How Colleges got Politicized

English professor Michael W. Clune writes:

We Asked for It
The politicization of research, hiring, and teaching made professors sitting ducks.

Over the past 10 years, I have watched in horror as academe set itself up for the existential crisis that has now arrived. Starting around 2014, many disciplines — including my own, English — changed their mission. Professors began to see the traditional values and methods of their fields — such as the careful weighing of evidence and the commitment to shared standards of reasoned argument — as complicit in histories of oppression. As a result, many professors and fields began to reframe their work as a kind of political activism.

In reading articles and book manuscripts for peer review, or in reviewing files when conducting faculty job searches, I found that nearly every scholar now justifies their work in political terms. This interpretation of a novel or poem, that historical intervention, is valuable because it will contribute to the achievement of progressive political goals. Nor was this change limited to the humanities. Venerable scientific journals — such as Nature — now explicitly endorse political candidates; computer-science and math departments present their work as advancing social justice. Claims in academic arguments are routinely judged in terms of their likely political effects.

The costs of explicitly tying the academic enterprise to partisan politics in a democracy were eminently foreseeable and are now coming into sharp focus. Public opinion of higher education is at an all-time low. The incoming Trump administration plans to use the accreditation process to end the politicization of higher education — and to tax and fine institutions up to “100 percent” of their endowment. I believe these threats are serious because of a simple political calculation of my own: If Trump announced that he was taxing wealthy endowments down to zero, the majority of Americans would stand up and cheer.

It was all unnecessary. Colleges could have stayed out of overtly political issues, especially the ones outside their professional expertise.

Update: Here is an example of how far colleges have degenerated, from a Jewish magazine:

A man sentenced to life imprisonment for involvement in the murder of four Jews in a French synagogue bombing is teaching a “social justice” course at a Canadian university.

Dr Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian citizen, was found guilty by a French court for taking part in the 1980 bombing outside the Rue Copernic Reform synagogue in Paris, which killed four people and injured 46.

He is employed at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, as a teacher in sociology and is delivering a class this autumn titled “Social Justice in Action”.

Horgan defends SciAm Politicization

I mentioned that the SciAm Editor is Fired, and former SciAm writer seems to be the only one defending her.

He maligns evolutionist Jerry Coyne, who argues back. See also Jesse Singal.

I post this so that you can see that it is a real dispute. The SciAm editor would surely say that scientists should be aware of the dangers of Trump fascism or transphobia or some other political issue. I wish the magazine would stick to science. Others can debate the pros and cons of Trump.

If SciAm were to address political issues, then it should at least provide some balanced coverage. But no, it forbids any articles expressing contrary views. Sorry, that is not a scientific view.

Update: Michael Shermer adds his experience::

I wrote 214 consecutive monthly columns for Sci Am, from 2001–19. Only two of these were rejected, both in 2018.

SciAm Editor is Fired

Jerry Coyne reports:

The facts are that Helmuth had a total social-media meltdown the night of the election (see her tweets here), for which she later apologized (see tweet here).  People called for her to be fired given the tenor of what she wrote, but I’ve never done that. We don’t know if she resigned or was fired, and it really makes no difference.

Her tweets revealed her to be a crazy leftist Trump-hater, but I would not have fired her for that. I do not believe in canceling people for emotional outbursts of silly opinions.

She should have been fired for turning Scientific American into a radical woke propaganda magazine that put ideology ahead of science. Trump just announced appointing RFKjr to HHS yesterday afternoon, and SciAm already has an article attacking him!

Update: More info at Unherd:

Four years ago, it made a presidential endorsement in support of Joe Biden for the first time in its 175-year history. ...

Helmuth’s tenure also saw the publication of articles that blurred the lines between scientific research and activism. A 2021 article, “From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter”, addressed what makes various social justice movements successful. “Social movements have likely existed for as long as oppressive human societies have, but only in the past few centuries has their praxis […] developed into a craft, to be learned and honed,” the article read. Several articles argued in favour of abortions, with one headline claiming: “Third-Trimester Abortions Are Moral and Necessary Health Care.”

The outlet published numerous articles promoting transgender medical interventions. It also published articles advocating against age restrictions for these procedures. One such article claimed that “a decade of research shows such treatment reduces depression, suicidality and other devastating consequences of trans preteens and teens being forced to undergo puberty in the sex they were assigned at birth”, a proposition that has come under international scrutiny in recent years.

