Perhaps we should call it “problem solving” rather than “thinking.” I guess that’s what I mean when I say it. I hadn’t heard of floating signifiers, so thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes I think there are people out there whose job it is to take the definition of a familiar word (say “family”) and turn it into something else (white traditional Christian family where husband works and wife stays home tending kids). (I call that word the “f-word,” btw, ha ha). Then when a nontraditional family comes along, the word is thrown back at them like “not a traditional family!” Yuck.
I guess I like to pretend there are no shoddy practices in academia, but of course there are. It’s just that I think they pale compared to the shoddy practices in business and government. Why pick on academia, where some professor is sleeping at the job, when there is so much blatant corruption (with far greater negative consequences) going on elsewhere. But I guess if you’ve voted for those people, you want to believe they’re OK!
