A Blue-Collar View of Psychology’s Woke Drift

My return to graduate school revealed an academic world unrecognizable from the one I left

I’ve recently gone back to school to pursue a master’s in psychology, focusing on Industrial and Organizational studies. That decision followed years of detours, mistakes, and hard lessons. I didn’t always want to go into the field.

I grew up in Edina, Minnesota—comfortable, though not at the wealthiest tier of “Cake-Eater” life. Like any proper Hornet, I did the expected thing: went to college. My first run at the University of Kentucky was less “Van Wilder” and more drinking cheap liquor listening to Pantera alone in my dorm room, but I still managed to stretch seven years into an undergraduate career without finishing. With just a handful of Spanish credits left, I bailed, convinced college was pointless.

Instead, I enrolled at the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Orlando, chasing a dream of Harley-Davidson work. That didn’t last. Reality set in, and I returned to Kentucky, knocked out my missing Spanish classes in one brutal summer, and finally graduated in 2008 with an undergraduate degree in psychology just in time for the financial crisis to blow up the job market.

The only work I could find was at a Harley-Davidson dealership in New Orleans. That meant six sales managers in six months, crooked owners, and an unhealthy mix of booze and bad decisions. I eventually crawled back to Minnesota broke, aimless, and living in my mom’s basement. After a brief stint in county jail—where I vowed to straighten myself out—I found ironwork. It paid the bills, gave me stability, and kept me out of trouble. Thirteen years later, though, my body is worn down and my patience for the industry is gone. I needed something new, and graduate school seemed like the path forward.

Two months into a graduate psychology program at a major university (one that advertises on conservative podcasts, no less), I’ve discovered that the professional world of psychology has been fully captured by ideology. The curriculum isn’t simply about learning to practice responsibly, but about absorbing a particular worldview.

Take the required text, Decoding the Ethics Code by Celia B. Fisher. On paper, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) ethics code emphasizes neutrality: beneficence, integrity, respect for human dignity, and so on. Psychologists, in theory, are supposed to check their biases at the door. Yet Fisher herself proudly advertises her work on “affirming LGBTQ youth” and “coronavirus racial bias.” Her paraphrasing of APA principles subtly shifts the meaning, transforming “equal quality” into “equitable access.” Those words aren’t interchangeable, as even Merriam-Webster acknowledges. Equality means the same standard; equity means adjusted standards in pursuit of ideological “fairness.”

The problem isn’t isolated to one author. Professional psychology organizations—APA, APS, ABAI, the American Psychiatric Association—are littered with DEI policies and statements on gender ideology. How did I come to find this out? An assignment to track down at least three professional organizations in my field of study. Naturally, I Googled, “professional organizations in psychology.” While researching the different organizations origins, I came across many “About Us” pages where I began to find a similar trend. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has gone so far as to issue public statements on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, “gender-affirming” care, and the defense of DEI in medical education. These are the institutions setting the rules for how psychologists treat vulnerable patients. The politics are impossible to miss.

The gulf between the working class and the "educated elite" is becoming universally acknowledged by both sides of the aisle. I live both worlds every day: hard-hat ironwork in the morning, graduate seminars at night. The contrast is revealing, allowing me to notice things my peers might miss. Being a part of the blue collar work force is something the majority of the people I now share classrooms with will never experience. Some might see that as a blessing, but I see it as a missed opportunity to gain some perspective—which often requires getting your hands dirty.

In academia, word count is treated as substance. Assignments demand “substantive posts” measured by length, not clarity. Students posture with jargon, competing to sound more scholarly than the last. And always, the sources we must cite come from the same ideological pipeline—the same journals and institutions marinated in DEI rhetoric. Conservative sources are dismissed as unserious or “unreliable.”

Meanwhile, fraud in academic research is rampant and acknowledged. Yet the system demands we pretend otherwise, building our arguments only with approved, ideologically filtered sources.

Looking back, it almost feels intentional. Undergraduate programs funnel students into debt and conformity. For those who break away, re-entry requires swallowing an even stronger dose of orthodoxy—especially in online graduate programs, where all communication is sanitized through discussion boards and word counts.

There is a clear barrier to entry. If you want to join the professional class, you must adopt its worldview. If not, expect cancellation, lawsuits, or professional exile.

This capture of psychology is particularly disturbing because therapy isn’t just another academic field. It deals with people at their most vulnerable—children, trauma survivors, those in crisis. And yet, the ideological gatekeepers seem more interested in shaping society than healing individuals.

I’m grateful my program gave me a chance despite my unimpressive GPA and unconventional path. But what I’ve found in graduate psychology is less a pursuit of truth than a catechism of woke ideology. For those considering a career in this field: know what you’re walking into.

These institutional biases are deeply-entrenched, but they’re not invincible. Their grip is slipping. What matters is that we keep exposing the indoctrination and keep fighting back—for the sake of both higher education and the people it’s supposed to serve.

We welcome you to share your thoughts on this piece in the comments below. Click here to view our comment section moderation policy. 

The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism or its employees.

In keeping with our mission to promote a common culture of fairness, understanding, and humanity, we are committed to including a diversity of voices and encouraging compassionate and good-faith discourse.

We are actively seeking other perspectives on this topic and others. If you’d like to join the conversation, please send drafts to submissions@fairforall.org.