Tech's Longest-Running Hoax

An investor channel reports: Quantum Computing: Tech's Longest-Running Hoax

you may need 14:12 hundreds or even thousands of physical 14:14 cubits in each logical Cubit the point 14:17 is if you want to make a quantum 14:18 computer capable of doing anything 14:20 useful you will need a lot of cubits 14:22 current estimates say that you would 14:23 need 20 million cubits to break RSA 14:25 encryption if you want to cure cancer or 14:28 solve global climate change you would 14:29 need orders of magnitude more than this 14:32 today the largest quantum computers have 14:34 about 1,000 cubits so we multiple orders 14:37 of magnitude away from achieving 14:38 anything useful the Bulls say that 14:40 Quantum technology has already been 14:42 proven if the industry continues making 14:44 advances they'll eventually be able to 14:46 do something useful however there are 14:48 well-respected academics who think that 14:50 a useful quantum computer is not 14:51 possible even in theory the most notable 14:54 of these Skeptics are the Israeli math 14:56 professor Gil kalai and the Russian 14:58 physics professor male jackinov they 15:01 both argue that Quantum bits are 15:02 inherently unstable as the number of 15:04 cubits increases the number of quantum 15:06 States increases exponentially this 15:08 level of complexity makes a sufficiently 15:10 large quantum computer impossible to 15:12 control even in theory to be clear Dr 15:15 Kai and Dr dakov are in the minority the 15:18 majority of researchers in the field 15:20 argue that a quantum computer will one 15:21 day be possible there's a strong 15:24 incentive for academics to be optimistic 15:26 many academics have dedicated Decades of 15:28 their lives to study Quantum Computing 15:30 if you come out and say this was all a 15:32 waste of time that wouldn't exactly be 15:34 good for your funding or career 15:36 prospects

The video is accurate. Quantum computing companies have already gone public and then bankrupt.

Academics are Depressed about Trump

Peter Woit is depressed about the election, and rants that now we are Living in a Post-truth World

On the American democracy front, the Trump phenomenon embodies post-truth in its purest form, with the full triumph now of a movement devoted to saying whatever will get them to power, with less than no interest in whether any of it is true.

He complains that super-smart physicists promote untenable string theory, or as one comment says:

Indeed, if Physics PhDs can look you in the eye and say that they really believe that wormholes form when you entangle spins simply because Maldacena and Susskind say so, why should you be so surprised that people get taken in by demagogues?

Okay, but Woit also complains that big money was allowed to influence the election, that Fox News was allowed to be different from the other networks, and that Trump won the less educated voters and lost the more educated voters!

This make no sense. The big money outspent Trump maybe 3-to-1, or 5-to-1, in the election.

If the super-high-IQ super-educated physicsts can be wrong about string theory and entangled electron wormholes, then why can't they be wrong about Trump?

The whole idea that the Democrats are on the side of Truth, and Trump is opposed, is absurd. These Trump-haters cannot give any examples.

Kamala Harris knows nothing about science. The closest she gets is dopey babbling like:

So, let me say this: This is an issue that Josi actually highlighted in terms of the importance of this. The Governor and I and we were all doing a tour of the library here and talking about the significance of the passage of time. Right? The significance of the passage of time.

So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires, what we need to do to create these jobs. And there is such great significance to the passage of time when we think about a day in the life of our children and what that means to the future of our nation, depending on whether or not they have the resources they need to achieve their God-given talent.

She also said she believes in Astrology!

I don't want to pick on Woit, as he lives in a bubble where no one supports Trump. Most of American elite academia have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They have no grasp of what Trumpism is about, and can only babble platitudes about Truth.

I cannot even figure out what Woit means by "post-truth", as he only gives a few hints. He mentions Newt Gingrich, who was House Speaker for several years in the 1990s. He is mostly known for passing some reforms, after the other party controlled for decades. He mentions Fox News reporting on Clinton Whitewater, but that was an investigation ordered by Clinton's attorney general. Not much came of it. Mentions a Michio Kaku book on parallel universes. Yes, that is all a big fantasy.

