I’m earning my Masters in English education and I know exactely what you mean. I never would have made it even this far if I hadn’t learned how to be a good actor and a good liar. I feel like a mole half the time; a person shouldn’t have to feel like a mole for being of a certain political persuation in academia, the so-called “marketplace of ideas.” But, of course, the socialists hate markets, don’t they?
I often wish they could spend just one day in an alternate universe in which liberalism is disparaged in academia, the media, and popular culture, while conservativism is put a pedestal as self-evidently right. Maybe they’d see how it felt, though I doubt they’d learn a lesson from it. I can’t figure whether they realize how much they and their biases control our social and cultural institutions and just pretend otherwise, or if they really are so blind as to think that it’s balanced.
I've been in this situation, though not in academia, and I think they are so blind that they just don't (or maybe won't) see it. The cloak of self-righteousness is wrapped too tightly.