Simple but valid question: "so what really defines a school as liberal vs conservative?"

[ucbalumnus]

@Much2learn

As an example, my daughter at Penn is definitely liberal, but she is annoyed by students who want to protest every silly thing. She thinks it devalues protests over bigger issues. Thankfully, Penn students tend to be a lot like her. This pragmatic approach also has allowed her to have a couple of good friends who are conservative and I think that is a good thing. They just don’t discuss politics.

Those who protest every silly thing tend to get an outsize share of the attention, though. That is what they want.

The same goes for conservatives, where those who promote ridiculous conspiracy theories or bigotry get the most attention. That is what they want.

But the end result is the general lowering of the level of political discourse to hateful sloganeering, where it is much less possible to discuss anything political without devolving into a shouting match.