Perhaps Woit is alluding to Trump's reputation for exaggeration. Yes, he sometimes exaggerates. He claimed to pull off the greatest comeback in American political history, if not world history. Dubious. Nevertheless, he is a much more authentical character than Kamala Harris. He is what he appears to be. Harria was unable or unwilling to say who she is, and what her agenda is. She convinced people that she is pro-abortion and hates Trump, and nothing else. Those voting for her had very little idea what she stood for.

Harris and Walz also told a great many lies.

I think Woit is from another country, and may have very little understanding of American politics. His criticisms are lazy and stupid. Trump was President for four years, and it was four years of peace and prosperity. Disagree with him if you want, but most of the opposition to him consists of calling him a fascist. His decisive win in the election is from a common and informed view that he was the much better candidate.

Attention for Hossenfelder's Science Channel

NPR reports:

The dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic helped transform Sabine Hossenfelder into an unlikely social media star. ...

Hossenfelder's science channel has also become a ready platform for her somewhat contrarian views on the state of physics. Among them is what she sees as the problem of beauty, the pursuit of simplicity. Specifically, how her colleagues who try to fathom the fundamental underpinnings of the universe are obsessed with it. ...

But as we seek answers in a complex universe, Hossenfelder cautions that the quest for simplicity could be a dead end. ...

Posting videos to the internet, it turns out, generates a more reliable revenue stream to fund her work in quantum gravity.

Her videos have a lot of good info, but quantum gravity is a waste of time.

A less favorable review from Professor Dave:

Sabine Hossenfelder is a very popular science communicator who focuses largely on topics in physics. Although much of her content is effective and without issue, there is an undercurrent of anti-establishment rhetoric that has grown immensely as of late, and it is an enormous problem. Sabine is a not a charlatan like most of my other targets, and this is not a hit piece, but rather commentary on this aspect of her work and how it came to be. If you are a fan of hers, consider this perspective.

Professor Dave is not a professor, and not a physicist. His main complaint is that she has harsh words for those doing Physics research, and he says there is lots of good reseach. But her main gripes are with those doing dead-end research in certain foundational and speculative areas.

She has a new video in response, where she doubles down on her point that the last 50 years have made no progress in foundational issues.

I would say quantum gravity is one of those dead-end areas where all or nearly all research is worthless.

Actually I might argue that foundational Physics has made negative progress, as many have jumped on absurd theories like many-worlds.

Because Professor Dave is not a physicist, I don't think he appeciates how much theoretical Physics has lost its way.

Both of these channels have a lot of worthwhile videos. My main beef with her is that she subscribes to superdeterminism, a concept contrary to the whole scientific enterprise.

Update: Professor Dave has doubled down with another attack video:

I criticized some unprofessional behavior regarding her choice of titles, thumbnails, and generalized deceptive anti-science rhetoric which has clearly been fueling science denial among the public in large numbers. ... All of those people wanted to talk about academia, so let's talk about academia a little bit in this video, while also addressing an unbelievably immature response video from Sabine where she doubled down on all of her bullshit rhetoric and made things much, much worse for herself.

He goes on to say Hossenfelder is a science denier.

This is how we get politicians voted into office 4:40 with fascist leanings. This is how the slide down the slippery slope towards theocracy 4:45 gains momentum. This is how we get people trying to force religion into public schools, and into federal laws. With Trump returning to office, he may follow through with his promise 4:56 to put RFK in charge of the department of health. RFK. An anti-vaxxer who has said that chemicals 5:03 in the environment can turn kids gay and trans and that HIV does not cause AIDS, may soon be 5:10 in charge of the FDA, NIH, USDA, and CDC. Are you listening to me? ...

As a global society we are sliding towards idiocracy, 5:37 and our survival as a species is at stake. Sabine feeds people narratives that are conducive to 5:43 those modes of thought, and in doing so she is pushing them further down the pseudoscience pipeline where they are more likely to be ensnared by actual demagogues and charlatans.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bee is back with My problem with the black hole information loss problem. She has legitimate complaints about unscientific papers about black hole information physics. Prof. Dave wants to blame her for Trump getting elected.

Nature Magazine Endorsed Kamala Harris

As I write this, the election has not been called, but I want to draw attention to the Nature editorial endorsing Kamala Harris.

I don't know why a British science journal needs to get involved in partisan USA politics.

