You don’t have to have a college degree to make a living. I’ve got a Master’s, but that was a mistake in my opinion. I should have never gotten it because I’ll likely never need or use it.
But I’m talking more about conservatives’ attempting to move the Overton Window. There is no path in the humanities in academia for conservatives. If any try they spend most of their time masking their true views until they reach tenure. If a conservative or classical liberal really cares about spreading his ideas, he’s much better served to work in something like real estate and starting a podcast, YouTube channel, or writing books on the side to reach the masses that academics seldom reach until he can afford to turn those side projects into his full-time career. Let’s face it. American academia, in liberal arts at least, is a Progressive guild.