Conservative student urges others to speak up now against ‘liberal indoctrination’ before it’s too late

Some college students are speaking out after a recent poll found only 18% of people ages 18-34 consider themselves “extremely proud” to be an American. 

A separate report from Politico showed that 38 of America’s 171 college towns have flipped blue since 2000, and 117 of these towns have grown more Democratic overall. 

Campus Reform correspondents and students William Biagini, Lena Branch, and Kale Ogunbor joined “Fox & Friends” Wednesday to discuss how this has affected conservative students on college campuses and what needs to be done to bring the value of patriotism back to young people. 

Obungor, a student at Penn State University, said a lot of Gen Z gets their information from social media, combined with left-wing “rhetoric” from college professors.

IN MAINE, A PROPOSED $1B PATRIOTIC PARK WILL FEATURE 1,776-FOOT TALL FLAGPOLE

The flag of the United States of America. (iStock)

Obungor said she believes colleges view Generation Z as “default Democrats” and said this is reflected by college campuses like UC-Santa Barbara, where they held “workshops for white privilege and microaggressions.”

Biagini, a student at Florida State University said, “I’ve seen firsthand the effects of what liberal indoctrination and higher education does to people.” 

“While reporting for the Leadership Institute’s campus reform last year, I was shouted down by dozens of protesters and told to go kill myself and die alone simply for being a conservative,” said Biagini. 

“What this shows is that professors are perpetuating both anti-American sentiments, as well as liberal indoctrination in the classroom, and it’s conditioning students to mindlessly scream at anybody else with an opposing viewpoint rather than think for themselves.”

Branch suggested that in order to bring back patriotism and well-informed voters, civics should be taught in the classroom again.

Branch, a student at the University of Iowa, said the problem starts “all the way down to elementary school.”

“I could ask my peers about the economy or the border, and they would know nothing. We have to kick out DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the classrooms. My Board of Regents just recently did that, and I’m so proud of them for looking into that wasteful spending, as they say. And it’s time to get American history back in the classrooms and get this DEI funding and programs out of college institutions.”

Obungor called on other conservative students to speak out now to try to stem the tide.

“If you don’t speak out now, I don’t expect how conservatives our age are going to be able to speak out in 10, 15, 20 years. It’s better to have a civil conversation with someone that might not agree with you at the expense of maybe your social standing than it is to be led by these leftists, people in our generation coming down the line,” she warned. 

According to the Gallup poll, 39% of adults expressed “extreme” pride in the United States of America, only one percentage point higher than 2022’s record-low number. The number was four points higher in 2021 and 16 points higher when Gallup first asked the question in 2001, growing as high as 65%-70% in the years following the 9/11 attacks. 

Meantime, a Fox News poll showed 48% of Americans think the nation’s best days are behind us, while only 43% think the best days are ahead of us. The pessimism has risen since 2012 when only 26% of Americans thought the best days were behind us. 

The latest findings, from a June 1-22 Gallup poll, show 60% of Republicans and 29% of Democrats expressing “extreme” pride in being American. The number for independent voters came in at 33%, the lowest recorded figure.

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Elizabeth Heckman is a digital production assistant with Fox News.