The Unseen Political Bias in Higher Education | Vince Dao DSH #837

Summary

Digital Social Hour: The Unseen Political Bias in Higher Education | Vince Dao DSH #837

Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Vince Dao
Release Date: October 28, 2024

In episode #837 of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly engages in a profound conversation with Vince Dao, delving into the intricate layers of political bias within higher education. The discussion navigates through the evolution of racial dynamics in diverse environments, the polarization of political ideologies, the shifting landscape of college liberalism, and the imminent political climate shaping upcoming elections.

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1. Diversity and Racial Dynamics in Los Angeles

Vince Dao initiates the conversation by highlighting the intrinsic diversity of Los Angeles (LA) and its historical context regarding race relations.

Vince Dao (A) [00:01]: "LA is very diverse to begin with. It was never really a thing present in people's minds, of course, until race became so prevalent in society."

Sean probes into the factors contributing to the heightened awareness of racial issues, sparking a discussion on the intersection of politics and social media in amplifying societal divisions.

Sean Kelly (B) [00:11]: "Do you think it was because of politics?"

Vince Dao (A) [00:12]: "...social media kind of in some ways amplifies a bunch of social factors... that first of all polarized our politics and then secondly created the woke progressive that we talk about today."

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2. Political Polarization and the Rise of 'Woke' Progressives

The conversation transitions to the role of political figures and social media in fostering political polarization. Vince attributes the rise of "woke progressives" to a confluence of factors, including the influence of figures like Barack Obama and the amplification capabilities of social media platforms.

Vince Dao (A) [00:12]: "Obama sometimes playing into the racial stuff a lot... social media... amplified the most insane views because the most engagement... created the woke progressive that we talk about today."

Sean highlights the realization of the liberal tilt within academic institutions, referencing Charlie Kirk's observations.

Sean Kelly (B) [03:45]: "I never realized how liberal colleges were until Charlie Kirk."

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3. Experiences with Racism and Ethnicity

Vince shares his personal experiences growing up as part Asian and part white, reflecting on how his multicultural background influenced his social interactions.

Vince Dao (A) [01:05]: "...I grew up in Southern California and up until about 2015, 2016... race like genuinely didn't matter, or at least people acted like it didn't matter."

Sean contrasts this with his own experiences in New Jersey, where he faced overt racism.

Sean Kelly (B) [01:53]: "People were racist to me growing up... I thought most Asians got bullied growing up, but that's interesting that you didn't."

Vince recounts a childhood incident involving chopsticks in kindergarten, illustrating the subtle nuances of racial interactions.

Vince Dao (A) [02:00]: "...I brought chopsticks to school... a kid said something to me and I just... eat with a fork from now on."

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4. College Liberalism and Political Views

Vince discusses his current academic environment at the University of Florida's business school, noting a surprising scarcity of liberal classmates compared to his friends in humanities and political science.

Vince Dao (A) [04:06]: "I'm in the business school and to me it is actually very rare to run into a liberal."

Sean remarks on the general lack of liberals in entrepreneurial circles, mentioning Mark Cuban as an exception.

Sean Kelly (B) [04:32]: "You don't see many liberals in entrepreneurship other than Mark Cuban."

Vince expresses skepticism about Mark Cuban's political affiliations, suggesting possible ulterior motives behind his public support for Democratic figures.

Vince Dao (A) [04:55]: "...something is off about that whole relationship... very insincere to me."

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5. Shifts in Political Beliefs and Disillusionment with the Left

The dialogue delves into Vince's political evolution, tracing his support for Bernie Sanders during his youth to a gradual shift towards conservatism influenced by perceived changes within the Democratic Party.

Vince Dao (A) [05:53]: "I was a Bernie Sanders supporter... I was always sort of an anti establishment."

Vince recounts his disenchantment with Bernie Sanders post-2016, feeling betrayed by the candidate's alignment with party norms over anti-establishment values.

Vince Dao (A) [07:02]: "...I became more conservative over time... I felt very betrayed by that."

Sean empathizes, recalling the prominence of Bernie Sanders' campaign and questioning his sudden decline.

Sean Kelly (B) [08:00]: "I wonder what happened with him, because I remember that campaign. It was everywhere."

Vince critiques Sanders' and Biden's reluctance to fiercely oppose establishment figures, attributing it as a reason for their political stagnation.

Vince Dao (A) [08:08]: "...he really refused to do that, you know."

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6. Current Political Climate and Election Strategies

As the conversation approaches the impending election, Vince shares his cautiously optimistic outlook, emphasizing the importance of voter engagement and grassroots efforts.

Vince Dao (A) [08:51]: "The early voting numbers are looking very good for us in terms of the trends... the momentum is with Trump in the final weeks of the election."

