Maybe this is a US thing, but during 8 years of studying (media science among other things) I never once have seen an occasion where I would've seen use in protest. Sure there are people with differing opinions and political backgrounds, but in the end there is a minimum bar of merit people have to cross. It is not like we are inviting edgy "controversial" youtubers who cite papers they only have read the titles from to construct theories that have been falsified half a century ago without any interest in the actual field. Even if you study philosophy (like I did as well) the debates are typically extremely focused on the subjects at hand. So what you won't see is some guy from a political party trying to shoehorn what they already belive into a theory of everything held together by good will and hand waving. This is just not worthy of any discussion at all and would drag down the level of debate.

Of course that could depend of the field you are studying in, but you are either interested in the truth or you are interested in making a political point. Both at once is rarely the case.