# A conservative in a liberal domain? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 13, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056 "2016-04-13T02:39:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/41 "2016-04-13T17:47:03Z")
Some conservatives/right-wingers are really into the naturopathy/nutrition/organic/non-GMO/cleanse/detox thing, like many a San Francisco liberal. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/42 "2016-04-13T18:21:47Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Social work is an odd category. Most social workers I’ve known are as liberal as can be. I mean the category itself seems to scream for big government, universal health care, food stamps and a lot of other things that slot right into the left-wing agenda. > > But I’ve also met a surprising number of social workers who are religiously conservative, who feel that charity is best performed by private organizations, etc. Philosophically, they see their role primarily as helping individuals rather than helping society. I’ve noticed that on some issues, they at least aren’t bleeding hearts. When you deal with deadbeats who manage to game the system for benefits or people who probably shouldn’t be in charge of kids, it becomes harder to be sympathetic all the time. > [@bobot](#): > > Didn’t Ann Coulter claim to be/have been a Deadhead? Aiko! :eek: Good point, there are some prominent conservatives who are into “liberal” things. [Grover Norquist had a blast at Burning Man](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/my-first-burning-man-grover-norquist). Then there are the “ex-liberal” types like homeopath Michael [del]Weiner[/del] Savage. Punk rock is generally left wing as all get-out, but there are some notable conservatives (or just not far left). Johnny Ramone is the most common example. Some bands’ lyrics or crowd banter aren’t much different from a revival meeting, just replace “Jesus” with “NAFTA.” ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/43 "2016-04-13T18:58:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Is that Korean? What does it mean? It’s from a song that the Dead covered. Here’s The Dixie Cup’s version. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5Yrt3Pnk9qA/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AGQBYAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLAUduVLWh9YrT7NL4nHzaY8X1bqKQ "The Dixie Cups - Iko Iko") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yrt3Pnk9qA) ---
**Author:** ![Phu\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Phu\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phu_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/44 "2016-04-13T20:06:57Z")
\*The further right a person is, the more likely they are to preach it. \* Ironiclly Eschereal, I just ran across a pickup truck with: “100% LESBIAN” in blazing colors across the back window of her truck’s topper. Phu Cat ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/45 "2016-04-14T00:40:39Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > How many engineers have you actually worked with? Two? > > Everyone knows that engineers tend to be conservative. Hundreds from the USA, Japan, Switzerland, etc > [@Surreal](#): > > That survey found that 47.4% of engineers describe themselves as being Conservative, while only 11.9% identified as being Liberal. In other words engineers are almost _4 times_ as likely to identify as Conservative than Liberal. > > What was your point again? That’s a nice survey, but there’s self selection bias in terms of magazine readership and survey responders. If anything the survey shows older people’s opinion, which is clearly correlated with political leaning. In the current company that I work for the average engineer age is 32, and you won’t find a single conservative opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/46 "2016-04-14T00:46:50Z")
But if engineering is a liberal field, then that proves the point. This thread is about conservatives entering liberal fields. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/47 "2016-04-14T00:48:23Z")
On the topic of higher education, I think there are certain topics in which a conservative professor could get away with being conservative - especially history, for instance. A conservative professor could speak about the Cold War, World War I, the czars, the rise and fall of Nazism, and World War II, etc. and have his views tolerated; maybe even applauded. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/48 "2016-04-14T02:00:01Z")
> [@Phu\_Cat](#): > > _The further right a person is, the more likely they are to preach it._ > > Ironiclly Eschereal, I just ran across a pickup truck with: “100% LESBIAN” in blazing colors across the back window of her truck’s topper. Well, but that tendency to proclaim their stance may be independently a trait of pickup-truck drivers… (And if there’s a gun rack in the cab, nobody’s gonna say a thing about it.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/49 "2016-04-14T02:00:44Z")
The null hypothesis would be that engineering field follows the same trend as the population at large (and really, any and all other subspecialties). To prove otherwise you need quality data to back up any assertion like that. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/50 "2016-04-14T02:10:46Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > The null hypothesis would be that engineering field follows the same trend as the population at large (and really, any and all other subspecialties). To prove otherwise you need quality data to back up any assertion like that. Like, a survey of engineers? Damn, wasn’t there something like that around…post 32? Unless, of course, your personal anecdote should be the “quality data” to which you refer. (For the record, I worked for a company that taught FE and PE prep courses. My experience backed up the survey cited in Post 32. Engineers hold a particular disdain for liberal idealism.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/51 "2016-04-14T02:20:38Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I hear that a lot of doctors are conservative Republicans, even though you’d expect health care to be a mostly liberal-folk field. Not if they’re in it for the money. