Real Life Investing With Jason & Rachel Wagner

54. Uncovering Ideological Bias In Our Colleges & Universities

• Jason & Rachel Wagner

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What if the political leanings of your college professors are shaping your worldview more than you realize? 

Today we discuss the chart Elon Musk shared that shows the dominance left leaning professors have within our colleges and universities. This chart is also supported with a 2016 study of Liberal Professors Outnumber Conservatives 12:1. 

Our discussion details personal reflections of our college experience back in 2008 where topics of race, white privilege, and victimology were commonly taught. Fast forward to today, and we can see how these teachings have translated into further division within our communities. 

The Rabbit Hole - https://x.com/therabbithole84/status/1847700495600693594?s=42

Liberal Professors Outnumber Conservatives 12:1: Study - https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/6/liberal-professors-outnumber-conservatives-12-1/

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Life Investing Podcast with Jason and Rachel Wagner. We're going into what would you call this Rach I don't really know the best way to summarize the topic we're about to go into.

Speaker 2:

We're really talking about college.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, probably the biases that are baked in the colleges that we may or may not be totally aware of.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean you've been sharing a lot of content lately about ratios of conservative versus liberal college professors and statistically which way people lean as they go further up into education.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, yeah. So I think we got into a lot of this because we recently just had a show that was on where our conservative values came from, and it was a really good exercise. I think a lot of people need to do that. I think a lot of people need to figure out where their partisanship kind of comes from, kind of comes from, and we did that in that show and basically we discovered that me going into college, where I didn't grow up in a family that talked about politics, was very malleable and I could think whichever way the university was going to teach me. So I didn't have a preconceived notion of where I kind of stood politically at all. And so here's the interesting part is, like literally day one of college, which are the basic classes of they call them LSFY we had a 101, a 102, and a 103. But prior to even going into school, they gave you a homework assignment which was read this book called Warriors Don't Cry, and read it before you come to school and then we'll discuss it.

Speaker 2:

Each class had a different book, so your class had a different book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I don't know what you're because you're one year older than me. I don't know what we had the Sunflower which was about World War Two.

Speaker 2:

Okay, forgiveness, basically.

Speaker 1:

Okay Gotcha. World War II and forgiveness, basically Okay gotcha. So with ours. Warriors Don't Cry was basically a book that was about during the civil rights movement, when these kids went to. These black children went to school that was at an all-white school, so basically the civil rights had been changed and now there was going to be an integration of black and white.

Speaker 1:

And so again, this is a day one homework assignment Actually a day zero, right, Because you are reading this book and we are prepping you to discuss it as you come into your first class, and so we discuss that book, we discussed that book, but they introduce race and race discussions instantly right on this whole thing. And I just like, as I started to kind of go back on some of the essay assignments that I had to read, I was just like, oh my God, Like all the things that they've been saying now, where race is such a big dividing topic, and when we just had Columbus Day, we need to remember that we're oppressors and there's victims. I have papers that say this stuff too. It's like I was being trained to think this way.

Speaker 2:

I think it's really interesting. This just kind of came to mind, but the timing of when you started college was the 2008 election, and who was running in the 2008 election was President Obama, and he was very much so the image and mindset of change, and he now so I would say, by many conservatives and Republicans is being blamed for the racial divide that started in this country, and so it's interesting that, as you're on the forefront of college right In 2008, as, as he's campaigning very heavily, this is the topic that was chosen right, this is the topic that was chosen right.

Speaker 1:

So was there somebody chose this book? Was there somebody chose this book? Somebody at Augustana chose this book, that this is what the incoming freshman class is all going to read, and so I have a couple things here where I can kind of I can read this short little piece here. I have actually two pieces. We'll talk about this one first. I have actually two pieces. We'll talk about this one first. So this one is titled Terrence Roberts and it's in a response to a probably a convocation that we had gone to, where probably the whole grade had, or maybe even upperclassmen too were required to go to this convocation, and then we had to write an essay in response to the speaker. So his name was Terrence Roberts.

Speaker 1:

So Dr Roberts captured my interest after I learned about his background. He was a graduate of Southern Illinois University and is now a doctor. His inspiration about never quitting was intriguing. He went through the worst possible things a human being could experience, and yet he woke every day with a goal in mind and a vision of an integrated America. His experience teaches us that we don't always get what we want, but if we continue to do, the right and moral thing. Changes for the better can eventually be made.

