There is a lot of value in this piece though it misses a couple key points. Of all the major sectors of the US economy the one that most violates the ideas of dignity of the workforce and equal pay for equal work is academia with its treatment of contingent faculty versus tenured faculty. This inequality is least excusable in the sciences given the vast amount of tax dollars poured into these fields. Ironically, the federal agencies working with universities exacerbate the inequalities by making "research" the de facto basis of hiring but then allowing universities to decided who is even allowed to apply for funding based on whether they hold a tenured or contingent faculty position. What we have in science is thus far closer to apartheid South Africa than a just democratic society as we see in the professions that all the "deplorable" Trump voters work in and support. Until that problem is addressed, the public should be highly skeptical of ANY moral preaching coming from academics.
A second thought...the portrayal of Donald Trump may please leftist activists, but it is simply not accurate and you lose half the country from even reading the rest of and important essay when you portray him in that fashion. Don't make the mistake of acting like the partisan Holden Thorp and the members of the March for Science who had condemned Donald Trump before he had even had time to act in office. Similarly...I would be cautious about affiliating with Marcia McNutt as she is a big part of the Woke Movement and has done great harm to science along with a group of her colleagues from MIT in pushing gender issues in ways that contradict merit.
There is a lot of value in this piece though it misses a couple key points. Of all the major sectors of the US economy the one that most violates the ideas of dignity of the workforce and equal pay for equal work is academia with its treatment of contingent faculty versus tenured faculty. This inequality is least excusable in the sciences given the vast amount of tax dollars poured into these fields. Ironically, the federal agencies working with universities exacerbate the inequalities by making "research" the de facto basis of hiring but then allowing universities to decided who is even allowed to apply for funding based on whether they hold a tenured or contingent faculty position. What we have in science is thus far closer to apartheid South Africa than a just democratic society as we see in the professions that all the "deplorable" Trump voters work in and support. Until that problem is addressed, the public should be highly skeptical of ANY moral preaching coming from academics.
A second thought...the portrayal of Donald Trump may please leftist activists, but it is simply not accurate and you lose half the country from even reading the rest of and important essay when you portray him in that fashion. Don't make the mistake of acting like the partisan Holden Thorp and the members of the March for Science who had condemned Donald Trump before he had even had time to act in office. Similarly...I would be cautious about affiliating with Marcia McNutt as she is a big part of the Woke Movement and has done great harm to science along with a group of her colleagues from MIT in pushing gender issues in ways that contradict merit.
There is hope -- but only if we act. We cannot remain passive any more.