We're "millenial-ish" (in that, we're all between 25 to 40yrs old). I myself am not over 35 just yet.
> It’s a very different story if you try talking to people in their 20’s or younger.
Is it? We're old enough that half of us have kids, and some of us have teenaged kids (13-19yrs old), and they also have friends and such. It doesn't seem that different to me. (They're less willing to tolerate arbitrary BS, but otherwise, don't seem wildly different than we were at those ages)
Teenagers who haven’t gone to college yet won’t be that different. When they move out and live among peers and take courses from professors with views very different from home, you’ll see how things change!
> When they move out and live among peers and take courses from professors with views very different from home,
Why would professors have "views" all that different from home? Professors are regular people too.
(Two of us in our friend group / community, are literally employed college professors, others are elementary teachers, software developers, IT folks, one designer, one electrical engineer, two in marketing, one who is in HR, one is a city bus driver, one who works in an automotive parts plant, one is a nurse, etc)
You guys like, have friends, right? Like, people who you see semi-regularly and are from your community, but who aren't necessarily from your employer or in your career / direct field-of-work? Friends that aren't also LinkedIn contacts?
Professors are on average much more progressive and liberal than the average person and have a high amount of comfort and consequent belief privilege, so no I wouldn't say they're regular people. (Source: I'm a professor.)
> PhDs in industry or outside of the Academy are very different.
...but they all skew more liberal than those who have master's degrees, who in skew more liberal than those with honors degrees - and so forth until you get to those who are barely educated. This trend persists even when the individuals involved are not in academia.
I have lots of friends, of different ages! I'm in my late 30's and a mature (undergrad) student at my local university. I am telling you from first hand experience that the views of my classmates (all in their 20's) are very different from those of my age group (in their 30's).
> It’s a very different story if you try talking to people in their 20’s or younger.
Is it? We're old enough that half of us have kids, and some of us have teenaged kids (13-19yrs old), and they also have friends and such. It doesn't seem that different to me. (They're less willing to tolerate arbitrary BS, but otherwise, don't seem wildly different than we were at those ages)