Speaker 1:

For 355 years, the United States of America had discrimination written in its constitution Again, this is me writing this discrimination written in its constitution. Again, this is me writing this. In 1954, the Brown case changed the law of discrimination and integration into our schools began to occur. However, 54 years later, dr Roberts claims that we still suffer from discrimination. He says it is impossible to overcome the way we treated people for 355 years, when it only has been 54 years since it has been outlawed. I agree with this statement because people are not viewed as a whole. Yet when applying for a job, the checkbox for your ethnicity is still there. Colleges have certain clubs for race types and if certain people don't meet that requirement, it's not likely they will be accepted. Even television stations are discriminated BET Black Entertainment Television.

Speaker 1:

I am very much interested in knowing a little more of his side of the story, of what happened when he attended Central High School. He says he has read Warriors Don't Cry and agrees and disagrees with the book. Some things occurred that he didn't even know happened to Melba until after he read the book. He could have explained some of those things that were contradicting his experience. His book is released soon and it would be interesting to compare and contrast Melba's story and Dr Roberts. His words were inspiring and gave the audience the feeling that, even though life can be tough and is a long journey, doing the right thing today can promise a better future for everyone. So what's your reaction after hearing me write that response?

Speaker 2:

well, I thought your opening paragraph and your ending paragraph shares a really positive message about what he believes and stood, stood for. I think where you're kind of taking issue is with the, the middle section, where you're talking about really systemic racism and how it's impossible to change it and the amount of time that it's been, you know, really addressed in this country and that's going to take at least 355 years to reverse all of that. That's right. That's really, I think, the the issue, because I think you know initially his message of you know you can't always get the things that you want, but remain positive and keep working forward, like that's a wonderful message, right.

Speaker 2:

I agree, yeah, but yeah, I think it was certainly surprising to hear these be your words, knowing the Jason that I know today. These be your words, knowing the Jason that I know today.

Speaker 1:

Well it's it's. It's very surprising. It's very surprising that this stuff was introduced to me where, again, we didn't, we didn't have race as a problem growing up. That wasn't, that wasn't my world. I just think that what we have here is that you have an introductory of an idea that sure, we had a bad past, but is that past the current present? And what they're doing here is saying that, well, just based off of this timeframe, we've been discriminated against for 355 years and there's absolutely no way that we can make up for it in only 54 years. So ingraining a thought that, no matter what happens, discrimination will exist for another 300 years, it seems like a bad idea why do you think it seems like a bad idea?

Speaker 1:

because there's no solution. There. There's no solution. But here I am as a young, malleable student, going off on my own, not really knowing how to think, what to think, and having this type of idea planted in my head, and so I think the backlash that you have right now is that you've got a number of universities and colleges that are just completely dominated by this left-leaning ideology, which is race and oppression and victimization, and that has become a very, very big topic. And that has become a very, very big topic no-transcript, of course, because we've been building up. The volcano is starting to erupt, and so here's another one. This one is called how to Get a College Education. So this is another kind of a short little essay, just a one-pager. Here this was written three days prior to the last one, so heading off to college is not as surprising as it used to be.

Speaker 1:

After earning a high school diploma, many students choose to enhance their education for many reasons. After earning a high school diploma, many students choose to enhance their education for many reasons. One example workforces now have a minimum requirement of a graduate degree to even be considered for hiring. In this case, students should strive to obtain the best college education they are capable of achieving. Jeffrey Hart explains the keys to being a successful college student, at whatever college or university you choose. His tips include staying away from flashy classes and sticking with the ordinary classes. Ordinary classes are courses that have always been taken and should obviously be taken. Avoid classes with appealing titles with such words as studies, interdisciplinary, heganomic or empowerment.

Speaker 1:

Although I understand where Mr Hart is coming from, I cannot agree with his rationale on achieving a college education through just ordinary classes. My definition of a liberal arts college involves a person being well-rounded in every subject matter, understanding everything from science and math to subjects dealing with affirmative action and victimologies. Many upper class students I have spoken with have stated that the classes they felt most important to them throughout college were the courses that weren't slotted among the ordinary classes or the courses that weren't slotted among the ordinary classes. The skills developed in unusual classes are commonly the skills needed to be successful in future years after college. As a student at Augustana College, I plan on taking the necessary courses that I should be taking, but I am also going to experiment with some of the other courses that I could possibly think I could be needing to make myself a more skilled individual. What's your thought on that paper?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think the way you described a liberal arts education is exactly how it was sold to me, and probably you too, as being a good option. Is that?

