Are You Ruining Psychology in the Name of Ethics? Take the ‘Am I the Baddie?’ Quiz And Find Out!
Because nothing says “healing” like coerced ideology.
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🧠 “Am I the Baddie?” — Psychology Edition
Professional Bodies Special: Because gaslighting isn’t bad… when we do it in the name of Social Justice!
📝 Instructions:
Choose the response that best reflects you and your organization’s actual behavior. Tally your most frequent letter to reveal your inner villain. Or, just rewrite the results to preserve your self-image. That works too.
1. A student expresses discomfort with mandatory political ideology in the curriculum. You…
A. Thank them for their honesty, review the program, and ensure ideological neutrality.
B. Tell them their discomfort is their world view being challenged and assign readings from White Fragility.
C. Flag them as “resistant to multicultural competency” and block them from practicum.
D. Suggest they explore their discomfort in therapy—with one of your approved providers.
2. Your accrediting body is accused of creating an unconstitutional standard. You…
A. Pause and reconsider your standards in light of academic freedom and legal obligations.
B. Release a statement saying “free speech is important,” then change nothing.
C. Accuse critics of being “reactionary,” “anti-diversity,” or “possibly alt-right.”
D. Expand the ideological requirements and call it “inclusivity reform.”
3. You’re asked for evidence that your “anti-oppression framework” improves outcomes. You…
A. Share neutral data and remain open to scrutiny.
B. Cite your own publications and hope no one reads the fine print.
C. Provide copies of “A Brief History of My Gendered Body: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Trans, Queer, and Cuban Embodiment.”
D. Accuse the questioner of epistemic violence and stir up a cancel mob to ‘protect’ minorities.
4. A practitioner refuses to adopt your DEI training because it conflicts with their faith. You…
A. Respect their First Amendment rights and seek common ground.
B. Refer to “cultural humility” as a reason they must comply.
C. Threaten their license for “non-adherence to core competencies, under the ACA Code of Ethics.”
D. Smirk. Require the practitioner to go to ‘reeducation' citing the ACA’s Ethical Code. Withhold practicum/graduation/licensure/Compact until they comply. If they file a lawsuit, cite the ACA Code of Ethics and leave them holding the bag.
5. Legislators propose laws to restrict compelled belief in professional education. You…
A. Review the proposal and participate in open dialogue.
B. Call it a “far-right attack on education” in your press release.
C. Mobilize your political arm to flood hearings with activist testimony.
D. Email members: “Now’s the time to resist white supremacy in licensure.”
6. Your ethics board receives a complaint about ideological bullying. You…
A. Investigate thoroughly and neutrally.
B. Ask, “Was it bullying, or just necessary discomfort in the growth process?”
C. Remind everyone that “neutrality maintains systemic oppression.”
D. Add a DEI clause to the ethics code, then retroactively apply it to the complaintant.
7. You see valid academic critiques of your policies. You…
A. Reflect, respond in good faith, and adapt accordingly.
B. Ignore them unless published by Ibram X Kendi and Khaled Meshaal.
C. Launch a panel on “Combating Misinformation in Mental Health.”
D. Publish a special journal issue on how objectivity is colonialist value, therefore racist.
🧾 Results: Tally your letters!
Mostly A’s: The Unicorn
Congratulations! You actually believe in pluralism, academic freedom, and protecting clients from politicized care. You are either from another planet—or you were fired in 2020.
Baddie Rating: 0/10 (Also, have you checked your mailbox for pink slips?)
Mostly B’s: The Bureaucratic Blender
You're not trying to be a baddie. You're just so used to spinning that you forgot what integrity looks like. Everything’s a strategic ambiguity. You "value feedback," right up until it's actionable.
Baddie Rating: 5/10 (More milquetoast than malevolent, but dangerous in numbers.)
Mostly C’s: The True Believer
You believe you're doing good. But you’ve redefined harm so narrowly—and oppression so broadly—that you now see dissent as a pathology. Your policies crush liberty, but you sleep well.
Baddie Rating: 8/10 (Not a mustache-twirler—more like a clipboard tyrant.)
Mostly D’s: The Ideologue-in-Chief
You’ve turned psychology into a crusade. Anyone who disagrees is oppressive. Academic freedom is violence. And all criticism is racism. You don’t just think you’re right—you’ve rewritten reality.
Baddie Rating: 10/10 (You are the baddie. But you probably call that “Social Justice.”)
Housekeeping
I’m writing ahead so that my publication schedule doesn’t suffer when I’m enjoying some other side quests at the end of the month. I’m also hard at work putting together some legislation for TN, so that we can begin to chip away at the legal Gordian knot that’s fused universities, accreditation bodies, licensing boards and interstate agreements, allowing for idealogical capture that is very difficult to uproot.
I’ll be writing more about actions that others can take to do the same in their states, and on the federal level. It is going to take considerable cooperation to make real change, and much of it is going to piss off powerful teachers unions.
Make no mistake. This is going to be difficult, but if enough people are willing to put in the effort, deregulating and changing the necessary laws is doable.
In some very welcome good news, at my urging FAIR has called out CACREP. Now we wait and see what happens.
In other news, Brood XIV 17-year cicadas are in full swing. What had started as pockets of intense chatter has spread to cover most of the area. It’s incredible.
They manage to bore up through some hard packed soil and you can see the evidence all over. Check out these holes!
At first I wasn’t sure if these were from the cicadas, though I had my suspicions. But solid evidence has presented itself and I feel comfortable taking these are the work of emerging nymphs. These nearby the holes.
There are also many fresh born adults very near ready to fly.
Local spittlebugs are also having a moment. These are everywhere. The land is just bursting with spring life.
On the Bookshelf
I haven’t gotten as much reading done this week because I’ve got some planned activities coming up so I’m writing ahead. I continue to find Rebecca Allensworth’s book to be incredibly relevant right now.
Accreditation on the Edge: Challenging Quality Assurance in Higher Education by Susan D. Phillips
The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan
The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong by Rebecca Haw Allensworth
Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic and Human Frailty by Laszlo Mero
The New Know-nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature by Morton Hunt
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard by Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, Pheme Perkins
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman
We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of the New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi
“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education by Brian Rosenberg
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About
Diogenes in Exile began after I returned to grad school to pursue a Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. What I encountered, however, was a program deeply entrenched in Critical Theories ideology. During my time there, I experienced significant resistance, particularly for my Buddhist practice, which was labeled as invalidating to other identities. After careful reflection, I chose to leave the program, believing the curriculum being taught would ultimately harm clients and lead to unethical practices in the field.
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to investigating, writing, and speaking out about the troubling direction of psychology, higher education, and other institutions that seem to have lost their way. When I’m not working on these issues, you’ll find me in the garden, creating art, walking my dog, or guiding my kids toward adulthood.
You can also find my work at Minding the Campus