The student-run independent The Wake Report has published a story that has gone national about a psychology professor who taught her students that conservatives are “guilty, anxious, and unable to handle stress well as children.” Conversely, liberals are generally “resourceful, independent, self-reliant, and confident as children.” Assistant professor S. Mason Garrison expressed surprise that students “interpreted” the description as “negative” and caused “discomfort.” Apparently, many would take being called “guilty” and “unable to handle stress” as comforting and positive.
What is most striking about the controversy is the astonishment that Professor Garrison expresses about the reaction of conservatives to her online Personality course description as “guilty, anxious, and unable to handle stress well as children.” After changing the language, Garrison told the student reporters:
“I apologize if my statements were interpreted as negatively characterizing conservative students. I was unaware that my comments had caused any feelings of marginalization, and I sincerely regret any harm or discomfort they may have caused.”
It strains credulity to suggest that the disparaging terms were just a matter of interpretation as “negatively characterizing conservative students.”
The response of Department of Psychology Chair Christy Buchanan to The Report was little better. Buchanan stated
“[s]ometimes misunderstandings occur in the course of human interactions, including those that occur in the classroom. I trust that both the department’s and Dr. Garrison’s responsiveness to the concerns brought forth in the current situation demonstrates the department values of and commitment to creating a safe and inclusive experience for all students.”
Buchanan also ignores the obvious bias, and false characterization of conservatives, including many students at Wake Forest. Rather than deal with such political prejudice, Buchanan adopts the same implausible suggestion that this was a “misunderstanding” and matter of interpretation.
It is a common pattern. When faculty on the left say controversial statements they tend to be ignored or rationalized. When conservative faculty make such statements, there is often a very different response from investigations to suspensions to even terminations.
I do not believe that Garrison should be terminated or sanctioned. However, it would be helpful if she or someone at the school would acknowledge the obvious rather than insult not just the sensibilities but the intelligence of conservative students and faculty.
It is also worth noting that the student reporters identified the source that Garrison cited for this clearly dubious claim as an article in the American Journal of Political Science titled Correlation not causation: the relationship between personality traits and political ideologies. However, the study appears to refute the very point made by Professor Garrison. The authors find that “personality traits do not cause people to develop political attitudes.” Indeed, the summary of their paper states:
“These findings cast doubt on the assumed causal relationship between personality and politics. Here we test the causal relationship between personality traits and political attitudes using a direction of causation structural model on a genetically informative sample. The results suggest that personality traits do not cause people to develop political attitudes; rather, the correlation between the two is a function of an innate common underlying genetic factor.”
Thus, not only does Garrison show obvious prejudice in describing conservatives on her slides, but she appeared to distort the actual findings of the report due to a possible confirmation bias confirming her own preconceptions.
The apology is not an apology but a bucket of cold water thrown in the faces of those who misinterpreted what was said. Another day, another exemplary liar and narcissist.
If you can read that, and still send your kids to that institution, replete with price tag, I can’t help but think, though certainly problematic, the institution is not the initial problem. 🙄 Perhaps modern American parents are the ones that need their IQs tested.
Jonathan: Now the guy who does probably suffer from what Prof. Garrison describes as “guilty, anxious and unable to handle stress” is Donald Trump, excuse me the “criminal defendant ” Donald Trump.
After Trump was arraigned on 34 criminal counts and went through the booking process he related the story to Tucker Carlson on the latter’s Fox show on Tuesday night. Trump, and I couldn’t make this up, told Carlson the court employees were all “crying”–“They were actually crying. They said ‘I’m sorry’. They said said ‘2024, sir 2024’. And tears were poring down their eyes”.
FACT CHECK: No one was crying. Trump’s interaction with court employees was limited to a handful of district attorney employees and they were definitely not crying. A guy who makes up a story like that definitely suffers from some mental disorder. More grist for Prof. Garrison in one of her classes.
The Q is why would Carlson even want to interview Trump. Carlson is slated to testify next week in the Dominion defamation lawsuit. He will have to testify that “I hate him [DT] passionately”. Go figure.
Guilty, anxious and unable to handle stress well? I guess that explains why I hardly ever met a conservative during my 20 years in the military.