Speaker 2:

you know, you're not just going to be the single track expert in this one area, but you're going to be super well-rounded and understanding the whole picture and kind of overall better human than you know just the expert in this one area. And it sounds really wonderful. But I think the issue that we're really taking with this is the topics that are discussed. Right, it's not the idea behind it, but it's how it was presented, the conversations that took place while we were there and what we're seeing now, you know, 15 years later, is how much further it's gone and the repercussions of of that right right, it's the introductory of these types of discussions that were being held in these classes.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, and how much further they have gone and how it has been more of a detriment to our society. We are more divided now than we ever have been. We weren't as divided back in 2008.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

At least not from my perspective.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't think so either. I think that was very much the start of it.

Speaker 1:

Right. This was very purpose-driven. And we continue to divide each other based off of race, because one side wants to point everything back to race. So it just makes you wonder well, if things haven't been going well, should we continue these types of discussions in these college courses? We haven't seen.

Speaker 2:

We've seen worse progress so I I don't know that I think the conversations shouldn't be had. I I think what's important is that the conversations are led by somebody who is truly able to remain neutral and foster an open conversation for both sides. So I guess, like getting a little further into like my experience, we've talked there were two professors that I had at Augustana, one of which we both had, who he said was very good at fostering open conversation, hearing both sides and never imposing their own opinion. Right Like that, I think, is what allows people to develop their own thought and the ability to own thought and the ability to critically think and the ability to hear the opposing side and then argue their point and then argue back and forth. Right Like I think that should be happening. What I think is a miss from our personal, some of our personal experience, is that the conversation was one sided and I can certainly share that firsthand as well.

Speaker 2:

At Augustana there was a professor I had for two separate classes, but one in particular. I'm still very bothered by this interaction that I had with him in front of the entire class. It was all about white privilege and specifically giving the example of if you take, you know, a white kid and a black kid and you put them in the exact, you know same bad environment, you know maybe a bad household situation or whatever. The example is Right, but the starting point is the same. His argument was that the white kid is going to far exceed the black kid because of white privilege that's going to exist for that kid. And the professor went on to say you know, all of you sitting here are privileged to be here and most you know he made the. He started making comments about how the majority of us, as Augie students, are coming from upper middle class families and college educated parents and you know we're all very privileged to be sitting here. And I was very upset about that comment because, while I'm certainly not an incredibly underprivileged person, the things that he was explaining weren't true for me.

Speaker 2:

My parents divorced at a very young age. My mom did not make a lot of money. She worked at a daycare for majority of her career and we lived in an apartment for the majority of my childhood. You know my dad was able to buy a single family home later in life, but he also was single for most of my childhood, so they were both living on single incomes, with the exception of one parent loan for the first year of college, put myself through Augustana and didn't even have a co-signer starting my sophomore year. So when I took this class, it was 2008 and it was that sophomore year, and him talking about how privileged we all were and our parents paying for education, I raised my hand and I was ticked off. I'm like dude, I just signed a variable interest rate loan to put myself through this school. I was ticked off. I'm like dude, I just signed a variable interest rate loan to put myself through this school.

Speaker 2:

I was working three jobs in high school and three jobs in college to be there and I was offended by what he was saying. And he's like okay, let me, let me humor you a little bit. What high school did you go to? And I said well, I went to Ben Drove. And he laughed and he said well, exactly, exactly, you went to a privileged school. So, even though you yourself aren't arguably more privileged than some of the other people sitting in here in this classroom, but you were in a privileged environment and so that's what makes you know you a better situation. And, like, I understand what he is saying, but as a young, impressionable 19, 20 year old.

Speaker 2:

I was very upset and also very upset by the way he was leading his class, to the point where a lot of people in the class started supporting me and agreeing with what I was saying. And this other girl started arguing with me. He was agreeing with her, and then I would have a point and say but that's not fair, because you're discrediting the hard work that my parents did to keep me focused in school to make sure I stayed out of trouble, to make sure I did homework, to make sure I understood the value of a dollar by having a job Like it felt discrediting to me. And you're saying it was only because I was white. But it wasn't. It was because of the values that my parents had in raising me and their efforts and ensuring that I stayed the right track and their efforts in ensuring that I was disciplined and did my homework Right. So, anyways, I'm kind of getting off track, but the conversation was very, very upsetting to the point where one of the other students ended up like saying, well, good for you, good for your mom, and it was like really snotty towards me and he just laughed. My professor just laughed and it was an awful encounter.

Speaker 2:

And there were two, two people after class who came up to me and were just like I can't believe that that conversation just happened, like good for you for sharing your experience, and I can't believe the way he responded. But it was very clear to me in that moment the agenda that existed, right. There was nothing that I could have shared or, you know, explained from a personal experience that would have changed his mind. Right. Like I was privileged because I was white. It didn't matter any trauma that existed in my childhood, it didn't matter encounters that I had with police officers as a child, right, it didn't matter. You know, there were a lot of things that happened in my childhood that could have turned me in a very different path than what I took right, and it just felt incredibly discrediting to the hard work that both myself and my parents put in to ensure that that didn't happen to me. And to say that it was only because of the color of my skin is offensive.

