Young Americans might be trending straighter these days, but recent polling indicates that some of their minds are still twisted.
According to the Yale University-based Buckley Institute's 2026 National Undergraduate Study, undergraduate students — self-identified liberals in particular — are increasingly a censorious, thin-skinned bunch who not only entertain anti-American views but are warming up to socialism.
'The 14-point spread in favor of socialism is the largest in the five years the question has been asked.'
Pollsters with Inquire LLC found in their survey of over 800 students that while 87% of respondents agreed that the First Amendment is important and needs to be followed and respected in today's society, a record high 49% of undergraduate students overall said that they favor their college or university "having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty." A majority of liberal students — 53% — were on board with speech regulation on college campuses.
When asked whether they would avoid taking a class with a professor who publicly shared opinions they disagreed with, 55% of liberal students, 33% of moderates, and 33% of conservatives confirmed that they would steer clear.
Whereas 27% of conservative students said that they could not bring themselves to be "close friends with someone who affiliates with a different political party," 65% of liberal students said that they keep their friend groups politically homogeneous.
A plurality of liberal students (47%) said that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution. Only 24% of conservatives and 34% of moderates agreed with the proposition.
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MELISSA MAJCHRZAK/AFP via Getty Images
As for the use of physical violence to prevent someone from uttering so-called hate speech or making "racially charged comments," 45% of all respondents said it was justifiable.
When broken down by ideological affiliation, a majority of liberals were once again in the extreme camp, with 54% agreeing that violence is sometimes warranted. Only 30% of conservatives and 36% of moderates agreed.
Perhaps more troubling, when asked about the Turning Point USA founder's assassination last year at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, 38% of liberal respondents agreed with the statement, "Charlie Kirk's rhetoric was harmful and threatening to many people. It should not be a surprise that his words had consequences."
Seven percent of conservative students similarly agreed with the statement, which effectively justifies Kirk's murder.
Only 13% of all respondents overall said that Kirk's rhetoric "was neither harmful nor threatening and that his assassination is a bad sign for public discourse on college campuses."
Unsurprisingly, a majority (58%) of the liberal cohort that appeared receptive to both censorship and political violence said that they prefer to live under a socialist regime. Fifty-seven percent of liberals also said that socialist countries like Cuba and the former Soviet Union "offer a better economic model than capitalist countries like the United States."
Nineteen percent of conservatives and 28% of moderates also chose socialism over capitalism, according to the survey. On the question of whether countries like the failed Soviet Union and failing Republic of Cuba offer preferable economic models to the U.S., 32% of moderates and 53% of conservatives said they disagreed.
"The 14-point spread in favor of socialism is the largest in the five years the question has been asked and only the third time socialism has led capitalism," the Buckley Institute said. "The only major demographic groups that favored capitalism over socialism were conservatives and Asian students."
Not only have liberal undergraduate students idealized failed states where food scarcity is the norm, they have adopted cynical views about the promise of equality in America.
Fifty percent of all respondents — and 66% of liberal respondents — agreed with the statement that "America is inextricably linked to white supremacy and in general most minorities remain excluded from the American promise of equality."
When asked whether America "deserved September 11th" — an Islamic terrorist attack that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people, including children, and injured thousands more — a staggering 22% overall somewhat or strongly agreed, including 28% of liberals, 16% of moderates, and 17% of conservatives.
A vast majority — 72% — disagreed, 63% strongly so. Another 6% said they weren't sure.
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