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/52 "2016-04-14T02:25:13Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Every doctor of mine who has mentioned politics has been a Republican. Doctors I have known have been 50/50. It also depends on the field. > **[Profiles in Happiness: Which Physicians Enjoy Life Most? - Page 5](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/760127_5)** ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/53 "2016-04-14T02:30:08Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > A lot of academia is so heavily slanted that conservatives more or less pretend to be “normal”. And some universities’ definition of normal can be wildly left-wing. Yes, yes we do. Working for a university means most of your coworkers are liberals, and they invariably assume _all_ of theirs are. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/54 "2016-04-14T02:38:38Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Media I can understand being thought of as mainly liberal, but why do you think doctors or engineers would be mainly liberal? My take on this is that it probably varies regionally. I went to medical school in a “blue” area, and it seemed like I was the only conservative. Though my sample was skewed toward medical students (most of whom have never yet worked for a living) and academic attendings. But still, one would have thought that denouncing George W. Bush for being some kind of right-wing extremist who wanted to turn America into a theocracy was a fundamental tenet of the Hippocratic Oath. > [@opossum](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get Velocity’s statement at all. In the US, physicians are generally well-educated small-business owners/partners with high incomes. With the exception of plaintiff’s trial lawyers and criminal defense lawyers, I would expect most people in that category to be conservative – i.e., most doctors, dentists, veterinarians, engineers, accountants, lawyers and so on. Someone else already answered this upthread with reference to physicians’ education levels, but doctors are SWPLs–they’ve got that “urban sophisticate” mentality. I overheard plenty of med school classmates saying they could only ever stand to live in places like Boston, New York, or San Francisco, because they couldn’t stand to live among those awful Bible-thumping rednecks in flyover country. Also, while it’s true that traditionally doctors were small business-owners and thus would lean right economically, more and more are becoming hospital employees. I couldn’t find any good numbers through quick Googling, but I believe it’s approaching 50% if not already higher. > [@eschereal](#): > > My genetal experience with professionals such as doctors is that the more “liberal” ones just go about their business. The more “conservative” ones seem inclined to let you know about their opinions. You never notice the “liberals” because the do not typically feel the need to spew. > > That is how it is around here, anyway, and it is pretty widespread. The further right a person is, the more likely they are to preach it. Again, I suspect this varies geographically, because my experience has been the exact opposite; the liberals have been the ones who “spew.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/55 "2016-04-14T02:39:36Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Like, a survey of engineers? > > Damn, wasn’t there something like that around…post 32? > > Unless, of course, your personal anecdote should be the “quality data” to which you refer. > > (For the record, I worked for a company that taught FE and PE prep courses. My experience backed up the survey cited in Post 32. Engineers hold a particular disdain for liberal idealism.) neither magazine surveys nor anecdotes are quality data. I’m just saying that the overriding trend in the general population is a left-right correlation to young-old spectrum, and any subpopulation will follow this trend, unless there’s quality data to back a different trend. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/56 "2016-04-14T02:40:46Z")
> [@Phu\_Cat](#): > > \*The further right a person is, the more likely they are to preach it. > > - > > Ironiclly Eschereal, I just ran across a pickup truck with: “100% LESBIAN” in blazing colors across the back window of her truck’s topper. > > Phu Cat One, huh? She needs to yell really loud for all of us to hear her. ETA: And I know plenty of conservative types that are into “essential oils.” I think the reason their is a more rigid gender issue (and natural, as in from God = good!), so it does skew conservative here in the south. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/57 "2016-04-14T03:41:02Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > No. > > Just. No. Not even remotely close to the actuality of the situation. #firsthandexperience [engineers](http://machinedesign.com/news/politics-engineers) say they are more likely to be Republican (42.1%) or Independent (33.7%) voters, as opposed to Democrats (14.5%). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/58 "2016-04-14T04:58:33Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > [engineers](http://machinedesign.com/news/politics-engineers) say they are more likely to be Republican (42.1%) or Independent (33.7%) voters, as opposed to Democrats (14.5%). :rolleyes: Already addressed. Please try to catch up to the conversation. Young people don’t read magazines much less be arsed to participate in political surveys. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/59 "2016-04-14T05:00:27Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > 24 posts and no one has mentioned the SDMB?!?! 😉 Further [grist for the mill](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=788432). Highlights from the linked poll: [ul] [li]I side with Sanders greater than 88%: Greater than 64% percent of the respondents. (At least 81 for that question—I’m not sure how to characterize three of the responses)[/li][li]I side with Clinton greater than 88%: Greater than 51% of the respondents.[/li] [li]I side with Cruz less than 34%: About 41% of the respondents.[/li] [li]I side with Trump less than 50%: About half of the respondents.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056/60 "2016-04-14T13:49:26Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > :rolleyes: > Already addressed. Please try to catch up to the conversation. Young people don’t read magazines much less be arsed to participate in political surveys. Do you have proof that young people not only won’t participate in surveys but that they’re universally liberal, especially engineers? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-conservative-in-a-liberal-domain/752056.md?page=4)