Speaker 2:

But now, as an adult and looking back on it, like we recently looked so, the two professors that we both had that were really good at fostering great conversation aren't at Augustana anymore, which is such a shame. But this professor of course is, and he's been tenured and you know, when you look at his credentials it becomes very clear that this was his agenda all along and is probably even more so a part of the classroom discussions that he has. Let me see if I can still pull this up here. Let me see if I can still pull this up here. So this professor's research and teaching interests include whiteness, white privilege, critical race theory, race and ethnic relations, social inequity, quantitative research methods and statistics. So clearly his credentials that are listed right here on the website of the college very clearly is all about race and specifically us as white people, and so I guess I take less offense to it now because I get it. I get why he's there, what his teachings are, and so I'm, I guess, validating you and what you're saying is that was taught.

Speaker 1:

These ideas were taught to us at a young, valuable age and fast forward from 2008 to 2024,. As a culture, have we gone in the right direction or the wrong direction? I think majority of America would probably say that our cultural aspects have gone in the wrong direction.

Speaker 2:

Well, right, and I think it's because we just continue to teach that race matters and that the color of your skin matters, and we're teaching that in the name of equality, which it just it doesn't make any sense to me, right, and I think where we all don't start in the same place, but we need to end up in the same place.

Speaker 1:

I've heard Kamala Harris say this many times we need to end up in the same place.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I don't agree with that.

Speaker 1:

That's the America was built on revolutionists and people that could be innovative and people that worked hard.

Speaker 2:

Right, hard work and innovation Right yeah.

Speaker 1:

It was if you actually contributed towards society, you would be rewarded. But that's not what that phrase talks about, which you may have started in a bad spot we don't have control over that but we can make sure you end up in the same spot as everyone else, no matter what type of effort. So I just think that that's the troubling message that we've intoxicated these schools with, and it became really well known to me when Elon Musk had shared a graph that was talking about. Look at the majors and the political bias that they have throughout the country. Overwhelmingly, all of these majors were left-leaning, were led by professors that were left-leaning, and I'm reading a book called 1 ratio of professors at universities. That's where they lean 12 liberal professors to 1. That's on average, but you can have some universities that are as high as 22 to 1. You can have some universities that are as high as 22 to 1. So just thinking about that, of course, if you have no political bias going into a college setting, you will certainly have a political bias that is taught to you, and so what happens is that you just if you were to chat GPT or if you were to use some type of AI I use Grok and I did a poll the other day on Instagram where I asked the question true or false? The higher the education we receive, as in certificates or diplomas, the more liberal we become, and of the people that followed me, I did have a 21% response, but overwhelmingly we had a 70-30% divide where 70% said that is a true statement. The higher the education we receive, the more liberal we become. So we recognize this. Okay, but when we have a system that is dominated by these left-leaning professors you're going to become, you have a higher probability of becoming democratic.

Speaker 1:

A democrat it all depends on what you end up doing after college and what type of businesses or jobs you end up getting post-college or post a master's degree, because those cultures can solidify your thought processes or bring you back into another direction, which was what happened with me. I went to college, I came out liberal with a liberal mindset, went to a more conservative company to begin with, changed jobs, went to a more liberal company, larger company here in Chicago, quit that company, became an entrepreneur, solidified my conservative values, because business owners and entrepreneurs have a higher chance of having conservative values. And so it's a good exercise to really think about, because where did your liberalness really come from, or where did your conservatism come from? And it was good for me to really think about this, because I had a very big just aha moment. Well, it came from college.

Speaker 1:

It came from college and the things that they plant into your head that you can start thinking, and so my argument here is that I believe that the college and universities, I believe that higher education is good, but it needs to be more balanced and we cannot be dominated by a left-leaning mindset, as in what these ratios are a 12 to 1 ratio. We cannot be dominated like that, because otherwise we're just going to continue to flow in one direction where we say that this is the liberal arts and you're being well-rounded. Well, you're certainly not well-rounded with only one perspective.

Speaker 2:

Right, no-transcript. So if you just get a group of people who they all think the same, which is another thing no one pushing back being like well, wait a minute. Why are we teaching people this?

Speaker 1:

Right. And here's another thing is that you know, we also recognize that there's not a lot of professors at Augustana that had real world experience, right, right, and they were actually. They might have had very, very little, but they became educators. And when you become an educator and again this is kind of like going with the whole thing of like wherever you choose to land in your job, you're surrounded by whatever culture is there, whatever type of mindset is ingrained within that organization. And if we know that universities and college campuses are filled with left-leaning liberal professors and you are a career academic without any other industry experience, chances are you are going to be left-leaning professor and your teachings, whether you believe it or not, are going to be left-leaning biases.