Harris said on 22 October that her administration will not be a continuation of the Biden presidency. She has said she wants to build an “opportunity economy”. Precisely what that means is yet to be defined — a science- and evidence-based approach needs to be at its core.

That record is in stark contrast to what happened during Trump’s presidency, from 2017 to 2021. As president, Trump not only repeatedly ignored research-informed knowledge, but also undermined national and global science and public-health agencies. He has denied climate science, lied about the federal government’s response to hurricane forecasts and asked scientists to investigate whether disinfectants could be used to treat people with COVID-19.

This is too stupid for science editors.

If Harris is unable or unwilling to say what she will do, why are you endorsing her? She appears to be of low intelligence, and to know nothing about science.

The Trump complaints are about how he once wrote on a weather map with a sharpie, and he once commented favorably about a medical report about disinfecting covid.

I do not think Trump said or did anything wrong in either of these cases, but even if he did, they are trivialities.

Trump was President for four years. Did science research suffer? Did he make any anti-science decisions? There is no substantive criticism of Trump, and nothing concrete about what Harris will do.

This is just more evidence about how the science establishment has lost its way.

Update: Nature endorsed Harris in July, and again just before the election, and now it panics about Trump's win.

Scientists around the world expressed disappointment and alarm as Republican Donald Trump won the final votes needed to secure the US presidency in the early hours of 6 November. On account of Trump’s anti-science rhetoric and actions during his previous term in office, many are now bracing for four years of attacks on scientists, both in and outside the government.

“In my long life of 82 years ... there has hardly been a day when I felt more sad,” says Fraser Stoddart, a Nobel laureate who left the United States last year and is now a member of the chemistry department at the University of Hong Kong. “I’ve witnessed something that I feel is extremely bad, not just for the United States, but for all of us in the world.” ...

Worries pouring in this morning align with those expressed by the majority of readers who responded last month to a survey conducted by Nature. More than 2,000 people answered the poll, with 86% saying that they favoured Harris, owing to concerns including climate change, public health and the state of US democracy. Some even said they would consider changing where they live or study if Trump won. ...

Of those who responded to Nature’s reader survey, 6% expressed a preference for Trump — usually citing concerns about security issues and the economy.

Wow, people who do not even live in the USA are complaining that we elected a President who believes in America First.

Meanwhile, they do not mention that Harris is a moron who knows nothing about science, and who believes in Astrology.

Aaronson reaches full Trump Derangement

Dr. Quantum Supremacy, Scott Aaronson previously announced he is Never-Trump From Here to Eternity, and now writes Letter to a Jewish voter in Pennsylvania.

In short, he has full Trump Derangement Syndrome. He endorses Kamala Harris, but has nothing good to say about her, except that she is not Trump. He is Jewish, and he acknowledges that his Orthodox and Israeli friends much prefer Trump. He also cites a couple of other Jews who are paranoid Trump-haters.

I am not going to try to answer it, because it is the ravings of a madman. Trump was President for four years, and it was a period of peace and prosperity, except for covid. Aaronson has no quibble with that, but is obvious triggered by Trump's personality.

He sounds like a paranoid schizophrenic. He is so crazy as to question his judgment on anything else.

He complains that he found these comments on X-Twitter:

“Shut the fuck up, Zio, and stop murdering babies.”

“Two-state solution? I have a different proposal: that all you land-thieves pack your bags and go back to Poland.”

“you Jews have been hated and expelled from all the world’s countries for thousands of years, yet you never consider that the common factor is you.”

“Your own Talmud commands you to kill goyim children, so that’s why you’re doing it.”

“Even while you maintain apartheid in Palestine, you cynically import millions of third-world savages to White countries, in order to destroy them.”

None of this is from Trump or Republicans. Since the Gaza War started on Oct. 7, 2023, a faction of the USA Left and Democrats have become anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. Aaronson is obviously unhappy about this, and firmly sides with Israel in the war, but it is completely crazy to see this as a reason to vote against Trump.

One can have political disagreements about taxes, or Ukraine aid, or abortion, or 100 other issues. That is not what is happening here. He probably agrees with Trump on a lot of those issues.

Aaronson also believes in many-worlds theory, where all possibilities happen in parallel universes. He said Google had achieved quantum supremacy by generating random numbers. Now he worries that AI will destroy mankind.

Smart people can believe in crazy stuff.