Is science being overtaken in the age of wakingness? A host of headlines over the past couple years fail to offer the fattest “no.”
In light of this possibility, an American Psychological Association professor from Florida has resigned.
Via Quillette.com, Stetson University’s Christopher Ferguson relays his resignation.
“I’ve been a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) for years, and a fellow for the past six or seven years,” he writes. “I sat on their Council of Representatives, which theoretically sets policy for the APA, for three years. I am just ending my term as president of the APA’s Society for Media and Technology, where I have met many wonderful colleagues.”
Christopher reports that Christopher believes the organization is now in the realm of the ruined.
I am concerned that the APA is no longer a scientific organization. Professional [society]It may never have existed, but it seems to be actively pursuing harmful causes and I cannot continue being a part.
The instructor may have joined for the wrong reason — to “fix” it.
When he came aboard, the league had already gotten it wrong in areas with which he’s familiar: the negative impact of video game violence, the deleterious effects of spanking, and the supremacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in dealing with PTSD.
Additionally, the group isn’t big on manliness:
The practice guidelines for male and female boys, which were heavily influenced by feminist theories, touched on the topics of privilege and patriarchy, as well as discussing intersectionality and privilege and disparaged traditional family members, are more controversial.
“This guideline is actively harmful,” he poses, because it “both misguides therapy in favor of an ideological worldview and likely discourages men and families from more traditional backgrounds from seeking therapy.”
And last year, things ratcheted — following the death of Minnesota man George Floyd.
The tragedy, he says, prompted “a complete capitulation to far-left ideology.”
What we don’t need is our science organizations going all-in on one side of our polarized divide and stoking furor with hyperbolic statements. This is what the APA, and other left-leaning organisations did.
In May of 2020, APA President Sandra L. Shullman heralded the horror of America’s “racism pandemic”:
“We are living in a racism pandemic, which is taking a heavy psychological toll on our African American citizens. The health consequences are dire.” – @sandyapa2020 on the mental health impacts of recent high-profile racial incidents https://t.co/W7j1e1Wmo5
— American Psychological Association (@APA) May 29, 2020
“If you’re black in America,” she claimed, “and especially if you are a black male, it’s not safe to go birding in Central Park, to meet friends at a Philadelphia Starbucks, to pick up trash in front of your own home in Colorado or to go shopping almost anywhere.”
Christopher wasn’t impressed:
These are scary words. They’re also at best debatable, arguably simply untrue.
Trigger Warning:
Blacks are more likely to be shot by the police than are whites, though Asians are less frequent than those of either race. However, proportionately, both black and white individuals are overrepresented in violent crime, as well as violence towards police. To clarify, I am convinced that the evidence suggests that class rather than race is actually the key variable we should be considering, whether we’re talking about perpetrators of crime, or victims of police brutality.
The APA’s action, he asserts, “threw gasoline on the fire.”
[H]omicides and other violent crimes have soared in US cities since May 2020… My concern is that [the APA’s]The rhetoric of race has delegitimized policing by promoting false narratives and race-related stories about policing. [the group]This phenomenon is unintentionally complicit.
America is undergoing major institutional changes.
Science and medicine aren’t excepted:
American Psychiatry Association Condemns the ‘Structural Racism’ Murder of George Floyd
Nearly a Dozen Medical Schools Undergo an ‘Antiracist Transformation’
American Medical Association Wokes Up, Cancels Terms Such as ‘Morbidly Obese’ and ‘Inmates’
Winds of Change Bring a VP of ‘Humanism, Equity and Antiracism’ to an American Medical School
Columbia Medical School Launches Workshops on ‘Disrupting Racism’ and Microaggression Management
Christopher backs off the APA. He denounces its doubling up:
They issued an apology for systemic racist behavior, stated its commitment to fight systemic racism in America and created a policy to address health inequalities it believes are the result of racism. These statements are full of leftist jargon, assumptions and definitions from progressive worldviews. These are simply statements of leftist ideology and not good clinical practice or science.
The association recently issued an “inclusive language” list, canceling terms such as “deaf person” and “blind person” (for the clearly superior “person with deafness” and “person with blindness”), and even “mentally ill.”
Furthermore:
We’re not to talk about birth sex or people being born a boy or girl (“assigned female/male at birth” is the language of choice now).
Christopher likens a surrender “to the kind of wokeness that has permeated left-leaning institutions” to a “virus” — one which “increases polarization” and increases inequality.
This is an inexcusable act of cowardice on the part of our institutions for psychological research, business and journalism.
For all the above, where the American Psychological Association is concerned — and as New Edition once insisted — count him out.
It’s a new world. Our upgraded space is vastly different from the areas that were previously used to organize.
However, there are still a few survivors.
It appears that physical health has not been affected by the recession.
Cosmo also tells us it is healthy. pic.twitter.com/32gjAwCUW8
— John R. Nave (@JRNave) June 18, 2021
Even though science is constantly evolving, there are still many scientific freedoms.
Medical School Professor Suggests Hate Crime Charges for Anyone Who Criticizes Government Scientists https://t.co/0KHaos0BaG
— RedState (@RedState) August 5, 2021
Keep going up and keep going onward.
-ALEX
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