Speaker 1:

Well, and you can have professors that are like well, no, we're actually pretty good at not having political conversations in the classroom, but again, what we've had on our last show you can make anything racist. You can make any conversation racist. If you want to paint the picture of victims, you can. Math is racist. That has been planted in our heads as an idea, and so we can literally discuss anything as being racist. Pete budaj, all the roads are racist, right? So? So this is. This is the issue. Like as parents, what do we do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean I don't agree with the whole idea of teaching kids that the color of their skin matters, because I don't think we should be trying to teach white kids any type of shame. That is allegedly kids, right. I think they should start. They start out as equals, you know. Don't teach them any differences among the color of their skin. You can teach cultural differences. You can teach social, economical differences, right, differences among their personality and their interests and their skills and those types of things. Those are all natural things. Those are all of the things that truly make us a diverse population, right.

Speaker 2:

But, and I think too, like this whole, you know you're privileged because you're white and you're oppressed because you're this. It's like you're categorizing massively large groups of people into these categories. That is not true for everyone. It is not true for everyone, and I think people in either group could be offended by whatever, whatever label you're putting on them, and I think we just need to go back to or move forward, just viewing people as true individuals and character, judging people in character and their individuality, and yeah, I know, yeah, I mean you can have you.

Speaker 1:

You know, I'm sure there's black men that are like dude, life's great, work hard, got a great job. I want a business, but the government says that I should feel oppressed.

Speaker 2:

So, oh, maybe I am impressed or they're like f that don't tell me I'm impressed, right, yeah, right because they can think for themselves.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's the same way with, like Obama was just recently like shaming a bunch of black men for not voting for Kamala Harris, and there was a video that this black woman did where she was yelling back at Obama. That's like stop telling black people how to think and how to vote. You're the one oppressing me. Stop telling me how to think and feel and vote. I'm a person. I can do what I want. Stop shaming me for not doing what you think I should do.

Speaker 2:

Right, I think it's starting to backfire, but Well, it is yeah, and that's why there's so much content out there right now about the stats is because people are are seeing this and they're like wait a minute, and it was a more recent trend. I do think your class was probably really the start of the change and I think the correlation with the start of that change was the Obama presidency. I do think that he holds a lot of responsibility for the divide that has been plaguing this country the last 25 years or 15 years.

Speaker 1:

Not 25, we or not that old? Well, and then, like all the recent stuff that was happening on harvard's campus, right, and this was all with the palestinians and you know, and their cries for basically, genocide from the river to the sea. Yeah right, that is a cry for genocide.

Speaker 1:

And the Harvard Dean says that's not hate speech. Like well, she ended up having to be forced to be stepped down. But we all saw that conference and this was literally somebody saying that these remarks were okay to be said. These remarks were okay to be said, yeah, like unbelievable. And so the virus that has just surged through our college campuses and these bad ideas we have allowed them to continue, and so there needs to be a balance. There needs to be a balance back to the right, and so do we need an infiltration of right-leaning professors to go back into universities? Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2:

How do we get some of that? Yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker 1:

There needs to be an infiltration of conservative professors. And if we're going to talk about DEI stuff, the only DEI that matters is that are you left-leaning or are you right-leaning? And if we need to bring our university back to a more balanced, centrist-type education, that is what I think. The direction of the country needs to go balanced.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't think that should be the only thing that's considered, but I think diversity of thought should be included as part of what DEI is.

Speaker 1:

Because it is not diversity of thought.

Speaker 2:

Right, that's not existent right now. It is not.

Speaker 1:

As much as you say that it can be, it's not, yeah, so All right.

Speaker 1:

So just a couple more things that I wanted to kind of touch on. The reason I got I got really caught on this whole Democrat versus Republican professor imbalance was because of the post that Elon Musk had shared, which was a retweet of the rabbit hole, an ex account, and they showed a pretty stark chart here. It says professors are the democrats, therefore the experts are democrats too, and so with this chart, he probably lays out looks like like 10 or 15 different majors and the percentage of democrat professors compared to Republican professors, and literally every single one of these has extreme high percentage, with engineering being the most friendly to Republicans and having more of a balance about 61% for engineering, 61% is Democratic, but then everything else the ratios are like between 84% to 100%, and at the top you got communications, which is 100% democratic Communications anthropology, religion, english, sociology, art, music, theater, art, music, theater, classics, geoscience, environmental, language, biology, philosophy, history. All of those are great. Are 95% left-leaning democratic professors that cover those fields 95%?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and some of those aren't that surprising, right, like sociology or English or communications. I think you're probably like, okay, most of those professors are probably pretty liberal, but some of them were pretty surprising to me. I thought biology being a 95% Democratic was really shocking. Same with history.

