Watch out for :fedposting: obviously.
My spouse works in medicine. A lib boomer doctor coworker of hers has been a family friend for decades. He and I would debate sometimes on Facebook. It never got too rowdy until about six months ago, maybe earlier. I can't remember what it was about, but I was probably going on and on about Biden sux, death to amerikkka, etc., etc. I think almost all of my Facebook friends, the vast majority of whom I had not spoken with in at least ten years, had muted me by then. But this guy came onto my wall and was just much more tenacious than usual. It sucked because I've known him forever, I genuinely like him, and I was literally in love with one of his kids for many years in school. The debate went on for several days. We never called each other names or insulted each other, but it was still pretty intense. My spouse's coworkers commented about it to her at work. I don't remember what they said, but I want to believe it was something like: "your unemployed commie husband is repeatedly bodying [respected doctor] on Facebook." She asked me to get off Facebook because she said it was endangering her job. I agreed to go, and actually I'm very happy that I did, since Facebook is a cesspit and echo chamber. Later we found out that the doctor was in the hospital with covid, and some nurses had seen him angrily typing a lot on his phone when we were debating. He recovered from covid AFAIK, while I have been off Facebook since then.
I'm so glad that in my field the acceptable range of opinion seems to range from Elizabeth Warren to Lenin. I have rainbow hammer and sickle stickers on my computer and water bottle, and my coworkers came up with the idea for my tattoo of a rat holding up a hammer and sickle. A random stranger in the elevator complimented my visible tattoo the other day so I showed her the hammer and sickle one and she thought it ruled.
What field is this? I want to change careers.
Neuroscience, and IME biology in general (outside of a couple specific places, agriculture has a lot of conservatives), although my experience is limited to a couple departments at one university.
None of this makes any money and everyone including the professors are incredibly mentally ill so it tends to encourage openness and cooperation.
When conservatives talk about universities being left wing strongholds there is a kernel of truth to it
I thought most academia was pretty left-leaning outside of things like business and economics. I wonder what makes agriculture chuddy---is it because it's farmer adjacent?
Edit: it's probably the money, isn't it.
Nah it’s not the money, farmer adjacent is exactly it. There is noooo money in ag science*. My boss had a PhD and made like $45,000 a year, and was against universal healthcare. But she grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, and since going to school her goal has been to get a position at some sort of outpost to get away from universities.
*In academia, there is more in private industry but then you’re working for fucking Monsanto and it’s still not great.
What about Monsanto and stuff?
Still not great compared to what you could be doing with that level of education in a similar field, but definitely more than in academia. Monsanto makes a lot of money, but that money goes to capitalists, not researchers.
And again I’m far from an expert on this, this is what I gathered from working in that field for a couple years and looking at potential future jobs.
My husband's experience in neuroscience was the polar opposite, very standard conservative academia, it might be down to the universities, then again this was 10 years ago.
Damn, I hope it’s been a systemic change and not just my school. It would be weird if we were a leftist bastion though seeing as what school it is.
Like I said, my experience is very limited and I’m just going on what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard from the people I work with.