5 ms·

98% of professors who register a party register democrat. Which party do you think given that data?

by anoxor 5y ago

ahahahahah 5y ago
What a bullshit madeup statistic: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification-of-college-professors-by-field_tbl1_40823273 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification... And, as the parent implied, it's shifted significantly for economics professors.
- edbob 5y ago
  The statistic is on the high side of the range, but it is accurate. > When exploring the makeup of Ivy League institutions and universities in New England, results, such as the case with Brown University, were as high as 60:1 in favor of registered Democrats among professors. As chuckee linked a bit down the page: [0] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto...
  - ahahahahah 5y ago
    So the most liberal single university (out of a group picked one of the most liberal regions in the country) matches a statistic that was claimed to be across all universities in the country. I don't know that that's strong evidence that the "statistic [...] is accurate". Even the source you linked indicates that the statistic is far from accurate (and again has the same pattern where for economics professors it's even less).
    - edbob 5y ago
      It's not the best use of statistics that I've ever seen by a long shot, but I just wanted to point out that your claim that it was "bullshit madeup" was inaccurate flamebait. He didn't say which subset of universities he saw that statistic for. The group of "most liberal universities in the country" includes what, all of the most wealthy and important ones? It's certainly a reasonable subset to consider. The 98% figure is pretty close here (for the group as a whole, not just one like you claim). You need stronger evidence to attack someone like that, and you don't have it, partially because we don't even know what exactly the scope of the claim was. You could certainly criticize the vagueness of the statement without being toxic.
- mieses 5y ago
  Your source data is 16 years old. The "long march through the institutions" continues as faculty retire or are pushed out.
mcv 5y ago
The Democratic party doesn't have a single party line and includes political left and right ideologies. Socialists and progressives are a minority, and much of the party still supports right-wing neoliberalism. If your point is that professional truth-seekers (what scientists and academics are supposed to be) avoid the Republican party in its current state, I'd say it should be pretty obvious why that is.
- anoxor 5y ago
  I would like to point out the underlying thought behind your comment - that truth is more on the left then right. If a professor doesn't tow the line, they will lose their funding, reputation, and job. As someone who was a chemistry professor with great reviews for the majority of a decade, and left after being told by the dean of science that "it's not advantageous that you are a white scientist" and "you came from a well educated family right?" (I didn't). This came after years of increasing discomfort with the state of college education. I wasn't and still am not a republican - I see myself much more comfortable as critical of the left. The political left in college environments is now super unhealthy since it's the vast majority of the professorate - to the point that ideas that can be associated with the right are simply wrong if not morally repugnant. Do you agree that any disparity is evidence of racism, and that policies either increase disparity (and are racist) or decrease disparity (and therefore anti-racist)? That was the current discussion when I left the field. For example I'll pull from the nytimes discussion (not a right leaning news source) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/nyregion/covid-vaccine-black-young-new-yorkers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/nyregion/covid-vaccine-bl... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/world/boston-mayor-janey-vaccine-passport.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/world/boston-mayor-janey-... Are new york vaccine mandates racist since they disproportionately effect BIPOC? This type of discussion was so far removed from science and so deeply held that anything other than full acceptance of that was career suicide. At the college I worked at, the 80%+ of the faculty I worked at was female, 80%+ of the department heads were female, 80%+ of the deans were female, 80%+ of the VPs were female, the college president was female, and the majority of the students were female. Female was considered diverse in hiring and diversity was considered very important. To your comment, I was trying to be a truth-seeker as a scientist and academic, and I left the academia because it stopped seeking truth in an honest way.

98% of professors who register a party register democrat. Which party do you think given that data?

by anoxor 5y ago

98% of professors who register a party register democrat. Which party do you think given that data?

What a bullshit madeup statistic: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification-of-college-professors-by-field_tbl1_40823273 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification... And, as the parent implied, it's shifted significantly for economics professors.

edbob 5y ago
The statistic is on the high side of the range, but it is accurate. > When exploring the makeup of Ivy League institutions and universities in New England, results, such as the case with Brown University, were as high as 60:1 in favor of registered Democrats among professors. As chuckee linked a bit down the page: [0] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto...
- ahahahahah 5y ago
  So the most liberal single university (out of a group picked one of the most liberal regions in the country) matches a statistic that was claimed to be across all universities in the country. I don't know that that's strong evidence that the "statistic [...] is accurate". Even the source you linked indicates that the statistic is far from accurate (and again has the same pattern where for economics professors it's even less).
  - edbob 5y ago
    It's not the best use of statistics that I've ever seen by a long shot, but I just wanted to point out that your claim that it was "bullshit madeup" was inaccurate flamebait. He didn't say which subset of universities he saw that statistic for. The group of "most liberal universities in the country" includes what, all of the most wealthy and important ones? It's certainly a reasonable subset to consider. The 98% figure is pretty close here (for the group as a whole, not just one like you claim). You need stronger evidence to attack someone like that, and you don't have it, partially because we don't even know what exactly the scope of the claim was. You could certainly criticize the vagueness of the statement without being toxic.
mieses 5y ago
Your source data is 16 years old. The "long march through the institutions" continues as faculty retire or are pushed out.

mcv 5y ago

The Democratic party doesn't have a single party line and includes political left and right ideologies. Socialists and progressives are a minority, and much of the party still supports right-wing neoliberalism. If your point is that professional truth-seekers (what scientists and academics are supposed to be) avoid the Republican party in its current state, I'd say it should be pretty obvious why that is.

anoxor 5y ago
I would like to point out the underlying thought behind your comment - that truth is more on the left then right. If a professor doesn't tow the line, they will lose their funding, reputation, and job. As someone who was a chemistry professor with great reviews for the majority of a decade, and left after being told by the dean of science that "it's not advantageous that you are a white scientist" and "you came from a well educated family right?" (I didn't). This came after years of increasing discomfort with the state of college education. I wasn't and still am not a republican - I see myself much more comfortable as critical of the left. The political left in college environments is now super unhealthy since it's the vast majority of the professorate - to the point that ideas that can be associated with the right are simply wrong if not morally repugnant. Do you agree that any disparity is evidence of racism, and that policies either increase disparity (and are racist) or decrease disparity (and therefore anti-racist)? That was the current discussion when I left the field. For example I'll pull from the nytimes discussion (not a right leaning news source) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/nyregion/covid-vaccine-black-young-new-yorkers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/nyregion/covid-vaccine-bl... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/world/boston-mayor-janey-vaccine-passport.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/world/boston-mayor-janey-... Are new york vaccine mandates racist since they disproportionately effect BIPOC? This type of discussion was so far removed from science and so deeply held that anything other than full acceptance of that was career suicide. At the college I worked at, the 80%+ of the faculty I worked at was female, 80%+ of the department heads were female, 80%+ of the deans were female, 80%+ of the VPs were female, the college president was female, and the majority of the students were female. Female was considered diverse in hiring and diversity was considered very important. To your comment, I was trying to be a truth-seeker as a scientist and academic, and I left the academia because it stopped seeking truth in an honest way.