First of all – imagine quoting Richard Nixon for his wisdom.
J.D. Vance just got up at the National Conservatism Conference and literally said these words: “The professors are the enemy.”
There’s something bigger happening here that you need to understand.
People love to say that college makes you more liberal. And you know what? The data actually shows they’re right – but not for the reasons they think. It’s not some grand conspiracy of professors indoctrinating students. It’s way simpler than that.
Think about it – for many people, college is the first time they’ve ever left their hometown. Suddenly, you’re living with people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different beliefs. Your roommate might be from halfway across the world. The person sitting next to you in class might have grown up in completely different circumstances than you.
And here’s what happens – you start to realize that all these people you were taught to fear or judge? They’re just people. Just like you. Trying to figure out life, stressed about their next exam, missing their mom’s cooking.
But it’s not just about exposure to different people. College teaches you how to think critically. Not what to think – how to think. How to look at information and ask questions. How to challenge your own beliefs. How to back up your arguments with evidence.
And yes – you learn about history. Real history. Not the sanitized version we sometimes get in high school. You learn about social movements, about economic systems, about how society actually works. You start to understand systems and structures that you never even noticed before.
The thing is – when people say “college makes you liberal,” what they’re really saying is “understanding different perspectives and learning to think critically often leads to more progressive viewpoints.” And maybe that should tell us something.
When Vance calls professors “the enemy,” he’s not really attacking professors. He’s attacking the very idea of critical thinking and exposure to different perspectives. Because here’s the truth – if your political ideology can’t survive people learning how to think critically and being exposed to different viewpoints, maybe the problem isn’t with the education.
It’s like being mad at a mirror for showing you what you actually look like.
Look, college isn’t perfect. There are legitimate criticisms to be made about higher education – the cost, the accessibility, the focus on certain types of intelligence over others. But attacking it because it teaches people to think critically and exposes them to different perspectives? That’s not a bug – that’s a feature.
And if you’re wondering why some people are so scared of higher education? Maybe it’s because they know their ideas don’t hold up well to critical thinking and diverse perspectives.
This is proven to me every day when I post criticism of what’s happening right now – and conservatives can’t make any valid arguments supporting this administration’s decisions – they just see it as their side “winning” and act like they’re in the bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium and this is their opportunity to heckle the other side.
The irony is – they are too dumb to see that their feet are also chained to the sinking ship that they’re applauding.