Speaker 1:

How is that possible? It's biology, it's science. It can't be left-leaning, can it? Apparently it is. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah, I think it is, and then history this one I think is extremely alarming yeah, because if you think about the stories that we want to tell.

Speaker 1:

Well, if you align left, the stories you want to tell about the nation will be from a left-leaning lens.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, we've had lots of conversations about what are the history books going to say about 2020 and what happened in 2020.

Speaker 1:

Well, what did they say about?

Speaker 3:

January 6th.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what did they say about January 6th? Yeah, absolutely, there's two very different lenses. You look at January 6th from a left lens and a right lens.

Speaker 1:

There's two different stories, yeah, but which one gets published in the history books? Well, we probably know? Is that if you're a left-leaning professor?

Speaker 2:

you're probably going to talk about the left side, mm, hmm, and that's why I've shared, like in previous podcasts, like I feel a little unsure about some and it's a. It's an internal struggle of like I don't know, I don't know what's, it's very uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally All right. Let's go a little bit further down the list, because now we get into like the 94%. So psychology, 94%, poly sci, 89%, computers, 86%, physics, 86% mathematics, 85%, professional, whatever that means.

Speaker 2:

I would assume that would probably include like that's just like straight up business business accounting yeah maybe 85% economics 85% chemistry. That's shocking too 84%.

Speaker 1:

And then you have so chemistry 84% Again in the science world, and then you drop down to engineering. Engineering is the one that is most balanced at 61.5. Fascinating, All right, Extremely fascinating. Let's kind of talk about this a little bit. I'll save the best clip for last here.

Speaker 1:

I found this other just to kind of give a little bit more support to this liberal professors outnumber conservatives 12 to 1. There's actually a study that was done on this and I've got that published in my hand here. It was actually published. Here's an article that the Washington Times wrote about October 6th of 2016. And that was the title Liberal Professors Outnumber Conservatives 12 to 1 in this study. So we knew this back in 2016. It does go on to say that the study looked at 40 leading universities and it found that out of the 72, 43 professors, Out of the 72, 43 professors, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 3,263 to 314, or by a ratio of 11.5 to 1. So we say 12 to 1, right? Here is some interesting stats, that kind of say, in this article, which I'm looking for If you're going to have gender studies department or something like that. The progressive assumptions are built into the very idea of the department, so you're not going to hire any conservative professors Makes sense, Right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Here's an interesting piece. The disparity is highest at the most prestigious universities. Prestigious universities, a pair of Ivy League universities, columbia and Princeton. Both weigh in a ratio at 30 to 1, democratic leading 30 to 1. They say Ohio State University enjoys a closer ideological advantage, ideological parity at 3.2 to 1. So a little bit closer to being balanced at Ohio State. But those Ivy League schools, yeesh yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it's kind of a scary thought for us as our kids get older. What are we going to? I don't want to say allow, because there will be adults at that point, but encourage. As they get further in school, you know, is college going to be something that we really encourage for them, Right? And that's wild, because it was heavily encouraged for us.

Speaker 1:

It totally is, yeah yeah. The study also breaks down the ratio of a Democratic to Republican faculty by age. While there are 10 Democrats for every Republican among professors over the age of 65, the ratio balloons to 23 to 1 among scholars under the age of 36, indicating ideological disparity could continue to grow as more senior professors are pushed out and replaced by the new generation of scholars. Holy smokes, that's alarming, right. All right, and then let's tie this into. What was this? If you haven't heard, there was a University of Kansas professor that recently was just put on an administrative leave and, from most updated reports, it sounds like he has left the university, and I'm just going to play a clip of what he said in the middle of his class. It was just the other day, so this video is from October 9th of 2024.

Speaker 3:

It's what frustrates me they're going to. Guys are smarter than girls. You got some serious problems. It's what frustrates me they're going to. Guys are smarter than girls. You got some serious problems. Uh, that's what frustrates me. There are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don't think females are smart enough to be president. We can line all those guys up and shoot them. They clearly don't understand the way the world works. Did I say that? I didn't scratch that from the recording? I don't want the deans hearing that I said that Guys are smarter than girls. You've got some serious problems.

Speaker 2:

If they think that, line them up and shoot them. That's what he said.

