Lisa Wade is an associate professor of sociology at Occidental College. She is also a writer and editor for the leftist blog Sociological Images.
Professor Wade is very outspoken on many issues, as sociologists tend to be. However, some of her comments are rather disconcerting coming from a professor, and much of what she has written is supported by ridiculous notions.
In a tweet from June, Professor Wade shared a link that was critical of the conservative student group Turning Point USA’s literature, adding the caption, “Well, this is both hilarious and horrifying. A booklet on how to combat your liberal professor.”
Aside from being “horrified” that conservative students are fighting back against leftist bias, Wade has been making personal attacks against students in majors outside of sociology.
On March 25th of this year, she posted an article on Sociological Images titled “Are Economics Majors Anti-Social?” The opening paragraph reads: “Yep. Economics majors are more anti-social than non-econ majors. And taking econ classes also makes people more anti-social than they were before. It turns out, there’s quite a bit of research on this, nicely summarized here. Econ majors are less likely to share, less generous to the needy, and more likely to cheat, lie, and steal.”
How does the Professor know this? She cites one study in particular, which says economics majors are less “generous” because they are less likely to give to WashPIRG, a leftist advocacy organization, than other majors.
“Well, this is both hilarious and horrifying. A booklet on how to combat your liberal professor.”
Occidental College professor Lisa Wade
For those who aren’t familiar with the PIRGs on various campuses, they’re basically foot soldiers for the Democrat and Green parties. As is the case at other schools, students at the University of Washington are hit up for a “fee”, which is really a donation to WashPIRG. They can waive said fee since it isn’t mandatory, and is simply an option at registration. Economics majors are more likely to decline the payment. Therefore, since the study used donating to WashPIRG as one of its criteria for being generous or charitable, economics majors are greedy.
Did anyone involved in this process think to themselves “are economics majors more conservative than sociology majors, and therefore don’t want to donate to a group that advances leftist dogma?” The study also looked at a “non-partisan” group that lobbies to keep tuition rates low, and econ majors were less likely to donate to that as well. Of course, a group that lobbies to keep tuition rates low is still not a charity, and not a good way to measure generosity. It’s also not non-partisan. Often budget disputes for public universities come down to party line votes. How high tuition should be at a public university is political, since tax dollars are involved. In fact, it’s political at private universities, too, since so much tax money gets pumped in those institutions every year.
Wade finishes her piece by saying: “Being exposed to a variety of views, including ones that question the premises of neoclassical economics, may be one way to make economists more honest and kind. And doing so isn’t just about sticking one to econ, it’s an issue of grave seriousness, as the criminal and immoral behavior of our financial leaders is exactly what triggered a Great Recession once… and could again.”
Economics with Professor Wade. Expose yourself to more Marxism or you are a bad person.
Other pieces from Professor Wade include: There are 22 Million Angry, Impulsive Americans with Guns and White American men with their weapons and the bloody summer of 2015.