College Conservatives Are Thriving

"College campuses today have a reputation for being hostile to right-leaning students. As a recent graduate who became a conservative in college, I can't say I entirely agree. Yes, we're outnumbered, and yes, our ideas often get disregarded. Being a conservative might be socially disadvantageous. But if you want to know where the real political energy is on campuses, it's on the right."

"The recent killing of Charlie Kirk, and the flood of interest in his organization, Turning Point USA, has drawn attention to college students' appetite for conservative ideas. I was not particularly inspired by Kirk in my personal ideological transformation as a student at Stanford University; Turning Point didn't have much of a presence on campus while I was there. But one principle he stood for-the celebration of debate, of a marketplace of ideas-is what first appealed to me about the right."

"whether about socialism or Plato or the Quran, felt highly delicate, as if everyone was afraid of offending everyone else. Rather than "I disagree with so-and-so," it was more socially acceptable to say "piggybacking on so-and-so's point," even if there was a disagreement. When I finally found someone willing to have an extended intellectual debate with me-my problem-set partner for a logic course-I was interested to learn that he was a staff writer at the Stanford Review, the conservative publication on campus."

A recent graduate became a conservative while attending Stanford and found that conservative students generated disproportionate political energy on campus despite being outnumbered. Conservative organizations like Turning Point USA attracted significant interest, and the celebration of debate and a marketplace of ideas drew students. The graduate initially joined leftist groups but observed classroom debates as overly delicate and hesitant to contradict peers. A rigorous intellectual debate with a conservative student and involvement with conservative campus publications revealed a contrasting culture that valued open disagreement and debate, contributing to revitalized conservative activism on campus.

Read at The Atlantic