From a reader:
Hi Jonah,
Maybe I’m a little too late to get in on this discussion. I’ve been
working all morning instead of reading the Corner… Nonetheless,
having wrested a physics PhD from Cornell in the recent past, I would
note that nearly all the physics graduate students with whom I was
acquainted were left-wingers. Ergo lots of future liberal PhDs. I
don’t have any explanation for this, but I don’t think it has anything
particularly to do with government funding for scientific research. As
a completely unscientific guess, let me propose two pillars that would
support the leftiness of science PhDs.
1. Unfamiliarity with any life where you don’t get paid reasonably
good money to go to school.
2. We solve terrifically hard problems all the time because we’re
really clever. We could immanentize the eschaton too if we just get
clever people like us in the government…