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It further claims wokeism functions like a ruling-class religion, marginalizing truly heterodox scholars.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/four-reasons-why-heterodox-academy-failed/588250/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/four-reasons-why-heterodox-academy-failed/588250.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Aditya","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-10","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",9,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What does the document claim has intensified in academia recently?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It claims the purge of heretical scholars and ideas is accelerating, with loyalty oaths, activist faculty hiring, retractions of contrary work, and publication restrictions on dissident views.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What is Heterodox Academy (HxA) described as trying to do?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"HxA is presented as promoting “ideological diversity” in academia, with the goal of organizing meaningful resistance to leftist illiberalism.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the document say wokeism resembles a religion?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It argues wokeism replaces Christianity by teaching invisible forces and a caste-like hierarchy, and by framing practices of expiation and ritual repetition under “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588250,1792231248,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":113,"preview_page_count":4},962085564549,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Acad. Quest . (2022) 35.4 DOI 10.51845.35.4.4  \nFour Reasons Why Heterodox Academy Failed Nathan Cofnas  \nThe purge of heretical scholars and ideas in academia is intensifying.1 Many job applications now require loyalty oaths to woke orthodoxy in the form of “diversity statements.”2 In the humanities and social sciences, large numbers of faculty are being hired to engage in what is effectively leftist activism.3 Simply ranting about how much you hate conservatives, Christians, or straight white men can be considered “scholarship” and the basis for a distinguished career. Entire departments devoted to ideology-driven fields like gender studies have been established to promote “social justice” and provide sinecures to activists.4 Academic papers that undermine the woke narrative are being retracted,5 and journals are adopting implicit or explicit polices to ensure that crimethink is never published again.6 Many undergraduate and graduate programs have stopped asking for standardized test scores and are increasingly making admissions decisions based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and ideological conformity.  \nSeven years ago, Heterodox Academy (HxA) came on the scene to promote “ideological diversity” in academia. Cofounder Jonathan  \n1 Eric Kaufmann,“Academic Freedom in Crisis: Punishment, Political Discrimination, and Self-Censorship,” Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, March 1, 2021, [https://www.cspicenter.com/p/](https://www.cspicenter.com/p/)[ ](https://www.cspicenter.com/p/)[academic-freedom-in-crisis-punishment.](academic-freedom-in-crisis-punishment.)  \n2 Abigail Thompson,“A Word from...,” Notices ofthe American Mathematical Society 66, no. 11 (December 2019): 1778–1779.  \n3 David Randall,“Social Justice Education in America,” National Association of Scholars, November 29, 2019, [https://www. nas.org/reports/social-justice-education-in-america](https://www. nas.org/reports/social-justice-education-in-america).  \n4 Ibid.  \n5 Heather Mac Donald,“I Cited Their Study, so They Disavowed It,” Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2020;  \nAdam Marcus, Ivan Oransky,“Science Journals Are Purging Racist, Sexist Work. Finally,” Wired, September 17, 2020.  \n6 Nathan Cofnas,“Philosophy Is Being Hijacked by Woke Twitter Mobs,” Quillette, October 21, 2020; Steven Pinker,“Journalists & Psychologists Take Note,” August 27, 2022, [https://twitter.com/sapinker/](https://twitter.com/sapinker/)[ ](https://twitter.com/sapinker/)[status/1563179979667476482](status/1563179979667476482); Henry Kokkeler,“Science Journal to Review Submissions for ‘Potential Harm’ after Outrage over Female Mentorship Paper,” The College Fix, December 30, 2020; Bo Winegard,“The Fall of ‘Nature,’” Quillette, August 28, 2022.  \nNathan Cofnas is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge; [nrc48@cam.ac.uk](nrc48@cam.ac.uk).  \nHaidt—a prominent social psychologist who is now chair of the board of directors and the person most associated with the organization—spoke forcefully about the scholarship-corrupting effects of liberal groupthink. The leaders of HxA led people to believe that they were going to organize a meaningful resistance.  \nSeven years later, you can count HxA’s accomplishments in promoting heterodoxy on the fingers of zero hands. It has focused mainly on aggrandizing celebrity academics who hold conventional leftist views, and giving a platform to liberals to engage in empty virtue signaling about their alleged commitment to free inquiry. Scholars whose work is genuinely heterodox have been systematically marginalized. In at least one instance, a psychologist known for his work on race differences (Helmuth Nyborg) was denied membership.  \nThe situation at universities is part of a larger cultural phenomenon; namely, the triumph of wokeism as the religion of the ruling class, and the purge of dissenters from every mainstream institution. HxA provides an illustrative example of how attempts at re","cbCaijrff6mUKJIY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijrff6mUKJIY","pdf",280756,12,"English","# Four Reasons Why Heterodox Academy Failed\n## Wokeism as Religion\n## HxA’s Declared Aim vs. Outcomes","[{\"question\":\"What does the document claim has intensified in academia recently?\",\"answer\":\"It claims the purge of heretical scholars and ideas is accelerating, with loyalty oaths, activist faculty hiring, retractions of contrary work, and publication restrictions on dissident views.\"},{\"question\":\"What is Heterodox Academy (HxA) described as trying to do?\",\"answer\":\"HxA is presented as promoting “ideological diversity” in academia, with the goal of organizing meaningful resistance to leftist illiberalism.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the document say wokeism resembles a religion?\",\"answer\":\"It argues wokeism replaces Christianity by teaching invisible forces and a caste-like hierarchy, and by framing practices of expiation and ritual repetition under “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”\"}]","Four Reasons Why Heterodox Academy Failed | PDF",1792064841]