Thanks for the read and comment, Rowan! To answer your question about academia, some recent research indicates that college professors are more liberal than the general population because they’re a subset of a group that tends to be more liberal — people with advanced degrees. At least that’s what this article I read some time back says: https://medium.com/the-faculty/is-the-american-professoriate-predominantly-liberal-82bf8da86bc

In my personal experience, I haven’t experienced or observed professors actively pushing any particular political ideology or agenda onto students. Of course, such things can, and do, happen. I agree with you, by the way, that college isn’t for everyone and many people would achieve their goals better through entering the workforce or obtaining some technical training. Thanks again for the thoughtful engagement!