Philosophy professor Peter Boghossian of Portland State University has announced his resignation through an open letter addressed to the college administration, which he said was creating an environment in which students are no longer taught how to think. The university is a publicly-funded college which Boghossian believes has made "intellectual exploration impossible," instead making itself a "social justice factory" that focused on race, victimhood, and gender.
"Students at Portland State are not being taught to think. Rather, they are being trained to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues," Boghossian said in a letter that was published on Bari Weiss's Substack page, as reported by The Epoch Times. Weiss is another one of many who have called out institutionalized "wokeness," having worked for the New York Times until 2020, when she resigned after accusing her colleagues of bullying and arguing that the media outlet relented to pressure campaigns on Twitter.
"Faculty and administrators have abdicated the university's truth-seeking mission and instead drive intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions," the Portland State University professor added. "This has created a culture of offense where students are now afraid to speak openly and honestly."
Boghossian lamented in his letter that he was retaliated against for criticizing the school's narratives about race, gender, and social justice. He said he faced years of "continued harassment," when he would find flyers of his face with a Pinocchio nose around campus. He was also told by students that his very own colleagues were encouraging them to avoid Boghossian's classes. He was also "subjected to more investigation" which eventually had "taken a personal toll" which he described as "an increasingly intolerable working life and without the protection of tenure."
Social Justice Cheat Sheet pic.twitter.com/yz2GR2pRvp
"” Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) September 4, 2021
According to the Gateway Pundit, Boghossian made headlines alongside James A. Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose, when in 2017 they created the "Grievance Studies Affair," a project in which they sent out ludicrous "social justice" papers on race, gender, sexuality, and culture to see if which ones would get published on academic journals and determine if publishers would indeed scrutinize and peer review it.
Boghossian and his colleagues were able to publish papers titled "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon" and "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct" on academic journals, showing just how lackadaisical the criteria was for printing such studies.
In a statement to Fox News addressing the Portland State University professor's resignation, the school said that it has "always been and will continue to be a welcoming home for free speech and academic freedom."
The statement said that Portland State University believes its practices are "not in conflict" with their "core institutional values of student success; racial justice and equity; and proactive engagement with our community." The school insists that they do not have any comments on Boghossian's claims over it being a "social justice factory."
Boghossian maintains that the Portland school is "no place for people who intend to think freely and explore ideas."
