Thread by @biblioracle

For what it's worth, some additional context about a survey that the viewpoint diversity crowd is crapping themselves over this evening. Took me all of 10 minutes to look a little harder at the data and see how, as always, things are more complicated than they 1st appear.

First, this survey is produced by a NDSU university center that's funded largely by Koch money. There's dozens of these around the country. It's not nefarious, but they have a clear agenda behind their work. ndsu.edu/news/view/deta…

Second regarding that question about how students would respond to "offensive" speech, it's designed to be as vague as possible. There's no definition of what "offensive" is. It's purely in the eye of the beholder. An intentionally bad question.

If the survey were truly interested in understanding what's behind these attitudes, it would ask a simple open ended question of those who would report a professor for offensive speech. "Can you give an example of offensive speech that should be reported?"

But the survey doesn't ask that question, so we'll never know what students are thinking when they answer yes or no to reporting offensive speech. Lost opportunity there. Lost on purpose because it wouldn't be useful to the narrative.

There's all kinds of findings even in this dubious survey that tell a different story. For ex. the vast majority of students say "uncomfortable" material is fine.

An overwhelming majority of students support including readings they disagree with.

Vast majority of students don't think invited speakers should be withdrawn if students disagree with the speaker's views.

Here's a really interesting wrinkle. Students who believe that professors create a climate open to diverse views are MORE likely to say that offensive speech by a fellow student should be reported. Not sure how to interpret this, but it cuts against the snowflake narrative.

Another interesting tidbit. Liberal and Conservative students are nearly identical in believing things have gotten better over the last 50 years. I gets the libs haven't been taught to hate the country.

Liberal and Conservative students are nearly identical in the effect college has on their view of the future.

Major source of student optimism is their professors. Little difference by political affiliation.

Liberal students are more enthusiastic about the role of entrepreneurs than conservative students.

This should have the Kochs quaking in their boots. A full 1/3 of conservative students don't think capitalism can solve major societal problems.

Lastly, the sample is not particularly representative. White students are overrepresented (60% should be about 50%), as are private school students (38%, should be about 25%).

It's a shame this survey was written by bought and sold hacks because with a little more curiosity and care, they really could've told us something interesting. As is, it still is worth puzzling over, rather than jerking our knees to a single question/answer.