Senior graduate student here. I've been doing this for about 10 years (including undergrad). I always felt lucky to have good mentorship in undergrad who presented Sociology as a way to put society into a coherent set of theories and gave me the opportunity to understand the joys and follies of doing original research. After this years Twitter debacles I can't see a future for this discipline. It saddens me that for the rest of my life I might have to explain to anybody who actually has heard of what I do, that people like CF, TMC, SD, Buggs, Grollbaby, and Costen are not the gatekeepers of good work in this field. Even worse is the fact that I genuinely fear for my ability to do decent, unbiased research due to the structural outcomes of asinine pushes for citations based on skin color as opposed to research merit. The reality that my ability to publish might be stymied by people looking at my reference list and rejecting papers because bias hasn't been duly demonstrated is frightening and anti-scientific. The worst part is, I see more sympathizers with these ideas in my own program then people evaluating these ideas and while remaining sympathetic, rejecting them. Scary times ahead.
Haven't considered leaving the discipline until this years ASA fiasco.
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Recently tenured AP here and this is my last trip to ASA unless something changes. While there are still some good panels, it's become dominated by maniacs who are far more interested in shouting down everyone who doesn't conform to their oppression olympics and dictating what everyone says and thinks. It's not scholarship, it's tyranny. And it's literally killing the discipline. We'll be anthropology part 2 in 10 years at this point.
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For most of my academic career I've always derided the basic insults at sociology generally hurled by the GOP calling the discipline things like "gobbledyg00k." The "activist scholars" whatever the f*ck that means in this field are literally murdering our ability to try and gain a foothold and a voice to influence policy that ironically, would permit the ability to rectify structural issues.
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Nobody thinks all sociologists are one way unless they know nothing about sociology. Let the activist scholars be both activists and scholars. That should mean your "real" scholarship will appear even more scientific in comparison. Or maybe it is time to break away and start the Association of White Sociologists (AWS)?
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I understand what you're saying. But this visibility is only going to serve to create a vicious and deep repository of information that will forever remove sociology from its ability to shed stereotypes about the work we do. Maybe this has always been the case, and since I'm relatively young I'm only getting exposed to this issue now. I tend to believe that this is some combination of deadwood finally losing their foothold as the voice of the field, and the new generation of which, I clearly don't have a place within.
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100% agree with CDE4. Imagine the "woke" sociologist crowd meeting with politicians. They'd scream at how racist/sexist they all are, insist that it's not their job to educate the politicians, and generally just insult them. That will definitely show actual results and make a difference!
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"Or maybe it is time to break away and start the Association of White Sociologists (AWS)?"
I honestly can't even tell if this is trolling at this point. No, I do want to have a diverse and intersectional field. However, I am really honestly exhausted of every scholarly debate devolving into arguments about positionality. It's frankly boring and uninspiring.
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"Nobody thinks all sociologists are one way unless they know nothing about sociology."
Newsflash: no one outside of sociology has any sort of nuanced view of the field. The loudest voices create the public profile. This includes some serious research and commentary, and also the histrionics of the "scholar activists."
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Old timer here (by SJMR standards): If the OP is for real, lemme let you in on a little secret. First, it has ALWAYS been like this. Second, it used to be WORSE.
When I coming up in the soc game, the frootloops were just as numerous, but they were all tenured profs. Old hippies at 4th rate institutions consumed by every nutty delusion under the sun.
What has changed? Bring up #asa18 your device. Wow, every 4th tweet is embarrassing, but click through and see who these people are. I did this earlier today and 8/10 are like 2nd year graduate students at Souteast Northern Mississippi State University. Should we worry that the "alt-ac pipeline" contains people who for whom #sociologyisasubstitutefor political activism? Eh, suppose so, but in what field aren't 4th raters 4th rate? But, but, but, you say, what about EAG or TMC or alwaysherself or EBS? What about them? I will offer a $10,000 reward to anyone who can show that EAG & co. has had ANY effect on their careers. Take a deep breath, OP. The important work that is being presented at ASAs is not being live tweeted by @transmammalfurry, the 1st year grad student from Cal State Slab City.