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U.S. science is in chaos

scientificamerican.com

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Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#61

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

IsTom wrote: post #41
gignico wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all should feel sad and angry. That said, this was never about saving money. This is about keeping scientists under tight control by the government, in order to suppress research on climate change and other controversial topics. If the government can cut your grant at any time without notice or appeal you will think twice before publishing results that go against their ideology, or even before publishing a critici…

I just want to vent: climate change is not a controversial topic, it's an inconvenient topic for people making a lot of money.

The controversy is over whether we should learn more about it and take appropriate actions, or ignore it. This fundamental disagreement makes it a controversial topic.

Reminds me of the when all the catholic priests were molesting kids and being moved around instead of outed and prosecuted. This was also a controversial topic too for the same reasons. Some people wanted to take action, while other (more powerful) people wanted to ignore it.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#62

Post by timr »

Avicebron wrote: post #52
timr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's actually more contrusctive to outline what the post you both are replying to you don't like and more specifically why?

> It's actually more contrusctive to outline what the post you both are replying to you don't like and more specifically why?

Come on. I wrote a multi-paragraph post with an argument (I am the OP), and the parent wrote: "what the fuck" in response.

Reply to him and ask him what he thinks is so offensive, don't ask me to make an intellectual rebuttal. I honestly shouldn't have responded at all, but I couldn't resist because of the commenter's profile. It's just so common to see someone in science who won't even engage with an argument like mine, and dismisses it with profanity/insults.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#63

Post by newsclues »

Currently there are lots of systems that are in chaos.

Rather than demand reversion back to mean, we should be asking, "Before we reset this system back to the way it was, was it working and are there improvements to be made?"

Because the current chaos can be viewed as an opportunity to improve, and we should take it because may of the systems in chaos today, were dysfunctional or in need of modernization yesterday.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#64

Post by irchans »

nkrisc wrote: post #21

[flagged]

Certainly most universities now have a very strong liberal bias. I think most science departments were left leaning in the 1950s, but it is stronger now. (I think colleges and universities have always been more progressive than the general populous.) The administrations of universities are now very strongly Democrat leaning. I think that Trump just sees a lot of Democrat run institutions and thinks, "Why should the government support these institutions run almost entirely by Democrats."

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#65

Post by franktankbank »

api wrote: post #40
bsenftner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, that fantasy is over, with the new Era of Moron Power. The future of humanity of absolutely Asian. Western culture is Rome on Fire.

The irony is that the people who screamed the most that Rome was on fire aggressively pushed for what you brilliantly call Moron Power. They thought we were crashing, rushed the cockpit, and pushed forward as hard as they could on the stick. Forward is up, right?

I'm sorry but Rome certainly didn't have airplanes.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#66

Post by ffsm8 »

IsTom wrote: post #44
cubefox wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't think I've ever met a leftist denying evolution.

Me neither. Lots of them deny that certain differences between humanity exist however, and that's just biology.

Eg. Fe-/male and racial differences. They exist, yet they cannot be admitted to and any reference to them will have the political left call you a nazi, racist, sexist and pedo to boot, because the other terms are already less impactful from overuse

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#69

Post by kranke155 »

marcyb5st wrote: post #45
collinmcnulty wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately there is another possibility: a return to great power competition.

I don't see that happening. The US debt will hinder any big expense that could keep it in any game long term. Take AI for instance. The US grid is struggling to keep up with demand, while Chinese one has a lot of headway [1]. Usually, this could be solved by an increase in spending lasting a few years which would make the debt tick up, but that would've been an absolutely fine use of debt since it buys some shiny new…

It is absolutely a Chinese century. Even the comment above isn’t wrong per se - great power competition is normal during the interregnum, ie as Arrighi described it - one hegemon is rising while another is declining. But eventually one of them does rise and the world conforms to that - ie America in post WW2.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#70

Post by IsTom »

ffsm8 wrote: post #66
IsTom wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever met a leftist denying evolution.

Me neither. Lots of them deny that certain differences between humanity exist however, and that's just biology. Eg. Fe-/male and racial differences. They exist, yet they cannot be admitted to and any reference to them will have the political left call you a nazi, racist, sexist and pedo to boot, because the other terms are already less impactful from overuse

> any reference to them will have the political left call you a nazi, racist, sexist and pedo to boot

I think this boils down to the fact it's typically just a thin veil for motivated reasoning.

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