Speaker 1:

That is what he said, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And this is coming from Kamala Harris voter Probably an anti-gun person right Probably.

Speaker 1:

Probably right. Probably Probably right. That doesn't make any sense. All right, so these are the people, the party of tolerance. Yeah, these are the people that are teaching our universities. This is Kansas University of Kansas. You got a guy saying something like this. Okay, so to his point. What was the point that he was trying to make?

Speaker 2:

like this. Okay, so to his point. What was he? What was the point that he was trying to make? He was trying to say that there are men in society who will never be okay with a woman being president. Right, that they, they won't they, which is probably true, of course, of course it's true, of course it's true.

Speaker 2:

All of these things have some truth in them, right? Of course there's racists that still exist. Of course there's people who are, you know, anti-feminists and sexists and like. There are people of all of those things for sure. The question is is it systemic, right? That's what?

Speaker 1:

we're at, but because if you're the best person, people still look at merit right are you the best person for the job right and even. That's why kamala harris is up there, right way.

Speaker 2:

should we be lining them up and shooting them? No, Right.

Speaker 1:

You shouldn't have any type of violence for somebody that's going to vote for Kamala Harris or not. We shouldn't be shooting people that are men who don't want to vote for Kamala Harris.

Speaker 2:

Right, they may have a very good reason why, and they may have a very good, valid argument as to why they don't want to see a female as the leader of the free world. You don't have to agree with that, but they may actually have a reason why.

Speaker 1:

That's true, and are they not allowed to think that they can think whatever they want? Right, they can vote however they want. But even if you did think that a woman should never be president and therefore you didn't vote for Kamala Harris, should that person be cleansed from this earth?

Speaker 2:

Not in America, no, no.

Speaker 1:

You are allowed to think however you would like.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's where I think so many of these extreme far left liberals have gotten is they're really more of like a totalitarianism and it's very, it's very concerning. It's if you don't think like me, then you shouldn't have any rights, you shouldn't exist. You're, you know, you're this, you're that, you're a terrible person, and it's just this total to total tally to talk. Can't say it again. Try again tally to talk. I can't say it again. Try again totalitarian.

Speaker 1:

There you go. If I would have tried, I wouldn't have got yeah, yeah, so yeah yeah. So I mean, that's the stuff that we face, right. So, anyways, we want to bring those up because those are some really recent things that we can actually point to. There's a lot of data here. We're not just making this stuff up up Now. It's like what do you do with all of this information? That's the biggest piece.

Speaker 2:

So, jason, I want to ask you you've definitely been tuning into a lot of this information and sharing a lot about it, and it definitely has you kind of emotionally charged. I guess. I just want to ask you, like, what is it about this topic that is getting you so, so riled up? I mean, I could see it in your face. It's like every single day you're coming to me. Listen to this stat, listen to this stat.

Speaker 1:

Well, in my opinion, I don't think this was news to me. Learning that majority of our universities was a 12 to 1 ratio was insanely like big news to me, because I didn't think that and I always was just under the guise of like well, I don't care which way you lean, left or right, you know, teach me. The information I think I've just come to realize is that you can teach information and the way it's presented can be looked at again from a left or right view, and I think that we kind of just have we have so much division in our society right now is that people can't hold back some of these little puns that they want to throw in there. And again, you've got malleable minds when you're in college because you're still learning and you're still growing, our minds are still expanding into our mid to late 20s, and so why am I so emotionally charged? Because I was that malleable mind when I went to college. I didn't have a political viewpoint going into college.

Speaker 1:

I met you at 20 years old. You asked me one time are you a Democrat or a Republican? And I didn't even know the difference. Talk about how malleable am I. You could take me well, rachel, however you want to take this conversation, you could make me left or right. However you want to take this conversation, you could make me left or right, and I said which one's obama? Right? That's? That was my response to you which one's obama? But you already knew that you were conservative on the republican side which is why I asked you you're really Really smart to ask that question.

Speaker 1:

So here, if I had to guess I was being trained to become a liberal Because of the teachings I went through and the things that I just read to you, and the 12 to 1 ratio that is encompassing all of our universities, people that go to college that don't have any type of exposure to politics have a high probability of coming out a liberal. And is that a bad thing? It's up to someone to decide if that's a bad thing. The way that I view it, yeah, it is a bad thing, because the liberal ideology has not gone well and we have more division than ever. And so where did it root from? It's rooted in the colleges and the education, and that's why I'm so kind of like charged about. This is because, rachel, if I didn't meet you, chances are if I continued on my own path, I would have been a diehard liberal. I think so.

