Author: Jeffrey S. Victor
Jeffrey S. Victor, PhD, is a retired professor of sociology at Jamestown Community College, where he taught for thirty-six years, from 1965 until 2001. He has published two books, twelve chapters in edited books, and thirty-nine articles in popular and scholarly magazines. His first book was a textbook for college courses in Human Sexuality. His second book, Satanic Panic: The Creation of Contemporary Legend, is a sociological research study of rumors and claims about secret criminal satanic cults and false accusations of such crimes. The book received the H. L. Mencken Award from the Free Press Association for the best book of 1993 that deals with the protection of individual rights against abuses of power. His book has been used in many criminal cases involving false accusations of crime, supposedly committed by people in satanic cults.
Trump’s Authoritarian Social Movement: A Social Psychological Analysis
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” —Voltaire The Question Why do millions of Americans believe the lies, distortions, and fabrications that have been asserted by Donald Trump? Trump is selling stories. Why are so many people buying them? To answer this question, I will use social psychological principles to …
The Rise of White Christian Nationalism: Why Now?
In recent decades, the dominant role of White Christian culture in everyday American life has been in sharp decline, and paradoxically, as a result, the political influence of White Christian nationalism has increased. A word of caution must be kept in mind. White Christian nationalism reflects the thinking of only a small minority of Christians …
The Social Consequences of Economic Inequality
In my opinion, economic inequality is the second greatest danger that Americans will face in the near future. The first is climate warming. And, like climate warming, the consequences of economic inequality creep up on us slowly, until it is too late to change. The danger is the fact that great wealth translates into the …
The Social Forces Behind Trump’s War on Science
As you know well, the Trump Administration is ignoring or even censoring scientific evidence that enforces past federal regulations that protect the American people. It is eliminating federal regulations restricting toxic pollution of the air and water. It seeks to do away with restrictions on the purity of our food. It seeks to eliminate restrictions …