Sean touches upon recent controversies undermining the integrity of the Democratic machine, referencing Governor Reed's actions in 2020.

Sean Kelly (B) [11:14]: "What your governor did in 2020 really destroyed the credibility of the Democrat machine."

Vince advises Donald Trump's team to meticulously pursue every possible vote, highlighting the significance of low-propensity voters in swing areas.

Vince Dao (A) [11:56]: "Chase every vote... nominate people to these areas to... give them a helping hand."

The discussion also critiques Kamala Harris' campaign strategies, suggesting a reactive shift driven by internal and public polling pressures.

Vince Dao (A) [10:07]: "They are suddenly realizing all of that... now they're in a panic mode."

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7. Conclusion

Sean and Vince wrap up the episode by reflecting on the fragile state of electoral integrity and the challenges facing the current political landscape. They underscore the necessity for vigilance and proactive strategies to ensure a fair and representative electoral process.

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Notable Quotes:

• Vince Dao (A) [00:12]: "Social media kind of in some ways amplifies the most insane views because the most engagement... created the woke progressive that we talk about today."

• Vince Dao (A) [05:53]: "I was a Bernie Sanders supporter... I was always sort of an anti establishment."

• Vince Dao (A) [11:56]: "Chase every vote... are going to loss, so we got to try."

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Key Takeaways:

• Racial Dynamics: LA's inherent diversity has historically masked overt racial issues, which have resurfaced due to political and social media influences.

• Political Polarization: The amalgamation of political figures and digital platforms has intensified political divisions, giving rise to highly progressive ideologies.

• Educational Institutions: There's a perceived liberal dominance in humanities and political science departments, while business schools exhibit more conservative tendencies.

• Political Evolution: Vince's journey from a Bernie Sanders supporter to a conservative reflects broader disillusionment with the Democratic establishment.

• Election Strategies: Effective voter engagement, especially in swing states, is crucial for influencing election outcomes amidst declining confidence in traditional polling methods.

This episode of Digital Social Hour offers a compelling exploration of the unseen political biases permeating higher education and their broader implications on society and upcoming electoral processes. Vince Dao's insights provide a nuanced perspective on navigating the complex interplay between race, politics, and education in contemporary America.

Transcript

[A]

I guess LA is very diverse to begin with. It was never really a thing present in people's minds, of course, until, you know, race became so prevalent in society.

[B]

Do you think it was because of politics?

[A]

Everyone knows when it happened, whatever it is, just started to something. I think about the combination of Obama sometimes playing into the racial stuff a lot. I think social media kind of in some ways amplifies a bunch of social factors I guess came together that first of all polarized our politics and then secondly created the woke progressive that we talk about today.

[B]

All right, guys, got Vince D. Here today. Fellow Asian. I know, let's go.

[A]

Although I don't have, I don't know what height jeans you have, but I. Not the Asian ones. I don't.

[B]

I'm half white.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, well, I, I'm part white too, but I'm Italian, so like I said, I got two short jeans. Yeah, like the short Italian.

[B]

I've never met an Italian Asian. That's a rare mix.

[A]

Yeah, it is a rare mix.

[B]

That's super cool.

[A]

Long story that goes back to the Vietnam War and a lot, a lot of, a lot of stuff.

[B]

That's awesome. Yeah. So I'm Irish, so we're close.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. Ireland, Europe.

[A]

The ways in power.

[B]

Which side did you lean more towards growing up?

[A]

You know, I would say like in the beginning it was more the Asian side, but I don't know, I never really live life like thinking about my race. If I was. To be totally honest. I grew up in Southern California and up until about 2015, 2016, I don't know, we were still sort of living in that old school liberalism where race like genuinely didn't matter, or at least people acted like it didn't matter. So I never really, for most of my life, honestly, it was like, yeah, I guess I'm Asian, I guess I'm white, but I'm American.

[B]

That's totally different than I was. People were racist to me growing up.

[A]

Really? Where'd you go?

[B]

New Jersey.

[A]

New Jersey? Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

I thought most Asians got bullied growing up, but that's interesting that you didn't.

[A]

Well, there was. I remember in kindergarten, it was because I, I brought chopsticks to school.

[B]

Oh, that's badass. In kindergarten. Yeah, that's cool.

[A]

But, and, and it's funny because my mom specifically told me, like, do not do that. Like I, I like your people are like, other kids can be like. But I was like, I did it anyway. And then like, I think one kid said something to me and I just Was like, okay, I guess I'll just eat with a fork from now on.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

But that was about it. Kindergarten, my whole life. And I don't even think for him it was a race thing, if I'm gonna be honest. It was just like, that's strange.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So like. But yeah, I mean, I guess L. A is very diverse to begin with, so it was never really a thing present in people's minds, of course, until, you know, race became so prevalent in society again, I guess.

