It’s easy to get depressed when you contemplate America’s future. It will largely be in the hands of today’s college students, and they seem to be increasingly radicalized by the drumbeat of “progressive” stuff they hear about how horribly racist the country is, how we need to replace free enterprise with collectivism, how the planet is about to burn up unless we turn control over to environmental zealots, and so on.
How bad are things really?
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Joseph Knippenberg looks at a survey of student attitudes and comes away somewhat reassured.
For example: “Over 60 percent of students said they were very or somewhat proud to be American—52 percent of liberals, 87 percent of conservatives, and 62 percent of independent or apolitical students. 2024 was the first year that the liberal number was over 50 percent.”
My view: That’s a distressingly large percentage of young people who’ve been indoctrinated with leftist messaging about America as an evil country.
Knippenberg:
By a 2-1 margin (26-13), students say that their college experience has made their view of capitalism more negative. Surprisingly, conservative students say that their views have become more positive, albeit by a narrow margin (20-17). There are probably echo chambers inside and outside the classroom. You’re unlikely to find an English professor or an anthropologist who assigns The Wealth of Nations, but there are likely proponents of capitalism, properly understood, in the economics department and the business school.
My view: That’s worrisome — evidence that leftist propaganda about how awful capitalism supposedly is is getting through to lots of students. And, sadly, the anti-capitalist mentality that is imparted in many courses is rarely undone by econ or business-school profs, a majority of whom are interventionists who don’t much care for the free market.
Professor Knippenberg finds some reason for optimism here, but I don’t.