DailyWire+ host Dr. Jordan B. Peterson condemned those in academia who oppose meritocracy after a paper defending the concept was rejected from multiple scientific journals.

The paper, entitled “In Defense of Merit in Science” and authored by a number of prominent academics such as John McWhorter and Peter Boghossian, contended that modern postsecondary institutions replace merit with “politically motivated criteria” in a manner which threatens the “core principles of liberal epistemology.” The researchers opposed the ideologies of postmodernism and critical social justice, some proponents of which assert that scientific inquiry is “racist” and “patriarchal,” in favor of meritocracy as the ideal mechanism for “maximizing scientific advances.”

“Scientific truths are universal and independent of the personal attributes of the scientist. Science knows no ethnicity, gender, or religion,” the paper noted. “In order to achieve a more fair and equitable scientific community, we should strengthen meritocratic practices. It would be unjust and pernicious not to identify and nurture talent wherever it may be found.”