A couple of weeks ago I published a blog criticizing Christian support of President Donald Trump. I expected some of my conservative Christians friends to let me have it and indeed a couple did when I posted it on my facebook page. But surprisingly, on the blog page, I received more hostility from progressives than from conservatives. You see for them I did not go far enough because I did not call Christians racist, bigoted and greedy. And we all... Read more
A peer-review article recently came out looking at the ideological stances of sociologists. This article really helps to define some of the problems we have in the field with activism mattering more than science. If we want a science that is useable and able to meet the needs of our society then I think we need to take seriously the forces that inhibit our scientific endeavors. To this end, there are important lessons in this research that I want to... Read more
Several years ago when I was preparing to teach an Intro to Sociology course, I ran across a theory in environmental sociology. As that is not my field, I did not take note of who developed this theory and I have not taken the time to look it up for this blog. So forgive me for not supplying a link to the theory. But the theory seems sound to me. The theory goes something like this. The benefits of cleaning... Read more
Several years ago I did research looking at academic bias. I found that there was bias against both political conservatives and conservative Protestants, with more religious than political bias. After that project I collected data looking at anti-Christian attitudes and found that those with such attitudes were more likely to be white, wealthy, highly educated, male, progressive and secular. To me this sounded like individuals I would expect in the institutions that help to establish our cultural values. Academia is... Read more
I have a dilemma. In 2015 and 2016 I was very vocal about my opposition of the candidacy of now President Trump. As a celebrity he always rubbed me the wrong way, and when he started off with an insult to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, I knew this was someone I could not support. I used my facebook page and articles like this in the Stream, a conservative Christian online website, to further my attacks on him. I am a small... Read more
Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Republicans at one time were the party of civil rights while the Democrats supported racial segregation. So why do people of color overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans? The southern strategy of Richard Nixon focused on catering to white Southerners at the expense of people of color. This led to a major voter realignment as Republicans obtained the support of southern whites at the expense of the support of racial minorities. This gambit likely helped... Read more
You may have heard what happened to Tucker Carlson, the host on Fox news. But to recap if you have not, some geniuses decided that they should protest at his home. He was not home but his wife was. The commotion was so much that she thought it was a home invasion and hid in the pantry. Classy. I am sure Carlson himself will say that protesting him in public is fair game. Banging on the door of his home... Read more
You probably heard of what has been called Sokal squared. Three “researchers sent out 20 hoax academic papers. The topics were laughable such as rape culture among dogs and arguments that masturbation is a form of sexual violence against the women one fantasizes about. Seven of the twenty papers were accepted indicating a serious problem in academia. Perhaps the most disturbing paper that was accepted was an adaptation of Mein Kampf to justify solidarity among feminists. The papers that were... Read more
In light of the madness of last week there has been more talk about the toxic comments of our president. President Trump deserves every bit of criticism that he is receiving. Previous presidents have made disparaging and unwarranted remarks about their political opponents but Trump does so in a way that I have never seen before. But in the eagerness to condemn Trump, we cannot lose sight that he is not the only source of the incivility that troubles us... Read more
I, like many Americans, saw significant sections of the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings. And several weeks after the hearings I am still left with two basic feelings. First, utter contempt for the political manipulations by the Democratic senators, particularly Feinstein. We did not have to have this spectacle, which has divided our country further, and I will blog in the near future about that. My other impression was that I was glad that we did have an additional FBI investigation. It could... Read more
Shattering Paradigms
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