YouTube Transcript:
Political SOCIALIZATION [AP Gov Review_ Unit 4 Topic 2 (4_2)]

hey there and welcome back to heimlich's
history now i've been going through unit
4 of the ap government curriculum and in
this video that means it's time to talk
about political socialization so if
you're ready to get them brain cows
milked with them let's get to it so in
this video here's what we're trying to
do explain how cultural factors
influence political attitudes and
socialization so the real question here
is how is it that you and i come to
believe in one political ideology or
another and as much as i'd like to tell
you that all americans form their
political beliefs by spending hundreds
of hours pouring over complex works of
political science and delving into the
depths of various primary documents of
our national and constitutional origins
now there are a few people who do that
but in general most of us form our
political opinions based on humbler
factors and the process by which we form
our political opinions is called
political socialization so let's talk
about the six factors that work together
in our political socialization first and
foremost is the family and many studies
have borne out the truth that children
will often hold the same or similar
political opinions held by their parents
for example it probably won't surprise
you to know that politics is often a
discussion around the heimler dinner
table and my children pick these things
up maybe without even knowing it so if
you asked my six-year-old son which
political party deserves our vote then
you would no doubt hear this uh that's
complicated yes that is the right answer
my son i'm raising him right in fact in
2002 christopher aiken published a study
demonstrating that while experienced
adult voters considered a variety of
factors when it came to how they voted
younger voters casting their ballots for
the first time almost always relied on
the political ideology they picked up
from their parents i should say that
since the advent of social media this
connection has shown some signs of
weakening but even so the family remains
the biggest early influence on people's
political ideology okay the second
factor in political socialization is
schools and though there is no wealth of
evidence that suggests that students
become more conservative or more liberal
as a result of being in a k-12 class it
does have the potential to shape how a
student thinks about politics and
therefore the world there's some classes
like ap government or civics class that
directly shape how a student thinks
about politics but again back to the
point i just made these classes usually
don't make a student more conservative
or more liberal even with direct
exposure to these modes of thought but
there are also other factors in school
that while not directly engaging
students in political socialization do
influence their political beliefs
nonetheless in this day and age it is
the history classroom that has created a
political firestorm for example in 2019
the new york times released something
called the 1619 project which was a
series of resources that argued the
following every american institution is
tainted with racism because everything
was built whether politically
economically or socially on the
institution of slavery and some teachers
used this material in their history
classes well as you probably know such
an interpretation of u.s history is
politically contentious to say the least
such a perspective grows out of a
liberal liberationist mindset which
seeks to challenge the dominant
historical narrative and uplift the
voices and actions of those who have
been historically oppressed you can
imagine that as a student if you were
taught this it would have an influence
on your political ideology well in
response to this conservatives formed
the 1776 commission and produced
resources that explained u.s history
through a different lens u.s history was
not something to be ashamed of they
argued but rather something to be proud
of yes americans have had their
blemishes but ultimately american
history is filled with progress and the
advancement toward ever more freedom and
democracy and by contrast you can see
that if this was the version of history
you were taught it would have an
influence on your political ideology in
the opposite direction so schools both
in direct and indirect ways influence
our political socialization the third
factor in our political socialization is
our interaction with peers social
conformity plays a huge role in what a
person believes like if your peers all
hold to political ideology x and you
hold the political ideology why there is
a huge amount of social pressure even if
it's not direct to conform your beliefs
to the peer group a fourth factor in our
political socialization is the media
spending so much time in front of
screens has given people of all ages but
especially young people more access to a
wide range of viewpoints almost daily we
see people saying things in the public
square that shapes the way we think
about politics and we also see people
getting cancelled for offensive
statements and that can have a way of
convincing us that we don't want to be
on the other side of that counseling and
so we adjust our beliefs and language
accordingly additionally with the rise
in the last 20 years of cable news we've
seen a tremendous increase in
conservative and liberal pundits who
tell us with authority exactly how we
should think about everything that
happens look as long as i have any
platform to stand on i will always warn
anyone who listens to me to be very wary
of those pundits they are first and
foremost entertainers and they care very
little about presenting the world and
all its complexity as it actually is
nevertheless much to my chagrin they
have very large audiences and they are
able to shape the way people think about
politics a fifth factor in political
socialization is our participation in
civic and religious organizations an
example of a civic organization would be
the boy scouts or the girl scouts the
boy scouts organization was founded with
the explicit mention to teach boys
patriotism courage self-reliance and
kindred values now since 1910 when that
was written the scout's commitment to
patriotism has undergone some change but
nevertheless if you're a scout it will
affect the way you think about to use
their own language god and country in
other words political socialization is
happening in a civic organization like
that an example of a religious
organization would be membership and
attendance in a church or a synagogue or
a mosque now all religious organizations
vary in terms of their political beliefs
you've got liberal churches and
conservative churches liberal synagogues
and conservative synagogues liberal
mosques and conservative mosques but the
point is whatever political ideology is
joined to the organization's religious
belief is the political ideology the
congregation will be hearing about week
after week and that has an influence for
example evangelical christian churches
saw a significant shuffling of members
during the covet 19 pandemic some
churches when they reopened require
masks in order to participate in worship
and that offense was all it took for
many members to reject what they thought
of as overt liberal political
socialization and choose another church
that aligned more with their political
beliefs and the sixth factor in
political socialization is globalization
by definition globalization is the
increasing interconnectedness of the
world by means of economic partnerships
let me hasten to add that is a very
basic definition but it'll do for our
purposes however along with those
economic connections come political
influences as well like in a globalized
world we are all influenced by factors
well beyond our borders for example
through immigration people bring their
cultural ideas to bear on the political
culture of the united states immigrants
from asian countries have a much
stronger sense of the good of the
community above the individual and as
they immigrate to america that value can
run counter to our strong belief in the
triumph of the individual even so in
some cases such a belief might take root
and affect a person's political
socialization okay thanks for watching
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