Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office • Hacker News Board

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#11

Post by hueving » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:07 PM UTC

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates.

Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke.

This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks there aren't fiscally conservative scientists out there who want to shape the Republican party into something better is deluding themselves.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#12

Post by sremani » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:07 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #8

sremani wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the "technocrats" at least the American versions of it come from "Soft" Sciences. e.g: Elizabeth Warren, Samantha Powers. I welcome technocrats from hard-sciences and engineering.

Elizabeth Warren is not a technocrat IMO. Studying Law does not give you any background in science or engineering. It does make you very good at making arguments in support of arbitrary things and bullshitting, but I'm not sure that's something we should encourage in politicians.

You are correct, I thought she was an economist, which does not seem to be the case.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#13

Post by croon » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:08 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #6

The article doesn't mention the word "technocrat" but the wiki seems relevant even if the scientists only have modest goals of participating in government rather than grand ambitions of controlling the government from the top down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy

I'm not sure it applies. You can still be well educated and greedy/egotistical and not work for your constituents.

But within elections, what else SHOULD we vote for other than merit?

What really bothered me when Obama was elected was people throwing the word "elitism" around, because he was smart, eloquent and well educated, like that was somehow a bad thing.

I sure as hell hope that the people elected are smarter than me, because I would have no idea what I was doing in office.

But I guess we'll now see what happens when you elect someone that's "just like us", except born with money.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#14

Post by croon » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:10 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #11

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates. Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke. This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks…

When science is a partisan issue, what else can you do?

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#15

Post by mkaziz » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:11 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #11

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates. Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke. This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks…

Considering how anti-science republicans tend to be, I'm not surprised.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#16

Post by tonyedgecombe » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:13 PM UTC

sremani wrote: post #12

hueving wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elizabeth Warren is not a technocrat IMO. Studying Law does not give you any background in science or engineering. It does make you very good at making arguments in support of arbitrary things and bullshitting, but I'm not sure that's something we should encourage in politicians.

You are correct, I thought she was an economist, which does not seem to be the case.

Some might argue that would be even worse.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#17

Post by maxxxxx » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:14 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #11

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates. Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke. This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks…

If anything they should be happy to get scientifically minded people from any party. This seems stupid from the start.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#18

Post by tomjen3 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:15 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #14

hueving wrote: post #11

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates. Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke. This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks…

When science is a partisan issue, what else can you do?

Right, but then why would you back a party that hates GMOs and vaccines?

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#19

Post by mac01021 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

mkaziz wrote: post #15

hueving wrote: post #11

>For now, 314 Action will only back Democratic candidates. Great. When you're being accused of being partisan, the best way to come back is to form an organization backing potential political candidates of just one party. What a joke. This is a squandered opportunity to try to get scientific minded people into running for the republican seats, which is how you would get real change in the discourse. Anyone who thinks…

Considering how anti-science republicans tend to be, I'm not surprised.

They may tend to be, but they are not universally so.

And the appearance of partisan bias is much easier to avoid if you have at least one guy from each party.

Re: Scientists Are Planning to Run for Office

#20

Post by cderwin » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:17 PM UTC

jasonkostempski wrote: post #4

I think tech people should be doing this too.

You say that, but take a look at the HN thread on Peter Thiel's prospective gubernatorial campaign[0]. It's needless to say the idea of a Thiel governorship was not very popular.

This isn't to say the criticism found there is unreasonable, just that it's not special. People in science and people in tech can get involved in politics, but most of the political issues out there are not scientific or technological so support for them will break down on ideological lines, not technocratic ones. The case of Peter Thiel isn't special, i.e. a conservative member of the tech community would not prefer Richard Stallman to Marco Rubio, just as a progressive member of the tech community would not prefer Peter Thiel to Jerry Brown.

If you want technocracy, I would suggest encouraging tech-minded folks to move to the public sector rather than run for office. Personally I would oppose that, as I think most tech talent would be somewhat wasted there.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13401358