There are of course all sorts of scientists. I am not claiming all are liberal. After all there was scientists who where Nazis or whom had dubious morality such as Werner von Braun.

The inventor of the transistor, Shockley was was a hardcore racist.

However I wrote this in reponse to people wondering out aloud why it is seemingly so common for many scientists to be on the left side of the political spectrum in whatever society they live in.

Left and right is of course not a one-dimensional line. It is a gross simplification. But if we tag along on this simplification one could say that the righ in its most basic form is about protection and preservation of traditional values and ways of thinking.

The left and liberalism has in its most basic form been about challenging conventions, question established truths, authority etc. While a conservative may insist you should obey authority, an leftist may be more inclined to rebel against authority.

Thus in its most basic form, a scientist is a leftist as a scientist will typically have to rebel against some form of authority. It could be like Kepler, Galleleo etc rebelling against church authority.

Charles Darwin likewise outraged the establishment by suggesting that humankind had a common ancestor with apes.

When you say scientists are not liberal, I suspect you are thinking of liberal as some young blue haired feminist activist or something. But seen in a more broader historical perspective then one could say liberalism is very much aligned with the philosophies of science.

It is hard to divorce a human entirely from politics. All people have values and preferences. Scientists are no different. If they are not conservatives, then they have to belong to some other political ideology.

Being apolitical is IMHO just an ideal, not a reality. You may have a professional position where you cannot voice your political views, but that doesn't mean you don't have them.