Meet the Literature Professor Fired for Teaching Literature ⁠74%

By Josh Code⁠90%

7/31/2026, 3:58:31 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Framing Effect, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 28.8% saturation with 95 hits. Analysis detected 824 faulty-reasoning hits from 330 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 58.5% and a BS Rank of ⁠74% (7,605 of 28,907 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 73.70% of the article peer group.

“Most people have had anal sex. 
Don’t look so surprised.” 
Those two sentences, spoken by a heavy-drinking, drug-using high school teacher to her students in a short story, never caused professor Vinita Prabhakar any trouble. 
She’s been teaching it for nearly a decade. 
But in February, a staff member apparently complained about the assignment, and the story was forwarded to South Florida State College (SFSC) president Fred Hawkins, a Republican former Florida House member who is an ally of Governor Ron DeSantis. 
“I don’t ever want to see this story again,” Prabhakar said she was told by Hawkins, adding that he wouldn’t want his college-age daughter reading it. 
The college president also said the story was “political.” 
The next day, she was suspended and told that her contract wouldn’t be renewed. 
On Wednesday, Prabhakar sued SFSC and Hawkins in federal court. 
She alleges that what happened violates Florida’s Campus Free Expression Act, signed into law by DeSantis in 2021. 
The law says that state colleges in Florida “may not shield students, faculty, or staff from expressive activities” and protects “faculty lectures, writings, and commentary.” 
Prabhakar is seeking to get her old job back, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, and is being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). 
Hawkins and SFSC could not be reached for comment. 
The short story “Bettering Myself” by Ottessa Moshfegh is certainly racy but not expressly political, and Prabhakar says that she taught it for three years at SFSC before the spring semester class that led to her removal from the classroom. 
But the lawsuit is yet another collision between free speech and DeSantis’ campaign to excise concepts of sexism and racism from the curricula of public schools, including higher-education institutions. 
In early July, a federal appeals court struck down the higher-ed provisions of one of DeSantis’ weapons in that fight—the Stop W.O.K.E. 
Act, signed into law by the governor in 2022. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 13.0%Josh Code: 8.4%The FP: 5.0%Confirmation Bias13.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.9%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 1.8%Josh Code: 0.6%The FP: 4.1%Availability Heuristic1.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.6%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.2%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.5%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 25.8%Josh Code: 26.4%The FP: 8.8%Framing Effect25.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.4%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 2.4%Josh Code: 0.8%The FP: 0.4%Status Quo Bias2.4%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 8.8%Josh Code: 2.9%The FP: 1.4%Optimism Bias8.8%This article: 12.1%Josh Code: 4.0%The FP: 1.5%Pessimism Bias12.1%This article: 28.8%Josh Code: 15.5%The FP: 9.3%Negativity Bias28.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.1%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.2%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.5%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 7.9%Josh Code: 2.6%The FP: 1.2%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias7.9%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 2.0%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.4%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 9.7%Josh Code: 3.2%The FP: 1.9%Recency Bias9.7%This article: 11.8%Josh Code: 3.9%The FP: 0.9%Primacy Effect11.8%This article: 2.7%Josh Code: 0.9%The FP: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias2.7%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 2.1%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.0%Straw Man0.0%This article: 7.6%Josh Code: 2.5%The FP: 3.0%Appeal to Authority7.6%This article: 12.1%Josh Code: 4.0%The FP: 2.4%False Dilemma12.1%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.9%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 3.5%The FP: 7.9%Hasty Generalization0.0%This article: 11.8%Josh Code: 3.9%The FP: 0.3%Red Herring11.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.9%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 1.2%Josh Code: 4.0%The FP: 5.1%Appeal to Emotion1.2%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 1.2%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 14.2%Josh Code: 4.7%The FP: 2.1%Post Hoc (False Cause)14.2%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 7.9%Josh Code: 2.6%The FP: 0.6%Burden of Proof7.9%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.4%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 1.8%Josh Code: 0.6%The FP: 3.3%Anecdotal1.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 2.7%Josh Code: 0.9%The FP: 1.6%Ambiguity (Equivocation)2.7%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.0%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 0.2%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 7.9%Josh Code: 3.6%The FP: 2.3%Unattributed Quote7.9%This article: 1.8%Josh Code: 2.2%The FP: 1.7%Quote-first Misdirection1.8%This article: 27.6%Josh Code: 16.3%The FP: 13.9%Biased Writer Voice27.6%This article: 10.6%Josh Code: 3.5%The FP: 2.4%Indoctrination10.6%This article: 8.8%Josh Code: 11.0%The FP: 0.6%Politically Left Leaning Bias8.8%This article: 0.0%Josh Code: 0.0%The FP: 2.8%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 8.8%Josh Code: 2.9%The FP: 3.4%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…8.8%

330 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker11%attributed speech295writer words
Selected voice

Fred Hawkins

100%flagged-word coverage
35 attributed words100% of attributed speech97% writer coverage
0%37.5%75.0%Unattributed Quote+74.3 ptsWriter: 0.0%Fred Hawkins: 74.3%74.3%Biased Writer Voice-30.8 ptsWriter: 30.8%Fred Hawkins: 0.0%0.0%Indoctrination-11.9 ptsWriter: 11.9%Fred Hawkins: 0.0%0.0%Politically Left Leaning B-9.8 ptsWriter: 9.8%Fred Hawkins: 0.0%0.0%Attempt to Sell a Product -9.8 ptsWriter: 9.8%Fred Hawkins: 0.0%0.0%Quote-first Misdirection-2.0 ptsWriter: 2.0%Fred Hawkins: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.