[B]

But yeah. When did it become like that? Do you think it was because of politics?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people have their theories on what exactly happened, but everyone knows when it happened. Right. It's like the last few years of the Obama years is when we call it the woke. Back then we called it SJWs, whatever it is, just started to come out of the woodworks. I mean, I'd argue like far left radicals always existed in society. But something I think about the combination of Obama sometimes playing into the racial stuff a lot. Social media, I think social media kind of in some ways amplifies the most insane views because the most engagement and probably a little bit of a skew in the college campuses specifically, just kind of a bunch of social factors, I guess came together that first of all polarized our politics and then secondly created the woke progressive that we talk about today.

[B]

Yeah, I never realized how liberal colleges were until Charlie Kirk. Yeah, I mean, I really had no idea because I went to Rutgers and looking back on it now, it was very liberal.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To be honest.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Did you have that experience too when you went to college?

[A]

Well, I'm actually just finishing up college right now, but I mean, I go to the University of Florida, so.

[B]

Not really.

[A]

Not really. I mean, I'm in the business school and to me it is actually very rare to run into a liberal. But all my friends who are in humanities and political science, it's funny, we have like this different view of what the school is because they'll say, this school is so freaking liberal, you know, they're surrounded. And then in my classes, literally, like it's rare to find someone where you immediately can identify that they're a liberal. Most people are just non political. Most people are conservative, you know.

[B]

Yeah, well, you don't see many liberals in entrepreneurship other than Mark Cuban.

[A]

Yeah. And even, even him, you know, something is off about that whole relationship. Like I don't know if they have something on him or he like has a certain favoritism, like he's trying to get something out of the Democrat party or whatever it is. But I don't know, something about that whole relationship is very insincere to me.

[B]

There's a bias there. Because he was defending Kamala on Fox News last night, saying she did a great job. Yeah, but I watched it and I would say I'm pretty objective. Like, even though I obviously lean towards the right, I thought she did terrible. Yeah, Like, I thought, I thought it was obvious.

[A]

And even the fact that like her team was trying to end the interview early, I mean, that's the greatest indication that you can possibly get out there because.

[B]

Yeah, if it was going well, why would you end it early?

[A]

Yeah. But I mean, Mark Cuban has basically just became a campaign surrogate for Kamala. And it's just very strange because on one hand she's this progressive populist who's going to go after the billionaires, and then that was like one month of her candidacy and then the next month she's actually the capitalist who's going to be good for business and Mark Cuban's out there. It's very incoherent. Little sense.

[B]

But now, growing up in, in Cali, though, were you pretty liberal at first?

[A]

I, when I first, I like, I've been involved in politics since I was very young. Like in seventh grade, I was interested in. Because that was like 2015, 2016.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So when I first started out, I actually was a Bernie Sanders supporter.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So. But I was always, I, I, I would like kind of akin myself to Tulsi Gabbard. Like, I was always sort of an anti establishment. Also anti woke, like, kind of like pro working class leftist, I guess, because I remember back then, you know, Bernie Sanders on the social issues was not nearly as woke or as progressive as he is now. But specifically that summer, you know, I was very, I don't know, for some reason I liked Anonymous, I liked WikiLeaks. Like, I was just very anti establishment. I guess it was like my edgy.

[B]

Like, I think a lot. Right.

[A]

So when Hillary got the nomination, I was like full blown being on, I guess we'll say, like, I believed like the election was stolen from Bernie, you know, and I was sort of like neutral in the 2016 election, but I was kind of rooting for Trump to win because I would not support Hillary. So I was one of, I guess you could say those Democrats or leftists that didn't get behind Hillary in 16. And then when I got a little older, got into high school and stuff, I kind of just became more conservative.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Over Time. Yeah.

[B]

I feel like the access to information got easier as we got got older. Right now we could actually look at the real data where before they did a great job of hiding it through traditional media.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like, it was really hard to find the truth 10, 15 years ago.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I think I always had an inclination that the current system was broken. And I think in 2016 especially, Bernie Sanders was sort of the left wing version of Trump. Now I kind of felt like he, I guess, sold out to the party. And that's kind of the moment where he lost me originally was, you know, after all the things that Bernie's supporters believed about Hillary and how she was a total pawn of the establishment and she was going to bring us into World War iii. I remember when he got on that nomination stage at the DNC and didn't try to challenge or contest the convention for me, I was like, I felt very betrayed by that, you know, because I was like, oh, this guy isn't really the crazy anti establishment warrior that we thought he was. And I guess over time, yeah, I became disaffected with the left as a whole.

