I actually created an account to chime in on this as a fairly recent aerospace grad.
When I started my degree I'd say I was a mix of type 1&2; progressive on LGBT+ issues as someone figuring out my non-het sexuality, and an "unaware" reactionary centrist probably from being privileged enough to consider politics boring.
The type-3 aero engineers, and exposure to new people from many different walks of life helped push me left. Almost as if I was reacting to the reactionaries. The further left I went, the more I was disgusted by those types of people. The kind who openly talk about military and missile tech as if it is the best thing humans produce. I'm still excited by advances in rocketry, I still love to watch Space X's launches because I've detached the technical side from the capitalist dystopia aspect. Behind those successful launches is the hard work of thousands of engineers like me, exploited by Musk.
Eventually, I became so repulsed by the nonchalance that even the moderate socdems displayed towards the military industrial complex that I decided not to pursue anything aerospace related whatsoever. Even if you work on a civil airliner, any amazing advancement you make will go right onto the next military jet whether you like it or not.
It was incredibly difficult during covid to find a job not in aerospace with my degree, but eventually got a paid research project on AI recycling sorting, before moving onto high speed rail systems.
I actually created an account to chime in on this as a fairly recent aerospace grad.
When I started my degree I'd say I was a mix of type 1&2; progressive on LGBT+ issues as someone figuring out my non-het sexuality, and an "unaware" reactionary centrist probably from being privileged enough to consider politics boring.
The type-3 aero engineers, and exposure to new people from many different walks of life helped push me left. Almost as if I was reacting to the reactionaries. The further left I went, the more I was disgusted by those types of people. The kind who openly talk about military and missile tech as if it is the best thing humans produce. I'm still excited by advances in rocketry, I still love to watch Space X's launches because I've detached the technical side from the capitalist dystopia aspect. Behind those successful launches is the hard work of thousands of engineers like me, exploited by Musk.
Eventually, I became so repulsed by the nonchalance that even the moderate socdems displayed towards the military industrial complex that I decided not to pursue anything aerospace related whatsoever. Even if you work on a civil airliner, any amazing advancement you make will go right onto the next military jet whether you like it or not.
It was incredibly difficult during covid to find a job not in aerospace with my degree, but eventually got a paid research project on AI recycling sorting, before moving onto high speed rail systems.