What to Do about the Great Epistemic Swindle in Your University

The past few weeks I’ve been concentrating the time I devote to this work to preparation of the Counter Wokecraft Study Guide as well as other longer term projects. In this post I want to return to the Great Epistemic Swindle and specifically what to do about it.

The Great Epistemic Swindle describes the process by which proponents of the Critical Social Justice perspective successfully hijacked and co-opted the modern knowledge production system. This involved changing the goal of the knowledge production system from trying to understand what is, to describing how things ought to be or ought to be interpreted according to the CSJ perspective. This was made possible by appropriating the legitimacy and authority of the modern knowledge system by keeping its veneer and dressings such as peer-reviewed journals, editorial boards, etc., but changing its telos. The swindle itself was concocted in the laboratories of humanities and social science in our universities and eventually leaked out.

The question is, of course, how can the modern knowledge system be restored? That’s the purpose of this and upcoming posts on the topic. In a nutshell, restoration means moving the epistemic system back towards its truth-seeking mission of revealing what is, instead of what or how CSJ advocates believe things ought to be, or ought to be perceived. Central to this, as outlined in this post, is academic freedom, the political neutrality of universities and funding agencies, and the use of merit in the selection and evaluation of academics and research. The posts builds on Counter Wokecraft but concentrate on sites of intervention relevant to the (academic) epistemic system (see Chapter 3.5 of Counter Wokecraft on Sites of Intervention). As such, the audience is primarily academics working in academia. I’m envisioning at least two posts on this topic. How to intervene at your university, and how to intervene in the academic community.

In Your University

The first grand site of intervention is your own university. Within the university there are myriad micro-sites of intervention where you can help restore the modern knowledge system.

Priority #1 - Faculty Hiring

Since professors are around for such a long time and because they end up running university administrations and the rest of the epistemic apparatus (journals, scientific societies, etc.) the most important site of intervention is faculty hiring. If there’s a hire in your department, make sure you get on the hiring committee and ideally chair it. Make sure that you understand the hiring system well (e.g. through knowledge of collective agreements) to make sure that no one can bend the rules to favor Critical Social Justice candidates. You will likely have to make sure that the process is not inappropriately influenced by upper administration, especially Diversity, Equity & Inclusion functionaries and offices, who are likely to intervene in the selection process and who intentionally or unintentionally put their thumbs on the scales for candidates adherent, or receptive, to the Critical Social Justice perspective.

Make sure that the process itself is highly formalized and that you insist on the use of secret ballot votes at all stages of the process (job ad drafting, shortlisting, final selection of candidates). This is now easily done with synchronous or asynchronous online voting options (e.g. Zoom and Election Runner). This will minimize the risk of CSJ colleagues strong-arming or bullying other colleagues into selecting CSJ candidates.

Selection of Administrators

Make sure that when given the opportunity to help choose administrators (deans, university presidents, etc.) through voting or being on selection committees, you take them to choose candidates who are not beholden to the Critical Social Justice perspective. Ideally, to improve the efficiency of these interventions, you’ll coordinate with allies. You’ll want to coordinate to distribute the work of research on the different candidates and to help select candidates the most likely not to be advocates for, or susceptible to, the Critical Social Justice perspective. In such positions, you’ll also need to emphasize the formalization of decision-making and the use of secret ballot voting.

Take on a leadership role yourself

While this is a bigger investment of resources, to influence and counter the CSJ take over of your university, you can get involved in the administrative apparatus yourself. You can do this as departmental chair or if there are other positions selected through votes. To increase your chances of getting elected, you can make sure your allies are aware that you are running and that they should vote. Such elected positions are often determined on a small number of votes. You can also work with other allies in elected assemblies such as senates to counter initiatives that bring your university further from its truth-seeking mission. Naturally you can also work with allies to bring forward your own initiatives that can help restore your university’s truth-seeking mission. Remember the importance of formalized decision-making and secret ballot voting.

Mentoring Students

The climate on campus is as bad if not worse for students as for faculty, particularly for those not willing to go along with the CSJ perspective. You can help such students by playing a mentoring role. If you see students who may not be on-board with the CSJ perspective (who are quiet, who ask questions that might lead you to think they have not adopted the perspective unquestioningly) you can try to open discussions with them. You can also mentor them on how they can do their own part by influencing university policy, founding student groups, etc. This can be as simple as helping them reserve rooms for events. It can also involve helping them strategize on the types of interventions they might be able to make to support the restoration of your university’s truth-seeking mission.

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