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Maybe they are not fans of American citizens being shot in the face?
Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
11–20 of 38 posts
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#12[flagged]
Iraqis and Libyans too.
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#13[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#14[flagged]
You seem to be the one disconnected from reality here...
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#15I'm going to guess that for many signers-- or at least the US ones-- their opposition to the United States and "its unbridled hatred" doesn't extend to not accepting funding from the US taxpayer. Entry requirements and the overhead of dealing with visa hoops are a perennial problem for international conferences, nothing new-- and presumably a part of why it hasn't been held in the US in recent memory. But the languag…
Ain’t much US taxpayer money going to mathematicians and I think that if any goes overseas it would be to US citizens.
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#16"The petition follows months of trepidation about the congress within the math community. “You do not get 1,500 signatures in 10 days without having many, many mathematicians already registering their complaints to their professional societies and to the ICM organizers,” says Ila Varma, a mathematician at the University of Toronto and one of the petition’s co-authors."
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ICM's peak attendance is around four thousand, so 1,500 would-be attendees signing a petition to move the conference in ten days is pretty authoritative.
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#17Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#18Nobody will care if the conference isn’t held in Philly. Holding it elsewhere will probably make it a little easier and possibly a little cheaper for people to attend. I doubt mathematicians are part of the 1%, so cash and travel hassle should matter. And given today’s Internet, there’s going to be remote attendance which can happen most anywhere. While it’s still convenient to gather together to discuss a field, it’…
It's just grandstanding.They are mathematicians not political activists. If they want their organization to slide into irrelevance, getting involved in left wing (or right wing, but with academia it's usually left wing) politics is a great way to do that.
Anyone can be a "political activist". An activist is just an ordinary person who has had enough. Unless you believe the only valid way to influence political discourse is with money.
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe they are not fans of American citizens being shot in the face?
Which specific incident are you referring to? Not the one where the American citizen tried to run over the ICE agent with her car, right?
Clearly that one although it is unclear if she really wanted to run him over. That was a sorry event on all sides from the 'professional protesters' who think they can just interfere with police operations without running any risk themselves - the woman's partner screamed 'why did you use real bullets' - to the policeman who, having been dragged along by an illegal several weeks ago was clearly hair-triggered when it comes to vehicular assault.
The lesson to be learned here is that a) protesters should realise that they are bound by the same laws as all others no matter how virtuous they consider their causes to be and that interfering with police operations comes with real risks and b) the combination of such actions by protesters with the experiences police officers have had during encounters with their targets can make them react in ways which it can be assumed they'd normally not have done. Shooting that woman did not reduce the risk for the police officer, at all. It actually increased the risk of damage to him or others because wounded or dead people behind the wheel can turn vehicles into unguided projectiles.
Re: Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just grandstanding.They are mathematicians not political activists. If they want their organization to slide into irrelevance, getting involved in left wing (or right wing, but with academia it's usually left wing) politics is a great way to do that.
Anyone can be a "political activist". An activist is just an ordinary person who has had enough. Unless you believe the only valid way to influence political discourse is with money.
Sure, anyone can be an activist but it is clear that academia has been turned into an activist training centre. It is also remarkable how these supposedly intelligent people go astray when it comes to the causes they support, from supporting Hamas to defending those who'd throw them off high buildings or putting them against the wall if they got their chance.