It may be the largest rally in support of science ever. Hundreds of thousands of people have joined the Facebook group for the upcoming March for Science, and tens of thousands have offered to volunteer. Beyond a march in Washington, more than 400 cities worldwide will host simultaneous events on April 22 to repudiate science policies of the new White House and Congress.
Yet for all the excitement, STAT has found, plans for the march are plagued by infighting among organizers, attacks from outside scientists who don’t feel their interests are fairly represented, and operational disputes. Tensions have become so pronounced that some organizers have quit and many scientists have pledged not to attend.
What was billed as science advocates speaking with a unified voice, then, has instead surfaced long-lingering tensions within the scientific community.
Meanwhile, ordinary scientist folks are ignoring the infighting and hand-wringing and are going to stand up for science against the forces of ignorance and greed.
Forget the concern-trolling. Hold whatever sign you like. That is, unless you think that building a border wall is more important than funding the NIH.
I can’t wait to see what “scientists” look like in pink pussy hats–one of my fantasies–the encore will be “Black-Clad, Jack-Booted, Hooded and Scarved Thugs For Science”
The row over this “diversity policy statement” just smells an awful lot to me like a BIKE SHED. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality
And the SJW cult claims another scalp. It can add this one to the scalps of the atheist movement, the anti-war movement, the Occupy Wall St. movement and the partial scalp of the gay rights movement, which it failed to destroy but which it managed to set back by approximately 30-40 years. These people do not care one whit about the movements they target. They are driven by one thing and that is to establish their power and moral authority over others. It’s a postmodern cult made up largely of very bad, very damaged people. Never compromise with it. Never apologize to it. Never allow it inside your doors. Affirm that you stand for non-discrimination and then show them the door.
“These people do not care one whit about the movements they target. They are driven by one thing and that is to establish their power and moral authority over others….Affirm that you stand for non-discrimination and then show them the door.”
Totally agree.
Plus – don’t dilute the message with tokenisms. This is not the time or the place.
Personally, I think all these struggles are good for everyone to grapple with, as they are realities for people, and it’s time to also bring some racial and gender justice to the table, so to speak, for increased representation.
Here are things I am currently struggling with: Getting a promotion, insuring the well being of my adult children, improving my tennis game, repairing my home, how to get my Congressman to call for investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia, and finding the right touchup paint for my Miata. These are “realities for people” (well, ok, “I” is singular [person, not people], but most are also true for my wife, too, except the paint for the Miata).
Do these belong in the March for Science, too? “The March for Anything Anyone is Struggling With”?
Or maybe the march should privilege only certain things certain people are struggling with. The March for ‘Progressive’ Values Masquerading as a March for Science?” “The March to Allow Liberals To Posture as Serious About Science but Which Reveals that Even Liberal Scientists Can’t Prevent Their Subjective Values from Infecting Their Advocacy for Science”? (Actually, I have a whole line of scholarship on how liberal social scientists often have difficulty preventing their politics from infecting and distorting their science, so this whole thread and situation is really not all that surprising; look me up at Rutgers, and go to my publications page…).
This is a march to say that science is important, to a man that functions, apparently, at a teen-age level. The only committee worse than a one department committee is a multi-department one. I feel that the only message right now is that science is important: dividing it down to small increments of what is represented will have no impact, and will decrease attendance.
“… set aside a quiet space for scientists and attendees who have diagnoses on the autism spectrum”
At a march?
A fat lot of good carrying on about gender and racial equality in science will do if programs and agencies are slashed and burned to the ground in the first place. Can’t screech about not having a place at the table when there’s no table. The priority here is to defend science. That’s all.
Exactly
So this will break down into pseudo-scientists marching while scientists get on with doing their work. Plus ca change.
Is this march supporting science or supporting leftist academic social justice agendas? Its fine if you want to do something about what you see as unjustified inequalities out there — but please, do it somewhere else rather than in the March for Science. (Or revamp the whole thing and call it The March for Affirmative Action or The March for Radical Academic Feminist Social Constructivist Marxist Worldviews).