The DEI Crackdown Has Begun—But the Battle Is Far From Over
Destroying bad systems isn’t enough—we need to replace them and build something better.
Some people seem to think, now that the Trump administration has cracked down on DEI and many of the glaring problems it created, like the open border, that the job is done, case closed, let’s dust off our hands.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Dislodging Social Justice orthodoxy from the educational system has all the hallmarks of a pitched battle.
If the burning Teslas weren’t an indicator that this isn’t over, looking at some of the major national education governing organizations should give people pause.
Even with Executive orders, ending DEI, and a hair-curling Valentine’s Day Dear Colleague Letter calling for schools to cease their discriminatory practices, you still don’t see hasty changes in messaging. For a few quick examples, you can check the mission and vision page of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), the core values of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), or the response to the Trump administration’s reforms from the National Education Association (NEA). All of these sites continue to include vigorous support of racist diversity, equity, and inclusion ideals.
It would be a big mistake to take the pressure off.
At the same time, many are feeling unsettled and lost in the wake of so much rapid-fire change. The path to solving both these problems is the same. Build new things.
Changes in the law move with the speed and grace of a saber-tooth cat caught in a tar pit. Fixing accreditation will require concerted effort in both state and federal legislatures. That means careful legal writing, many phone calls, and probably more than one push to get legislation to a vote.
Exhibiting superb timing, David Randall, director of research at the National Association of Scholars, has revealed that much of the legal groundwork has already been done. However, citizens nationwide will still need to evaluate whether the proposed legislation suits their needs. Once terms are agreed on, bills must be ushered through the process of becoming law.
While we buckle down for that extended brawl, we can also focus our attention on initiatives that may be easier to pass, and create competing structures that will provide an ethical counterpoint to multiculturalism and Critical Theories.
A big component in the ability of dangerous ideology to sweep through so many professional organizations was the lack of an organized opposition. When the early adopters of multiculturalism were making plans to build a utopia, one counseling client at a time, they simply didn’t invite those who disagreed.
Instead of forming a competing professional group to represent their beliefs, many practitioners worked in isolation, helping clients as they could but avoiding conflict with professional outlets. Only recently have alternative groups emerged, such as the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA), which split from the ACA in 2019.
This needs to change.
The ACA, CACREP, and other professional organizations have abandoned ethical integrity in favor of ideological enforcement. This is a call to action to create better alternatives.
A critical part of that will be taking a principled stance that not only declares positions about the nature of reality and therapy’s role within that reality but also creates a structure—or perhaps a group of structures—that can resist ideological and governmental co-oping.
The question of ethics is not a small one.
The ACA’s code of ethics—and similar directives from other organizations—have already been weaponized to strip practitioners of their constitutional rights. Any new system must be designed to safeguard both clients and practitioners from ideological coercion.
This will be of particular importance as the Department of Education is wound down with power and authority returning to the states. Even solidly republican states will have to purge CACREP requirements from licensure standards, and that will be much easier with a professional organization to support the process. Practitioners running counter to the Social Justice orthodoxy in blue states will need the support and investment of outsiders to turn the tide in their locations. They will also need new organizations to do that.
If the history of the printing press can inform our current situation, where even toddlers have the sum of human knowledge at their pudgy peanut-butter-covered fingertips, it suggests that we are only at the beginning of a revolution in how education is delivered and how individuals verify they know what they say they know.
The ivory tower may soon look a lot more like a sand castle. And that’s not a problem—it’s an opportunity. The future belongs to those who build.
True reform requires more than legal or ballot box victories—it demands the construction of new institutions, new accreditation bodies, new professional organizations, and even new educational systems that uphold ethical integrity rather than ideological conformity. The absence of an organized counterforce allowed ideology to take root; now, the priority must be to build something stronger in its place.
This means strategic persistence. It means drafting and advocating for legislation that dismantles unethical mandates. It means forming coalitions that stand firm against ideological capture. Most importantly, it means refusing to retreat into complacency.
The future of education, therapy, and professional ethics depends on those willing to do more than oppose—It needs those willing to create.
Housekeeping
I have been visiting with local political groups, and the mood has been energized. Many are excited to see if this new environment will allow for reducing some of the regulations getting in the way of freedom.
As we are also super close to where Hurricane Helene hit the hardest, there was also talk of investing in neighbors. There was a disdain for FEMA and people from the government wanting to help.
I am also very excited by the work the National Association of Scholars has done writing transferable legislation to disempower accreditation and to protect practitioners of all types from professional ethics codes. I can hardly wait to get a moment to read over them carefully.
Personally, I think that licensing requirements serve more to gatekeep and limit who can join the profession than protect clients. I’d love to see them either limited or obtainable in many different ways rather than tied to getting an expensive and worthless degree.
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I’ve also been on several podcasts lately. If you haven’t yet, please check them out. The list is below. If there is something in particular you’re curious about, do ask questions in the comments.
Ideological Oasis with Karen King,
The Radical Center with Leslie Boyce,
Ryan Rogers’—author of The Woke Mind—channel,
Outliers in Exile with Gen X Jeff, and have scheduled two recordings on the horizon. Thank you all!
On the Bookshelf
I am proud to report that I have read several chapters this week. It’s true that I have also picked up another book without finishing any of the others already at hand. The thing is, I’m trying to wrap my around why people who purport so loudly that they care about people and the environment are burning cars and threatening their neighbors. It’s a lot of crazy all at once. I feel like people need to get some help.
We Have Never Been Woke The Cultural Contradictions of the New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman
The New Know-nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature by Morton Hunt
Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic and Human Frailty by Laszlo Mero
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard by Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, Pheme Perkins
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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