Thread by @donmoyn

New Pew survey: Republicans have negative view of higher education because they think professors are brainwashing the kids and protecting them from controversial view 1/

The belief that students are snowflakes and professors are Marxists is held most strongly by older adults, i.e. people whose information does not come from direct experience, but from Fox News 2/

Suspicion of higher ed is also highest among white males who have not attended college. Again, no direct experience. These opinions are being formed by something else, which is a media demonization of higher education. 3/

Media attack on higher ed includes orgs like Turning Point, which launders dark money into attacks on higher education. Trump, his family & admin have helped elevate Turning Point's profile via appearances at their events 4/
threadreaderapp.com/thread/9824042…

Fox dedicates so much effort attacking campuses across its program, that its branded it as "campus craziness" 5/ insider.foxnews.com/tag/campus-cra…

Fox & Turning Point know what they are doing: undermining universities as an institution because they view them as political opponents, just like unions. But many moderates have also signed onto this agenda in the belief they are protecting free speech 6/
truthdig.com/articles/new-y…

Cue another round of articles about the crisis of legitimacy in higher education that ignore how this crisis has been constructed. College campuses have not changed much over the last couple of years. Media coverage of them has & thats what is driving change in perceptions 7/

There are plenty of legitimate complaints to make about higher ed, like any industry. But its an industry that generates many good jobs across the country, and is one of the reasons the US attained global dominance after WWII. 8/

At a time when other countries are spending billions to try to create something as productive as US higher ed, some people in the US are doing all they can to piss away our strategic advantage to own the libs. 9/