Speaker 2:

I don't think so. I think you would have for a while, and we were just talking about this the other day. You had a tough decision at graduation of were you going to take the job and stay in the Quad Cities with me, or were you going to continue education and go get your master's and try to get another job after you got your master's. And we were talking had you taken that path. Yeah, it probably would have solidified your liberal viewpoints.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly.

Speaker 2:

And you would have had an issue.

Speaker 1:

Right, because there was a moment in our lives, in our relationship, if I was going to accept the job out of college that was in the same area that you were working and living, or I could go back home, continue my education to get a master's degree, even though it was going to be in accounting, understanding that there is a left-leaning bias that comes with higher education.

Speaker 1:

And what would have led you into probably big companies and probably what will lead me into bigger companies that are probably more left wing I do think eventually you would have reached the same.

Speaker 2:

You know frustration in the corporate world. Your personality doesn't fit that that type of day-to-day. I think eventually you would have taken that same frustration.

Speaker 1:

It would have taken a much longer time. Yeah, okay, I wouldn't have been so confident in my skin of what I believe in, in which I think I've come to recognize that, yeah, I vote for Donald Trump, and I will show you that I vote for Donald Trump. It's because we've been talking about politics for a long time in our household.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's the other thing I was going to say. I had mentioned. You know before where my conservative values came from and it came from, you know, just conversations growing up in my household and I think you know you being around my family, more living there during that time, brought about more conversations for you. And I'm thinking back to do you remember the whole planet X phenomenon thing that was happening like in 2012, right around us, graduating? So I didn't remember this, but my stepdad reminded me about this and he's like man Jason was like so die hard into that fear that was existing and do you remember this whole thing?

Speaker 1:

I really, I really don't. I think, he brought it up the other day and I really didn't remember what he was talking about. I know.

Speaker 2:

I've got like brief memories of it because there was so much hype that was going around in 2020 about this Planet X and it was called something else. It was Planet X and it was Nibiru, and it was going to collide with Earth and cause a black hole and a magnetic pole shift and like all these things and Doomsday was coming and it was going to be December of 2012. And so he has a very distinct memory of having this conversation with you, at a bar I think, and you were just so hyped and so feared you were so into this fear mongering that was existing about this whole topic and he was just kind of chuckling at you.

Speaker 1:

I was like you want to talk about fear mongering a little bit? Yeah, you want to talk about fear mongering a little bit? Yeah, you want to talk about fear mongering a little bit? Yeah, okay, that's great because I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, because, as I start to remember the biggest things that I was fearful of, okay, if it started there, which I don't necessarily remember but if it started there, remember when Ebola was a big thing, oh, yeah, I do, and I was like I was diving into again, as you start to realize that sciences are left-leaning, interesting right News to me. But Ebola scared the crap out of me because of the way it was presented and then when COVID came out, scared the crap out of us. We were disinfecting our groceries with Lysol. I wore gloves. I wore gloves to the gas station. I know Like it was insane the stuff we were doing and now we don't have that fear.

Speaker 1:

If there was going to be something else that was coming our way at this point after COVID, after we know what we know now, we would not be reacting in that type of fashion.

Speaker 2:

No, and I think there's still a lot of fear-mongering that exists, presented from both sides, I will say, because there's a lot of conservatives out there who are presenting fear about mass blackouts and the grid going down and World War III coming and access to food and water and groceries and gas and shortages and all this stuff to try and create chaos. And I will say I do believe that something like that is possible, because I lived through 2020. And I think 2020 and the pandemic was a very purposeful create chaos at an election year. I totally believe that that's true. So it's not that I don't believe those things could come, but I think buying into the fear as a response to those things no longer really exists for us. You know, I think we prepare in a different way, but I think we keep a very level head of, like look at the big picture, why is this happening? Who's behind it, you know, and what can we control? You know.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think if those things do happen, we've got there's a level of, there's a there's a very big level of critical thinking skills and questions that you have to ask before you jump to any type of conclusion, especially on big events type thing, and you have proven to be very good at asking you. I see the headline and you're like, yeah, but who funded it? And I'm like look at the timing

Speaker 2:

look at the pattern of when these things occur right, yeah, these are all great things that you bring to the table, that I've just, you know, nobody's taught to think that way yeah, well, once you realize that the media is really entertainment networks and they thrive off ratings and they get you know advertisement money and it's based off viewership and ratings, like it's all a game. Yeah, it's just a reality show.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, all right.

Speaker 2:

Next one needs to be a little more lighthearted, I think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, tell some jokes, bring a joke book.

Speaker 2:

We just got one for Scarlett.

Speaker 1:

All right, cool, all right. Well, thanks for listening to this one Founding a value in the show. Please share it. We'll catch you in the next one.