[B]

Wow. Yeah. I wonder what happened with him, because I remember that campaign. It was everywhere.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he just folded as soon as Hillary got involved, Right.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, because he's always been, I guess, a bit of a pushover, you know, same thing happened in 2020 with Joe Biden. And I remember one of the criticisms of him even used to be that he was so soft in debating, you know, because he's a very talented speaker and all, but, like, he would not really go on hardcore attacks against his opponents. And it's like when you're running against two of the biggest establishment politicians of all time, Hillary and Joe Biden. You know, you saw, you know, for Donald Trump how effective it was to go after Hillary, to go after Jeb, you know, and Bernie. I think one of the big downfalls of his career and why he never got a nomination is because he really refused to do that, you know, so.

[B]

Absolutely. Are you feeling good about this upcoming election?

[A]

I am. I mean, always nervous until the end. You know, in 2022, I was pretty confident and then that you saw it happen. So we should definitely shouldn't get complacent. But the early voting numbers are looking very good for us in terms of the trends, like which counties have higher turnout, lower turnout, that's in our favor. The polls shouldn't trust them as a whole. But the fact that the momentum is with Trump in The final weeks of the election. I think, you know, it's a very good sign. And clearly the Kamala campaign is in a bit of a panic as it is, because they are sudden. She never did interviews before. All of a sudden, they're trying to send her to do every interview as you can, you know, totally changing up the strategy. That, to me, suggests that they know they must see internal polls and probably the public ones, too, that show, okay, they're in pretty big trouble.

[B]

100. Like, why would she go on Fox News? That's like a really risky move.

[A]

Right. And they wouldn't be taking these risks if they didn't believe there was necessary. Right. It's actually, I think, on their part, a calculated risk because they know if we keep doing nothing, then we're going to lose, so we got to try. It's like throwing the hail Mary. It's a low percentage play, but maybe something will happen, you know? Yeah.

[B]

I think that strategy didn't work because Trump was going on so many shows that they were like, we know about Trump. What about Kamala? Like, let's see her on shows. So that kind of forced her to get on.

[A]

And it was just one of the big criticisms of her. You know, I was like, she doesn't put herself out there. And I think for a long time, honestly, Kamala has run a fundamentally arrogant campaign, when you really look at it. I don't need to do interviews. Why? They're not necessary. I have the Democrat machine on my side policies. Even their convention was like, first of all, they did it in Chicago, which I understand it's in the Midwest, but still, usually you do a convention in a swing state.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They didn't think they needed to write the Palestine protesters. They think they're a non factor. They didn't really even appeal to the independents. I thought that. Well, at their convention. So I think now suddenly they're realizing all of that. Now that the honeymoon phase and that surge is over, all of their arrogance is catching up to them. And now they're in a panic mode.

[B]

Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I'm worried about integrity still, for sure, because last election, obviously a lot came out after, and they don't really seem to be talking about how they're going to stop it at all. So that doesn't make me comfortable.

[A]

Too big to rig. Yeah, that's.

[B]

So hopefully things are good, though. I'm in a swing state this year, and I think we'll go. Right. But we'll see. I'm in Nevada. Yeah, Right. Now, Polymarket's looking good, Koshi. 60% right now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So we'll see what happens.

[A]

I think especially what your governor did in 2020 really destroyed the credibility of the Democrat machine. The Reed machine, it's called. Right? Yeah.

[B]

And there was a guy, I don't know if you saw this, he went on Patrick Bet David show with one of the machines and he rigged it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

He changed the ball on a podcast. He showed how easy it was to hack into it.

[A]

Unbelievable.

[B]

I mean, it's that easy if a random hacker can do it. You don't think the government can do that?

[A]

No, absolutely, absolutely.

[B]

Like, it's so easy. If you could tell Trump one thing, what would you tell him or ask him one thing?

[A]

Tell them or ask him either one.

[B]

Whatever's compelling you. Two weeks until the election.

[A]

That's a.

[B]

We're going to send this to him. I'm compiling everyone's answers.

[A]

Okay. Then I would say, you know, this is more to your team as well, but, you know, chase every vote. Like, don't leave anything for granted on the table. There's frankly millions of people in this country, believe it or not, who are still low propensity voters. And maybe they live in a small town in Wisconsin or something and they're not registered to vote or they are registered to vote, but, you know, maybe they're not going to do it. Whatever. Make sure you're sending people to these areas to, like, you know, give them a helping hand. Like, not obviously not do anything illegal, but, like, hey, are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote? Blah, blah, blah. Because I think all the little things that Kamala largely ignores, by the way, are going to make the difference. So chase every vote for sure.

[B]

Tops. Thanks for coming on, Vince. That was fun.

[A]

Appreciate it.

[B]

Yep. Boom.