Gallup: Confidence in Academia Craters. UCSF Chief: Hold My Transgender-Friendly Microbrew.

It will come as no surprise to Americans to hear that their confidence in national institutions and industries drops lower every year. Pollsters have tracked this decline for years, perhaps none as vigorously as Gallup, which has survey data stretching back more than 40 years on this subject. In their latest report, Gallup notes that the decline has not been gradual, but rather the result of very specific institutional failures that resulted in rational re-evaluation of these stakeholders:

Americans’ average confidence in institutions has been trending downward since 1979 — not gradually, but rather driven by several steep drops. Confidence fell sharply in the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s, each time quickly followed by partial recoveries. An even sharper decline in the mid-2000s associated with the onset of the Great Recession proved more resistant, with confidence remaining at the 2007 low point and sinking even further over the next nine years. Confidence finally showed significant improvement in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to heightened public trust in several institutions most affected by that crisis — particularly the medical system and public schools. However, average confidence quickly reverted and sunk further to 27% in 2022.

As a result, confidence in nearly all of these institutions has hit or approached record lows:

The 14 institutions Gallup has rated annually since 1993 include seven public sector (the presidency, Congress, the public schools, the Supreme Court, the military, the criminal justice system and the police) and seven private sector entities (banks, big business, organized labor, the medical system, newspapers, television news, and the church or organized religion).

Mirroring the overall average, 12 of the 14 institutions tracked since 1993 are at or near their lowest points. Banks and organized labor are the only exceptions, each registering seven points above their historical lows.

Among those experiencing a steep fall over the past decade or so: Academia. American confidence in higher education has dropped to a near all-time low of 38%. That’s a big problem for a cultural institution so heavily reliant on public funding, especially at the federal level. Confidence even among those with a degree has slipped well below 50% now. Gallup attempted to drill down to the reasons for the collapse in confidence, and got very rational answers from their respondents:

The long-term decline in confidence in higher education has been steepest among Republicans, down 33 percentage points from 56% in 2015, compared with declines of 18 points among Democrats and nine points among independents.

College graduates (43%) continue to have more confidence in higher education than those without a four-year college degree (35%). Since 2015, the average gap between college graduates and nongraduates has been 10 percentage points.

However, in the past three years, the gap between college graduates and nongraduates has been entirely accounted for by the views of U.S. adults with a postgraduate education. Currently, 49% of postgraduates have confidence in higher education, compared with 36% of graduates with a bachelor’s degree only and 35% of nongraduates.

The survey probed respondents for why they do or do not have confidence in higher education. For those who lack confidence, responses generally focus on three broad themes — perceived political agendas on college campuses (31%), the high cost of a college education (30%), and colleges not preparing students well for the workforce (25%).

The deuce you say. All three of these issues are not just reasonable, but also acute and severe. Thanks to the decades-long bubble inflated by federal subsidies into higher education, tuition costs have accelerated far past the rate of inflation over the same period of time. The other two problems are directly related to one another. The shift from education to indoctrination into radical-progressive ideology leaves students without much foundation for reality, let alone employment, and businesses have begun to notice. The absurdities of the woke ideologies long ago penetrated education departments, but now are undermining hard science, including medicine.

And if people want an example, look no further than Dr. Sam Hawgood,  chancellor of UC San Francisco, a campus which focuses on “health sciences and graduate-level education.” DOCTOR Hawgood testified before Congress yesterday under oath that a “vast majority of pregnancies are in women,” which stunned Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL). What percentage of pregnancies, she asked, occurred in biological males?

Hawgood didn’t have an answer to that:

I can’t believe this is real.

The Chancellor of UC San Francisco testified under oath that a “vast majority of pregnancies are in women.” Implying some pregnancies occur in men.

When asked directly whether a non-biological woman has ever had a baby, he refused to answer. This… pic.twitter.com/mNk8f1eCDa

— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) July 14, 2026

This is the head of one of the top medical schools in the country.

Florida Rep. Randy Fine picked up the same issue, and got even more tendentious and evasive responses from the head of one of the top medical schools in the country:

Today in Congress I asked a simple question: Who else gets pregnant besides women?

The witness said “transgender men.”

I told him that’s insane — because it is.

Men CANNOT and will NEVER be able to get pregnant. pic.twitter.com/DNbYrAPflz

— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) July 14, 2026

Townhall’s Amy Curtis provides the dialogue:

“Dr. Hawgood, under questioning from Ms. Miller, you said ‘the vast majority of pregnancies are in women.’ Who has the other pregnancies?” Fine asked.

“It’s possible for transgender people,” Hawgood replied.

“So wait,” Fine said, “so transgender people? I thought a transgender woman was a woman, so you said the vast majority of pregnancies are in women, so who are the other pregnancies?”

“They don’t recognize themselves as a woman,” Hawgood said.

“What?” Fine asked.

“You heard what I said,” Hawgood replied. “They don’t recognize transgender.”

“So there are people who are pregnant who are … use your made-up language. Who are the other people who are pregnant in your kooky worldview?” Fine asked. “You said the vast majority of pregnancies are in women. Who are the other pregnancies in?”

“Transgender person,” Hawgood replied again. 

“A transgender person?” Fine said. “The answer I could presume in your kooky language would be a transgender man. I don’t know why you won’t just admit that. A transgender woman would be a man who’s pretending to be a woman. So why won’t you even say the truth in your own screwed-up view of the world that the other pregnancies are transgender men? Why won’t you just say that?”

“I’m happy to say that,” Hawgood said, despite not saying it at all during this questioning. 

“Okay, so say it,” Fine told him.

“Transgender men,” Hawgood replied.

This is perhaps the dumbest conversation in Congress since Ketanji Brown Jackson asserted that she didn’t have the expertise to define the word “woman.” Both instances were entirely disingenuous. Jackson and Hawgood know perfectly well that ‘woman’ refers to human females on the basis of biology. What’s more, Hawgood actually does have the requisite credentials to make that assertion, although everyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that much about human biology. 

It’s not that they don’t know it – it’s that they refuse to say it. And they refuse to say it in order to pander to ideological enforcers in Academia and the progressive elite. Instead of being honest, they attempt to gaslight Americans into thinking that men can give birth and menstruate, and that “people with penises” have a right to occupy intimate spaces set aside for the safety and protection of actual females. 

They lie, and do so in a baldfaced manner. It’s hardly surprising that confidence in Academia and the media continues to decline. It’s more suprising that 38% of Americans still trust ideological cranks with education and reporting. 

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