Thersites: You’re right. You won’t find many in military combat who can’t handle stress. But afterward, they have to deal with it.. It’s called PTSD. You no doubt have heard about it. Trump never served in the military. He got medical deferments–courtesy of his father and one of his doctors. You know, the “bone spurs” deferments. So what is Trump’s excuse for his anxiety and stress these days? I suppose, by an analogy to military combat, Trump is facing his “enemies” (criminal and civil cases) from all sides. He doesn’t have a HUEY to lift him to safety. He’s corned and he knows it. He’s probably thinking what went through Gen. Custer’s mind: “Where did all these f—— Indians come from?” By the way, thanks for your service.
The only way American colleges can be turned around is if they first hit rock bottom. An implosion in their enrollment. A decimation of their finances. A radical change amongst employers who no longer value college degrees. Not firing this woke Wake Forest professor and those like her will help accelerate the decline of higher education. A thing to be thankful for.
The disgusting “professor” must be removed, and punished, for being a horrible teacher, a horrible role model, and an incompetent human being.
O T (again)
More evidence of White Racism has just been discovered. DM is reporting that an Oxford University lab (controled by White People!) has developed a malaria vaccine that will stop 70%-80% of malaria infections. The main beneficiaries will be children in sub-Sahara Africa. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11966889/Ghana-approve-Oxfords-malaria-vaccine.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11966889/Ghana-approve-Oxfords-malaria-vaccine.html It is not clear yet how this development serves the diabolical interests of White Racism Rampant, but NPR and the NYT are furiously working on an explanation.
I’m not sure where you are going with the White Racism comment, but the link you provided was informative. In America we rarely see patients with parasitic infections like malaria, so I have no reason to keep up-to-date with scientific research data in this area of infectious diseases. Malaria is caused by a parasite, not a virus. The Oxford/Ghana vaccine data has not been reviewed by the WHO but the country of Ghana has already approved it. Another malaria vaccine was brought to market last year by Glaxo, Mosquirix, and approved by the WHO, so I’m unclear why this latest vaccine is getting more attention.
Additionally, vaccines in third world countries are generally purchased by foreign agencies because the govts nor residents of these countries can afford them. This is a true example of economic disparities unlike what liberals claim in America, vis a vis Hispanics, blacks, Pacific Islanders, etc. It is a classic example of first world nations hoarding most of the global resources while other nations suffer the disparities. I often critique liberals in America for doing nothing about global disparities in regions that are accessible to them with their millions of dollars and private jets, where they can get their hands and feet dirty by providing assistance in vivo to these regions, and do what is traditionally done by religious groups. Bette Midler, Cher, Meryl Streep, Hollywood elitists, et al are fond of excommunicating people, particularly Christians, online but showing up to smell like the sheep is, well, anathema to their “religious” “holier than thou” shtick. Sean Penn and Angelina Jolie are the rare exceptions of liberals getting their hands dirty in helping the poor and needy.
Overall this malaria vaccine news is an excellent development and a source of good news. Thanks for that!
Although it’s being hailed as a huge breakthrough, R21, as it is officially called, isn’t the first malaria vaccine. Another one, called Mosquirix and developed by GlaxoSmithKline, was endorsed by the World Health Organization last year. …Childhood vaccines in Africa are typically paid for by international organisations such as Gavi and UNICEF after they have been backed by the WHO. ….Hill noted that it was unusual that a regulatory authority in Africa had reviewed the data quicker than the WHO.
Please don’t let this sort die! Our school is giunia pigs for yonder. And we got two dead! We went from 8 unauthorized use last year to 275 this year….plus 2 suicides….in their psychological experimrnt. W need lawyers! And the law on equal and adequate is on their side of contingent lawyers!! Where are the likes of Jerry spence….because this is like that! Hello?
https://wibc.com/108211/pew-study-white-liberals-disproportionately-suffer-from-mental-illness/
Wake Forest move over, Democrat leader Hakeem “election denier” Jeffries has been exposed as an anti-semite and a racist.
Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries under fire over his unearthed college editorial DEFENDING anti-semite uncle who said Jews helped finance the slave trade and ‘plotted’ to keep black actors from Hollywood
When Jeffries was a college student at Binghamton University in New York, he wrote an editorial in 1992 defending his uncle and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. … The younger Jeffries began his editorial by warning that the ‘rise of the black conservative’ would threaten to ‘sustain the oppression of the black masses,’ referring to the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11965873/Hakeem-Jeffries-fire-unearthed-college-editorial-DEFENDING-anti-semite-uncle.html
If one digs deeper into the past of Democrat leaders today one would find many such scurrilous episodes. Their past actions speak louder than todays words
Joe, Nation of Islam, just klux klan. Strange bed fellows these democrats.
Independent, they have a commonality, the destruction of a free nation and a free people. The Democrats of today are authoritarian.
I’ve got nothing left for the dems. Zip, zilch, nada. Will never, ever vote for a dem again, and I’m smart enough to know when they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They know this. It’s why they rig elections. It isn’t working on me.
OT
BIDEN’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL EPA DICTATES FREE MARKET PRODUCTION AND PURCHASES
Where is the Supreme Court? Biden and EPA must be immediately struck down by Judicial Review regarding the unconstitutional denial of freedom, the free markets and unconstitutional regulation of free markets. Biden and Congress, the executive and legislative branches, have NO power to deny free markets to Americans or to regulate product marketing or purchases. The EPA is unconstitutional and the EPA enjoys no constitutional basis. EPA rules carry no constitutional weight or force.
Americans enjoy the rights and freedoms of “the pursuit of happiness,” endeavor and free enterprise per the 9th Amendment. Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax ONLY for debt, defense and “…general Welfare…,” omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual welfare, specific welfare, particular welfare, favor or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY money, the “flow” of commerce, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property is not qualified by the Constitution and is, therefore, absolute, allowing Congress no power to claim or exercise dominion over private property, the sole exception being the power to “take” private property for public use. If the right to private property is not absolute, there is no private property, and all property is public.
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“Biden proposes toughest auto emissions rules yet to dramatically boost EV sales”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new tailpipe emissions limits that could require as much as 67% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be all-electric.
The proposed limits would surpass President Joe Biden’s previous commitment to have EVs make up roughly 50% of cars sold by 2030 and accelerate the country’s clean energy transition. EV sales accounted for only 5.8% of all the 13.8 million new vehicles sold in the country last year, an increase from 3.1% the year before, according to Kelley Blue Book data.
– CNBC
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Marbury v. Madison
“A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void.” With these words written by Chief Justice Marshall, the Supreme Court for the first time declared unconstitutional a law passed by Congress and signed by the President. Nothing stated in the Constitution gave the Court this specific power. Marshall, however, believed that the Supreme Court should have a role equal to those of the other two branches of government.
– National Archives
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9th Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The “eternal triangle” of American Constitutional Government of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches are co-equal. That equates to 1 to 535 to 9. The 9 is the least political and the most law minded. The 1 and the 535 are moved by the political winds, the law be damned. Hence the tumult, turnabout, and tangle of the times.
Lie and deny. It’s what liberals do when called out. Everything they say is feigned, affected, mendacious, deceitful, dishonest, hypocritical, and duplicitous.
Old man, I still don’t think you covered everything.
Conservative: Freedom And Self-Reliance
Liberal: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” – “Dictatorship of the proletariat” – “One man, one vote democrazy”
The research undertaken by this professor is academic mush. How did she define conservative? How did she define guilty, and anxious, and stress? After she defined those terms, how did she quantify them? And, after she quantified those terms, how did she ensure that she measured them in an accurate, consistent, reliable manner? To what extent was the data she collected self-reported by the people she was studying?
Jonathan: You seem overly sensitive by professor Garrison’s psychological description of conservatives. Controversy over how to define conservatism has been around for a long time. In 2015 Fox was exorcised by a professor who found a “significant” correlation between key anti-social personality traits and conservative views. He said conservatives suffer from “dark” anti-social traits. Other studies have come to similar conclusions. In Psychology Today (9/6/2008) a doctor said the predictor of conservatism is “someone full of fear, with a poor sense of self, and a lack of mental dexterity”.
