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What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

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Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#741

Post by deltarholamda »

relaxing wrote: post #278
dnissley wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A 2021 American Enterprise Institute survey of academic job postings found that 19% required DEI statements, and elite institutions were more likely to require them." https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/fire-statement-use-di... "Speech First, a group advocating for First Amendment rights on US campuses, released an investigation on Thursday that found 165 of 248 selected institutions — from American University to…

“DEI exists” isn’t an argument.

>“DEI exists” isn’t an argument.

But it is. DEI indicates ideological capture. Whether it's good or bad doesn't matter, it's not germane to the purported goals of "advancing science/health/military readiness/etc". At best it's tangential.

If we were a robust and wealthy country, then perhaps we could engage in these sorts of boutique social experiments. But we are not. We've got serious problems on multiple fronts. Fixing it before it all goes blooey means serious disruption, and we're now well into 30 years of positive reinforcement on the ideological capture. You're not going to get the results you need from the people who benefitted from the previous mismanagement. Trump learned that lesson quite directly the last time he was in office.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#742

Post by [deleted] »

hmmm-i-wonder wrote: post #637
scarab92 wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purity spiral. The left won't be competitive in elections until they learn what it is, why it results in alienation of people who would otherwise support them, and find a way to escape it.

One could argue the right with its views on abortion and religion suffers the same problem, one they've largely tackled by voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering.

[deleted]

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#743

Post by causality0 »

lisp2240 wrote: post #658
intended wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a suggestion - at least one of several, which is to understand why we got here. The fact that this is escalating since cable TV, Murdoch, and the internet is not a coincidences. Democracies globally are facing a similar problem, which is an abuse of a core democractic principle: Free speech. Free speech is often valued in and of itself. However, free speech in itself is only a tool that serves a greater purpos…

The problem is, in America, both magnets pull to the right. We have a far right republican party and a center right democratic party. There is no leftwing party to provide balance. There’s not a single democrat who would be considered a leftist outside America.

People who express this sentiment seem to consider "the world" to be composed of North America and Europe. Why do you ignore the conservatives of Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia in your assessment of what "average" is?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#744

Post by rocky_raccoon »

Spooky23 wrote: post #733
jmward01 wrote: post #490

This is a coup and we are calmly debating budgets. Debating the % of budget and how useful organization x is and if y will still get grant money, and, and, and... All of this is ignoring the big elephant in the room that there is one single person deciding everything that happens in government as if they were a king. The right thing to be debating is how we can stop this from continuing and how we can hold those resp…

JFK wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” - no courageous people are around. The “coup” happened a long time ago. The US has demonstrated that there’s no rule of law at the federal level for some time now. Once the Chief Justice leaned back and tolerated the open sale of the court, that was basically it. We don’t have the same system of governance anymore… we’re like Italy 1936 or Argentina in 1948 now. We’ll inv…

> skip the funny hats.

I don't know about that part... those red ball caps are pretty goofy looking.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#745

Post by roelschroeven »

yibg wrote: post #435
tokioyoyo wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an American, but my 2c - a good chunk of people are actively trying to find a reason why their lives are worse than others, haven't gotten better in decades, and are seeing how life is fine across the pond despite not being the richest country in the world. They'll keep blaming everyone, and everything, and whatever comes into their sights. At the same time group of people will exploit it for their gains, as "fig…

I don't disagree with any of this and I can definitely see this in the election results. But this has been the case for a while now. The US has lagged other developed nations on many indicators for a long time. Income inequality, life expectancy, education, you name it. There was a lot of heated debates and intense feelings during the Obama era too. But this time around something seems to have changed, where his supp…

But ... I'm not American, I'm just looking in from the outside, but to me it seems that all these things (income inequality, life expectancy, education, ...) are things that the Democrats try to improve while the Republicans want to limit social security, decent health care, and try to tear down decent education. Yet people vote Republican? To try to improve the things that Republicans will not improve?

It's a sentiment I often see, not just here, and I just don't understand it.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#746

Post by nwatson »

rayiner wrote: post #705
jmward01 wrote: post #490

This is a coup and we are calmly debating budgets. Debating the % of budget and how useful organization x is and if y will still get grant money, and, and, and... All of this is ignoring the big elephant in the room that there is one single person deciding everything that happens in government as if they were a king. The right thing to be debating is how we can stop this from continuing and how we can hold those resp…

A “coup” implies an overthrow of the legal structure of power. Who is being overthrown?

Musk's operations likely are using illegal means and are an overextension of power, while legislative and judicial branches, as well as internal executive branch watchdogs, have abdicated their roles in oversight and control. This is effectively an overthrow.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#747

Post by throwawaymaths »

tmerse wrote: post #474
throwawaymaths wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I chose to get into science for the benefit of the masses why do you suppose most science benefits the masses? a stunning amount of science is negative. homme hellinga cheating and claiming a triosephosphate isomerase, for example. stripey nanoparticles, as another. Thousands of western blots that were cleverly edited by unscrupulous postdocs. everything by diderik stapel. anil potti. those are the ones that got ca…

Luckily those things never happen in the private sector. Theranos?

what does being the private sector have to do with anything? We're talking about use of taxpayer money.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#748

Post by jcranmer »

leereeves wrote: post #723
rayiner wrote: post #705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A “coup” implies an overthrow of the legal structure of power. Who is being overthrown?

[flagged]

There are several laws and constitutional restrictions that prevent the president from doing whatever the fuck he wants.

Under what coherent legal theory is Biden not allowed to cancel student debt obligations to the federal government, but Trump is allowed to cancel government grants explicitly required by law?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#749

Post by hashemian »

jccalhoun wrote: post #719
Gabriel54 wrote: post #141

Despite all the hyperbole in this thread I will try to speak plainly. It has become tiring to see how DEI has affected all aspects of academia. Hiring people based on race, awarding grants to work exclusively with members of a particular set of minorities, etc. I'm sure most people choose to close their eyes to such things and move on and focus on the actual important work but there must be unimaginable waste going o…

"It has become tiring to see how DEI has affected all aspects of academia. Hiring people based on race, awarding grants to work exclusively with members of a particular set of minorities, etc." You mention in another comment diversity in admissions but that is not hiring or grants. Do you have any examples of hiring people based on race in academia?

This is one: https://x.com/JohnDSailer/status/1883648993974169641

I have friends in faculty positions at well-known universities who were very unhappy about these practices, but could not publicly discuss it fearing repercussion, prior to these events.

TBC, I am not supporting any of the things happening. I do think the DEI thing went too far, but what the new admin. is doing can be much worse.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#750

Post by nonethewiser »

nwatson wrote: post #746
rayiner wrote: post #705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A “coup” implies an overthrow of the legal structure of power. Who is being overthrown?

Musk's operations likely are using illegal means and are an overextension of power, while legislative and judicial branches, as well as internal executive branch watchdogs, have abdicated their roles in oversight and control. This is effectively an overthrow.

When I read your comment I am sympathetic to your characterization that its illegal. I expect it will be litigated.

But then you conflate illegal with "an overthrow" (of what?) to show its a "coup". This is incredibly hand-wavy and makes the "coup" language look like hyperbole.

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