republican men because they’re the sort who wear galoshes. This is the woman George Bush the Elder hired to run his campaign PR. John McCain hired Nicolle Wallace, about whom you can read here:
https://theothermccain.com/2011/10/05/im-thinking-about-writing-a-novel-called-two-faced-backstabbing-rino-bitch/
A number of vectors have contributed to Republican electoral losses over a generation. One has been that the candidates hire cretins like these.
There are times when I really love life. Here’s one:
“You’re not a Republican are you?”
“Those Left-Wing p*****s—hell, no!”
Puzzlement and contempt has turned more and more to contempt and hatred.
i said we are at the point in 1933 Germany where the targets were made to be evil and born that way, and irredeemable.. i said long ago we would end up here unless people ACTED… you know, the critical thing marx pointed out about political people, they talk but rarely act..
the population is small enough and collapsing that the things you think are impossible are now VERY possible soon… its just a numbers game now, as people disbelieved the points going on as conspiracy theories and the progress women make (and who would want to stop that? i mean 121 to 1 women to men scholarships at one school is fair… and now an article points out they arent marrying… ie. and blaming the men for not making more!! yesterdays news)…
now defending yourself is seen as what?
What the feminist said… the oppressor has no right to self defense…
but are we catching we are soviet already? [how would you know or not know?]
did you get your INTERNAL PASSPORT in order?
are you ready for social scores along party lines like China by govt?
we already know they are firing by race and such to win diversity
and that the targeted group already are unequal before the law
and the targeted group is guilty before innocent
(while others are now innocent even when guilty)
must be ok… i dont see anyone yelling or screaming about it. do you?
no one got very upset at the video of four “teens”attacking a woman with a cane and beating her with it…
NYPD: Teens Attack 67-Year-Old Woman With Her Own Cane in Queens
oh… and lets go on to the equivalent of the laws that prevented the targets from working!!
they figured they dont need law if they can get people to behave extra-legally on a justification, like diversity… and so, if you remove all the un-diverse people, your most diverse possible… right?
not like scientists like in the 1930s made their ideas known about fixing the problem by witholding treatment… witholding promotions.. etc.. some hiding under AGE discrimination.. IBM Fired 100,000 Employees to Make Way for Millennials: Report – but is it all age given the demographics?
here is the American Mathematical Society [letting their Nazism shine]
Get Out The Way
https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/
of course we know Mengele… but do we know Ernst Rudin?
it was Rudin and others like him that back then, LIKE TODAY, created the justifications
you know, the same ones that now allow POST BIRTH ABORTIONS
After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? BMJ
https://jme.bmj.com/content/39/5/261.abstract
Ernst Rudin
how could you argue against that?
It would be like arguing against what today in similar academia?
and like the mathematics institute, and some others today…
to the left and their followers in race, ALL are like the people above
so this repeat is brought to you by the same thing turned around the other way
all you needed was a sufficiently expert person to confirm what a group in trained hate beliefs and set forth the only solution… after all, where would you put the oppressors?
here is another person we dont know
TODAY
New NYC teachers given book with essay titled ‘Dear White Teacher’
https://nypost.com/2019/09/03/new-nyc-teachers-given-book-with-essay-titled-dear-white-teacher/
where will all this lead?
Why Are Marriage Rates Down? Study Blames Lack Of ‘Economically-Attractive’ Men
https://www.studyfinds.org/why-are-marriage-rates-down-study-blames-lack-of-economically-attractive-men/
Women-only STEM college programs under attack for male discrimination
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-20/women-only-science-programs-discrimination-complaints
Study finds more than half of colleges ‘facially violate’ Title IX with women-only scholarships
https://www.thecollegefix.com/study-finds-more-than-half-of-colleges-facially-violate-title-ix-with-women-only-scholarships/
Artfldgr wrote: “…we are at the point in 1933 Germany where the targets were made to be evil and born that way, and irredeemable.”
