Jason Y writes:
All of right-wingers will claim your liberal or socialist ideas came from college indoctrination. I’ve not seen any proof of that. Most college kids are only interested in making high grades or passing. They don’t really soak in any so called indoctrination.
Generally ,extremists of any sort develop from experiences in childhood or interaction with society. For instance, considering Lenin’s brother was executed, then it’s no wonder Lenin chose his path. Similarly, your typical right wing extremist often holds grudges from the Vietnam era, or maybe some black kid stole his lunch money.
It is possible that some may be radicalized in college, if not by professors then by fellow students. But I have been at universities in the past 35 years, and they were hardly places of radical indoctrination nor were most of the students particularly Leftist. Most of them had no politics at all. Those who encountered the Economics Department often ended up being brainwashed badly into reactionary Friedmanite Chicago School Economics. There are also some real reactionaries in Political Science Departments.
Most stuff comes from childhood though, or from parents. People simply absorb the politics of their family or of the community they grow up in. If you grow up in a rightwing place, you’re a rightwinger. If you grow up in a more liberal place, you might be more liberal. People don’t even make up their own minds. Their cultures make up their minds for them and people simply unthinkingly adopt the beliefs of their families or cultures.
