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Mission accomplished. The US has been an a downward slide into privatization and disenfranchisement since at least the early 80s, probably earlier. I was born i

Mission accomplished. The US has been an a downward slide into privatization and disenfranchisement since at least the early 80s, probably earlier. I was born in the late 70s and have watched the gradual dismantlement of public institutions my entire life. Where this matters is: academics used to be able to conduct pure research. Now all they do is fundraise and hustle for grants. Anyone used to be able to go to college. Now the gatekeepers decide who has enough money or connections to attend. We even used to have news and (gasp) investigative journalism and public broadcasting and periodic reports to the public on the state of publicly funded research or some great public works project. Now we have infotainment and the suppression of any real tech that might materially improve lives by reducing the workload of the average person. They only fixate on phantom tech that distracts and enslaves. Now wonder the public doesn't care. If we really want to get serious about fixing this stuff, it's going to involve at least in some part, a total rejection of vast swaths of the status quo. I'm all for that, I think most Gen Xers are for that, and certainly most people younger than that are for that. But there is just so much concentrated wealth now diluting social movements. And so much momentum behind the previous generation in congress that will do everything it can to hold onto power in the face of so many calamities we face, because at the end of the day, it's not their problem so they're just never gonna get the memo. If a spiritual revolution away from wealth concentration isn't already underway, it's going to start with some version of "your money's no good here." And individuals withdrawing their contribution from institutions which concentrate wealth and power.

dimitrios1 5y ago
While privatization and the fundraising rat race for grants certainly started us down this trend, academia has been it's own worse enemy recently, and it's primary output these days seems to be ideology and activism, rather than cold, hard, factual, evidenced based research and science, so much so, that the activism and ideology has worked its way into the science itself. It's a poisoned well at this point, and it's sad, having worked in a research lab at university myself in the computer vision department, there is still tons of cool things going on, but they all get massively overshadowed by the hot button issues and whatever the Social Justice cause du jour is.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  Yeah. It's not "what happens when the public lose confidence in academic findings?" It's "what happens when academia is no longer worthy of the public confidence?" I mean, it's not totally that. But it's sure a big chunk of the problem.
spaetzleesser 5y ago
I think the idolization of business is killing public institutions. Instead of looking at the greater good everything is focused on money and numbers to achieve. This has corrupted politics, research, education and healthcare.

dimitrios1 5y ago

While privatization and the fundraising rat race for grants certainly started us down this trend, academia has been it's own worse enemy recently, and it's primary output these days seems to be ideology and activism, rather than cold, hard, factual, evidenced based research and science, so much so, that the activism and ideology has worked its way into the science itself. It's a poisoned well at this point, and it's sad, having worked in a research lab at university myself in the computer vision department, there is still tons of cool things going on, but they all get massively overshadowed by the hot button issues and whatever the Social Justice cause du jour is.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago
Yeah. It's not "what happens when the public lose confidence in academic findings?" It's "what happens when academia is no longer worthy of the public confidence?" I mean, it's not totally that. But it's sure a big chunk of the problem.

spaetzleesser 5y ago

I think the idolization of business is killing public institutions. Instead of looking at the greater good everything is focused on money and numbers to achieve. This has corrupted politics, research, education and healthcare.