As someone who has taken actual Sociology classes (among others) in University and plans to become a teacher in it, a lot of what tumblr and other online SJ spaces describe as “academic” is really hogwash given fancy coating largely perpetuated in online spaces and maybe very specific schools.
TERFs are a good example of this. TERFs like to dress their hate in the words of academia but in reality are a bunch of women children peddling transphobic garbage that would get them kicked out of any reasonable university.
“Oh wow, people who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about? On tumblr.com?!?1?!1??1?!1
“who could have guessed?”
-literally no one ever because anyone with half a brain realizes that tumblr’s full of misinformed morons