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"in protest of the politicization of science and science funding at the NIH" As if there wasn't politicization of science and science funding during the entire

"in protest of the politicization of science and science funding at the NIH" As if there wasn't politicization of science and science funding during the entire last administration. There was just more of an alignment of worldview between scientists and that administration. Scientists who didn't share the worldview or walk in lockstep still got oppressed and silenced.

jekwoooooe 1y ago
Both things are true. Trump is destroying our science presence AND Biden and co heavily politicized science regarding gender, trans, all that stuff to the point where you aren’t even allowed to do research at all! Science should ALWAYS be free to ask questions and explore them no matter how uncomfortable they sound. And this is a huge overreaction to how the left politicized science their way and continued to say that’s it not political. And now they complain about it… can’t have it both ways.
- sparkie 1y ago
  Scientists should be free to research what they want of course, provided that research does not cause harm to anyone. But, scientists should not have access taxpayer funding to conduct whatever little experiments they want. There's not an infinite pot of money, and it is elected officials who decide how the pot gets spent. And in turn, the people decide who the elected officials are through the ballot. The administration was elected. These entitled signatories were not. It is not for them to decide how taxpayer money is spent. If you want to conduct science without politics, don't depend on taxpayer money to do your research. Find a private source of funding.
  - jekwoooooe 1y ago
    Universities aren’t just a source of funding they are a means of doing the research. Universities have plenty of private money too but they refused to allow any research that went against a progressive narrative.
- jaybrendansmith 1y ago
  These two things are NOT THE SAME. Firing the ACIP and replacing it with people who do not believe in Vaccines is not the same thing as whatever you think Biden did. Destroying our entire Life Sciences research establishment is not the same thing is whatever you think Biden did. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccine-advice-vandalized https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccine-advice-van...
- amy_petrik 1y ago
  >Science should ALWAYS be free to ask questions and explore them no matter how uncomfortable they sound. And this is a huge overreaction to how the left politicized science their way and continued to say that’s it not political. Like when a google employee was free to ask questions as to whether it was that women don't like programming as much as men, and got immediately fired? Because of course the cause is sexism. Like when James Watson had suggested intelligence was genetic, and if races differ genetically, so too may their intelligence... also fired from Stony Brook leadership. Because of course alleles that confer intelligence genetically are magically perfectly balanced in frequency across all races. Not to pick on leftists for ruining careers, the right has done this to leftists as well - see David Bohm, a Pennsylvania native and at the time brilliant contemporary of Richard Feynman, who lived out his life in Brazil because McCarthyism got him. Thing is, the left did politicize science, just read Nature: https://www.nature.com/collections/daficfhiff https://www.nature.com/collections/daficfhiff Or you can read what you need to get a professorship: https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/faculty-application-diversity-statement/ https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/faculty-application-... DEI is essentially a commissar type system where one must pledge to the political officer allegiance to the cause, one where proletariat origins are favored over bourgeois. Trump's response is heavy handed but what is happening here is poisonous and insidious, insofar as outright hiring one demographic group over another is universally seen as evil, but hiding it behind a process of bureaucracy and good intentions somehow transforms it into virtuosity. DEI is basically a parasite that has infected many systems and hurt many people, it would be more elegant to simply remove the parasite, but Trump's tactic of taking a metaphorical flamethrower to the parasite and its host both will garner popular support given a lot of people have a bad taste from DEI.

jekwoooooe 1y ago

Both things are true. Trump is destroying our science presence AND Biden and co heavily politicized science regarding gender, trans, all that stuff to the point where you aren’t even allowed to do research at all! Science should ALWAYS be free to ask questions and explore them no matter how uncomfortable they sound. And this is a huge overreaction to how the left politicized science their way and continued to say that’s it not political. And now they complain about it… can’t have it both ways.

sparkie 1y ago
Scientists should be free to research what they want of course, provided that research does not cause harm to anyone. But, scientists should not have access taxpayer funding to conduct whatever little experiments they want. There's not an infinite pot of money, and it is elected officials who decide how the pot gets spent. And in turn, the people decide who the elected officials are through the ballot. The administration was elected. These entitled signatories were not. It is not for them to decide how taxpayer money is spent. If you want to conduct science without politics, don't depend on taxpayer money to do your research. Find a private source of funding.
- jekwoooooe 1y ago
  Universities aren’t just a source of funding they are a means of doing the research. Universities have plenty of private money too but they refused to allow any research that went against a progressive narrative.
jaybrendansmith 1y ago
These two things are NOT THE SAME. Firing the ACIP and replacing it with people who do not believe in Vaccines is not the same thing as whatever you think Biden did. Destroying our entire Life Sciences research establishment is not the same thing is whatever you think Biden did. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccine-advice-vandalized https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccine-advice-van...
amy_petrik 1y ago
>Science should ALWAYS be free to ask questions and explore them no matter how uncomfortable they sound. And this is a huge overreaction to how the left politicized science their way and continued to say that’s it not political. Like when a google employee was free to ask questions as to whether it was that women don't like programming as much as men, and got immediately fired? Because of course the cause is sexism. Like when James Watson had suggested intelligence was genetic, and if races differ genetically, so too may their intelligence... also fired from Stony Brook leadership. Because of course alleles that confer intelligence genetically are magically perfectly balanced in frequency across all races. Not to pick on leftists for ruining careers, the right has done this to leftists as well - see David Bohm, a Pennsylvania native and at the time brilliant contemporary of Richard Feynman, who lived out his life in Brazil because McCarthyism got him. Thing is, the left did politicize science, just read Nature: https://www.nature.com/collections/daficfhiff https://www.nature.com/collections/daficfhiff Or you can read what you need to get a professorship: https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/faculty-application-diversity-statement/ https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/faculty-application-... DEI is essentially a commissar type system where one must pledge to the political officer allegiance to the cause, one where proletariat origins are favored over bourgeois. Trump's response is heavy handed but what is happening here is poisonous and insidious, insofar as outright hiring one demographic group over another is universally seen as evil, but hiding it behind a process of bureaucracy and good intentions somehow transforms it into virtuosity. DEI is basically a parasite that has infected many systems and hurt many people, it would be more elegant to simply remove the parasite, but Trump's tactic of taking a metaphorical flamethrower to the parasite and its host both will garner popular support given a lot of people have a bad taste from DEI.