WSJ: Social Justice Dogma Is Invading Science Disciplines

A new column published in the Wall Street Journal this week makes the case that “social justice” dogmas are being adopted by the science faculty at American colleges and universities around the country.

Peter W. Wood, the president of the National Association of Scholars, penned a column for the Wall Street Journal that was published on Sunday. Wood makes the case that social justice dogma, including the pernicious “cancel culture,” has made its way into the science disciplines.

Some critics of the “social justice” worldview have argued that the dangerous ideology would never impact serious areas of study, such as the mathematics and science.

However, some scientists have noticed a changing tide in the sciences. Scientists that diverge from the popular consensus within academia on certain topics are deemed “problematic” by their colleagues. Events are canceled when panel guests are not diverse enough.

Wood provides several examples of the dogma’s reach into the sciences including scientist Francis Collins’ recent declaration that he won’t speak on panels that don’t feature women.

Cancel culture in various forms is taking root in American science and elsewhere. Last July Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, announced that he would decline invitations to speak on panels at scientific conferences where women are not among the speakers. That idea has spread rapidly, and several organizations have begun to penalize conferences that don’t meet a quota of women. The Third International Brain Stimulation Conference held in Vancouver last February took steps to find additional female neuroscientists, so that six of its 20 featured talks were by women. A software conference scheduled for October in Dresden was canceled for failure to attract female speakers.