Closeted Tories
In the UK, university students who vote Tory live in a closet, where some of them hate themselves:
Because these young Tories are not out and proud blues – they’re firmly stuck in the political closet.
“I voted Tory but I’m very much keeping it on the down-low,” says a friend who’s so embarrassed by her ballot choice that she wants to remain anonymous.
“I can’t tell anyone because I’m working at a school where everyone thinks they’re elitist t***s.”
More:
These ‘secret Tories’ are scared of rocking the boat, not just out of fear of what their peers will think, but out of a sense of self-respect.
A 21-year-old student at Birmingham University tells me: “As a student, and a quite liberal minded person, I was (and still am) conflicted in casting a Tory vote and did consider spoiling the ballot. But at the end of the day I wanted to have a more concrete say in the governing of my country.”
As a young ‘liberal’ person, she’s terrified of being seen as a close-minded Tory, and she’s not alone.
The problem is that these ‘secret Tories’ are plagued by the deeply-rooted stereotype that all young people are leftie activists, and anyone who isn’t must be a ‘posh racist who hates poor people’.
What kind of twisted, tyrannical political culture demonizes people for voting not for some neo-Nazi party, but for the mainstream Conservatives? And what kind of twisted, tyrannical political culture teaches them to hate themselves for being political dissenters?
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