Bo Winegard on Events Taking Place Across Academia: “I Am Terrified”

“I have never been more depressed about the state of truth in the world.”

On June 23rd, Merion West’s Kevin Turner was joined by Bo Winegard, a former professor at Marietta College whose firing earlier this year received international attention.

As chronicled in Inside Higher Ed, Mr. Winegard:

“…was fired because he dared to talk about human population variation and got slandered as a eugenicist.”

Mr. Winegard’s firing, as well as Merion West’s subsequent interview with him, took place before George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, which has sparked a wider movement aimed at advancing social justice causes in most areas of life, including inside the academy.

“My firing was before this much madness and craziness. It is odd, but I am kind of happy about that; it means I got some attention. Otherwise, I would be lost in the mix of the people who are taken out now.”

On the events taking place across institutions in North America, he says:

“I am terrified of what I am seeing. I think from 2012 or around that the culture started to slowly move in that direction. Maybe it was getting worse, but it somehow exploded in  [the] past three weeks. The last three weeks opened up an opportunity for those illiberal progressive to flux their muscles, and they are not wasting the opportunity to do so.”

Mr. Winegard has an equally negative outlook on the future, saying:

“If these past three weeks have been any indication of how bad it is going to get, it is going to get very bad.”

When asked why he is interested in studying areas that can lead to being ostracized or labeled a eugenicist, he explains:

“Because if you don’t have an understanding of human variation, then you treat any inequality of outcome as evidence of discrimination or prejudice,” he continues, “Freedom leads to more inequality; that is a rule of history.”

On the mission to advance human knowledge, as is the calling for many academics, Mr. Winegard does not hold back his conviction that academia is headed in the wrong direction.

“I have never been more depressed about the state of truth in the world. I have never seen such disregard for the truth in a sense that a group of people comfortably suppress the truth, suppress the normal scientific method.”

Watch below for the full conversation.