Hillary closed her infamous “deplorable” comment by saying,
“Now, some of those folks—they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America.” Yes, here we are.
rt Deco on September 6, 2019 at 8:53 am said:
makes you wonder if a Carville Matalin marriage could occur today
At the time she took up with him, she was cross-examined by a reporter about it. She says, well, she’d never date Republican men because they’re the sort who wear galoshes. This is the woman George Bush the Elder hired to run his campaign PR. John McCain hired Nicolle Wallace, about whom you can read here:
https://theothermccain.com/2011/10/05/im-thinking-about-writing-a-novel-called-two-faced-backstabbing-rino-bitch/
A number of vectors have contributed to Republican electoral losses over a generation. One has been that the candidates hire cretins like these.
* * *
Republicans have been stabbing themselves in the back for a long time.
I personally became cognizant when I realized that some of the most vehement anti-Palin activists were on McCain’s staff.
Hi Neo,
If you’re still looking to date and don’t mind a guy who lives in NYC, this might be an interesting lead:
https://americanmind.org/discourse/a-deplorable-looks-for-a-date/
Ira
I got quite a few words in edgewise, and somewhere along the line he said, in a tone of shocked bewilderment, “I don’t understand. You’re so smart; how can you be a Republican?”
Back then I wouldn’t’ve been aware enough to respond well. Nowadays, a possible response would be, “Interesting. Does that mean that you normally don’t go to places where informed Republicans [or conservatives, or whatever] give their own the reasons for their conclusions? You know, where a person is stating his own beliefs, rather than someone proclaiming, ‘this is what they really believe’?”
Some possible follow ups.
“In the groups you hang out with, would people who are Republican [conservative, etc.] feel free to express their views without fear of being hated or scorned?”
“Do you think that Republicans [conservatives, etc.] are aware of the thoughts and rationale of progressives [Democrats, etc.]? . . . . Are they likely to be aware of why you hold some beliefs, or do you think that they’ve never heard the progressive [Democrat, etc.] rationale.’
“Do you think that thoughtful Republicans [conservatives, etc.] believe themselves to be stupid or ignorant?”
“Do you think that Republicans [conservatives, etc.] are trying to do what is evil, or do you think that they are trying to do what they think is right, but are mistaken?”
None of these guarantee success in changing minds–I think that someone once said that a mind is a difficult thing to change–but (1) they are steps, and (2) they provide thought food for observers and the un-engaged.
Step one to help someone reconsider his views: help him to realize that there are other views.
At my last book club meeting, which is 100% women but about 50/50 R/D since I live in Texas, we were talking about what to read next. Someone suggested The Handmaid’s Tale (I’m proud of myself that I didn’t roll my eyes… noticeably), and several then voiced their support for the choice because, after all, isn’t it Just So Prescient?? Aren’t we Living On The Edge of that world??
I piped up to say that California certainly is. The most progressive of the D’s, whose daughter lives and works in SoCal, exclaimed, “California? Surely not! They just let people live their lives, there.” And (once I controlled my desire to snort with laughter, since my family and my husband’s are both longtime CA residents) I said, “What would happen to your daughter at work if, for instance, she copped to making a donation to Trump’s campaign?” She paused for a split second, then said, “She’d probably get fired.” And then added, “Of course, she’d NEVER donate to THAT idiot.”
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My B.A. as an English major was in 1965. Even then it was wise to avoid questioning what was called “liberal thought “ back then, in the classroom.
Jamie wrote:
So, since her daughter gets to live the life that the daughter wants to live, your fellow bookclub member believes that she has proved her point.
Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
cbi on September 7, 2019 at 12:14 am
* * *
Great list of replies to “You’re so smart; how can you be a Republican?”
The one I would have made if I had only thought of it in time (I was kind of blind-sided by the remark!):
“Maybe I’m a Republican because I am so smart. Would you listen while I explain why I believe [topic]?”
The second sentence is optional, depending on whether you want a discussion or a mic drop.
I have read that it wasn’t Pauline Kael who made the remark about non-existent Nixon voters, but rather that she was quoting somebody else who made the original remark.
FWIW, the Foot of All Knowledge tells us:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Kael#Nixon_quote
Conservative think reactionary leftists are wrong.
Reactionary leftists want conservatives dead.
Conservatives also want Leftists gone by now.
It’s why they needed a Hero King like Trum. Who is not as powerful as they thought in cleaning out that swamp. Swamp was bigger than they realized.