I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views
As someone who grew up in a strongly red area and with beliefs in that vein, I know EXACTLY the kind of exclusion that the author is talking about to a painful degree. For anyone who wants to experience it, walk into any Reddit discussion and tell everyone you&#x27;re a devout Christian and watch the pseudo intellectuals exercise their &quot;openness.&quot;<p>And yes it&#x27;s true I&#x27;m far from the most religious person there is, and I strongly believe in birth control, women&#x27;s rights, on and on, I am constantly assumed to be some Bible-thumping redneck by anyone who doesn&#x27;t know me. It also doesn&#x27;t help that I regularly enjoy working with my hands, building things, fixing things, which mind you when it comes to many things to fix there&#x27;s a great deal of intelligence required, but because it&#x27;s not the fancy coastal intelligence that gets you six figure jobs I&#x27;m assumed to be an idiot.<p>And then people wonder why Middle America has such a disdain for the cultures and intellectual achievement, after they&#x27;ve spent their entire learning lives being told how dumb they are by the snobs, most of whom can&#x27;t even swap a tire for a donut without calling AAA.<p>&lt;&#x2F;rant&gt;