I don’t subscribe to a lot of the psychoanalysis of the conservative personality. It simplifies what is a complex subject. There are thoughtful conservatives, like you, and then there are conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is a bomber thrower. She is definitely on the “dark” side of conservatism with a probable anti-social personality disorder.
The Q is what is “conservatism” these days? Traditionally, conservatives have stood in support of the status quo. They abhor change not based on traditional values, reliance on authority and traditional religious values. But today’s conservatism is radically different. It recognizes that the old order is changing. Black people are demanding reparations. Young voters are demanding the recognition of LBGTQ and transgender rights and the return to protect abortion rights. Corporations are promoting DEI agendas and universities are including CRT as part of course curriculum .Kids are being exposed to the history of racism and LGBTQ issues. Young voters are demanding action on climate change and other social issues. That’s puts fear in the minds of the current conservative crowd.
Now the “dark” side of conservatism these days, if you want to call it that, is that it is willing to turn to authoritarian figures to preserve the status quo ante. We saw this in German, Italy and Spain in the 1930s and in 1973 when Gen. Pinochet overthrew a democratically elected government in Chile to turn back the clock on democratic rights. Donald Trump tried it in 2020 in attempting to overturn a democratic election. That attempted coup failed because, unlike Chile, the Joint Chiefs refused to go along .and democratic institutions prevented the insurrection. Now those on the conservative right today see “democracy” as a failed experiment and want Trump to return to power to clamp down on democratic rights. That effort will also probably fail in 2024.Does anyone really think DeSantis, outside Florida, will find his “anti-woke” agenda appealing to the average American voter?
Prof. Garrison should probably not have insulted the “intelligence” if conservative students and faculty. But read the tea leaves. Conservatism has no appeal on universities campuses these days. It’s a failed ideology. Maybe Wake Forest needs to change it’s name to “Woke Forest”.
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Leftists consider themselves at war with the great unwashed masses, especially conservatives. In war, all’s fair. They could stab you in the back and then claim they didn’t know it was a knife, or that knife stabs cause injuries. Reality is no barrier to the denials they dream up. In fact, they’re at war with reality, as reflected in the trans insanity.
In brief . . . don’t assume they’re sincere in saying literally anything, because they aren’t. I repeat: they are not sincere.
Want proof? Here’s proof: “I apologize if my statements were interpreted as negatively characterizing conservative students. I was unaware that my comments had caused any feelings of marginalization.” She might as well have said: I was unaware that the sun rises in the east, or that 2 + 2 = 4. Such a statement would not be sincere.
“I apologize if my statements were interpreted as negatively characterizing conservative students.
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Prof. Dipshot is shocked, shocked that calling someone weak-minded woiuld offend them! And who’s the idiot here?
Huck Fer!
Huck fer indeed. A buck fo jiden too!
Mespo, don’t you know how to spell f___?
Just assigning her some pronouns, IB!
STRONGLY DISAGREE: Any Free Speech Claim of the Professor here is easily overcome by the Professor’s failure to adhere to Professional Standards, while discriminating against and/or suppressing the protected speech of their students. – Professors have no 1A or other right to engage in a pattern of teaching in school against agreed industry or department standards, and they certainly have no 1A or other right to discriminate against their students and/or suppress their students’ 1A rights. “Teaching” as a profession is not always “speech”, and since the school is no doubt somehow federally-/govt-funded, it most definitely cannot engage in discriminatory or suppressive patterns.
O T
More evidence of the brazen attempts of the Chinese government to “buy” foreign politiicals. We already know of money paid to the BCF. Now comes evidence of payment to Justin Trudeau, the Canadian PM, through the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation. See Martel, “Entire Leadership of Trudeau Foundation Resigns amid Chinese Donor Scandal (Breuitbard April 12, 2023):
“According to the outlet, Canada’s Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had reason to believe the Chinese Communist Party had commanded the billionaire Zhang, described as “a political adviser to the government in Beijing,” to give the Trudeau Foundation $1 million “to curry favour with” Justin Trudeau, who was not yet prime minister, and claimed the Chinese government would reimburse him.”
China has now bought the American President and the Canadian PM. López Obrador must feel slighted.