> the original discussion was regarding the notion that university prepares those who attend to fight fascism by being immune to propaganda or disinformation.
I'm neither defending nor disputing that notion. I'm just questioning the assumption that HN commenters are more enlightened as a group than university graduates.
> what I have witnessed and interacted with
Those are two different things. Passively watching the news, for example, doesn't count as having a discussion with university graduates; not to mention that the news isn't a representative sample. I was asking about your experience with discussions. And it feels like you're cherry-picking very specific issues, when of course university graduates have discussions about an extremely wide variety of issues, just as Hacker News commenters do.
> students largely convert to the university prevailing ideology and will follow it as dogma
What exactly do you think is the university prevailing ideology? Note that university administrators have mostly been vehemently, sometimes violently opposed to student protesters. In any case, nobody arrives at university as a blank slate. Students bring their preexisting views with them. Moreover, the student population is hardly uniform. You'll always find a significant number of conservative Christian students, for example, at any large university in the US. Somehow they escaped indoctrination (at university).
> Similarly those who study economics can only think of the world as money generating and revenue and begin to lack basic empathy of the human condition. -- It's like they've had critical thinking and nuance stripped. (this is a huge generalisation of course).
This is a huge stereotype of course. But you also have to ask yourself which students are attracted to the study of economics in the first place. Your major and coursework is mostly voluntarily chosen at college, which raises more questions about the "indoctrination" theory in general.
I'm neither defending nor disputing that notion. I'm just questioning the assumption that HN commenters are more enlightened as a group than university graduates.
> what I have witnessed and interacted with
Those are two different things. Passively watching the news, for example, doesn't count as having a discussion with university graduates; not to mention that the news isn't a representative sample. I was asking about your experience with discussions. And it feels like you're cherry-picking very specific issues, when of course university graduates have discussions about an extremely wide variety of issues, just as Hacker News commenters do.
> students largely convert to the university prevailing ideology and will follow it as dogma
What exactly do you think is the university prevailing ideology? Note that university administrators have mostly been vehemently, sometimes violently opposed to student protesters. In any case, nobody arrives at university as a blank slate. Students bring their preexisting views with them. Moreover, the student population is hardly uniform. You'll always find a significant number of conservative Christian students, for example, at any large university in the US. Somehow they escaped indoctrination (at university).
> Similarly those who study economics can only think of the world as money generating and revenue and begin to lack basic empathy of the human condition. -- It's like they've had critical thinking and nuance stripped. (this is a huge generalisation of course).
This is a huge stereotype of course. But you also have to ask yourself which students are attracted to the study of economics in the first place. Your major and coursework is mostly voluntarily chosen at college, which raises more questions about the "indoctrination" theory in general.