© Reuters / Lee Smith / File
Today is #ShutDownSTEM day, wherein researchers around the world have forgone their scientific duties and instead decided to 'Strike For Black Lives' and, in the process, also condemned science as racist.
In doing so, it seems that the self-flagellating fancies of the Left have finally colonised the world of science. Predicted almost three decades ago by the science wars - a series of intellectual exchanges between scientific realists and postmodernist critics -
the peculiar language of #ShutDownSTEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) betrays the anti-intellectual leanings of today's science.The initiative follows the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota a fortnight ago, and involves suspending "all usual academic work for the day, including teaching, research, and service responsibilities," according to the organisers of Strike For Black Lives.
On the #ShutDownSTEM
website, its organisers write how "In academia, our thoughts and words turn into new ways of knowing. Our research papers turn into media releases, books and legislation that reinforce anti-Black narratives." The organisers then point the finger at "white and non-Black People of Color," stating that we should take time today to "educate ourselves."
Comment: LinkedIn is caught in the technology trap. That field requires highly-educated, engineering-oriented workers, which currently sorts out to mostly male, and most likely Asian or white, as LinkedIn's own internal report shows. More education initiatives may help some with the diversity issue. But they will put themselves on a slippery slope to corporate failure if merit is not at the top of the list.