One might have hoped for more rigor from the leadership of scientific societies and research institutions. Alas, this has not been the case. In the current climate, many have simply adopted popular rhetoric and the jargon of critical theory has begun to dominate communications by these institutions. Pandering and virtue signalling have begun to generate proactive initiatives by the highest levels of the scientific community, often replacing the focus on science itself. Here are a few examples from the past few weeks alone.
In December, the American Physical Society (APS), the largest society of physicists in the world, sent out a letter to its membership arguing that Trump's Presidential Executive Order 13950 on Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping was "in direct opposition to the core values of the American Physical Society." The order therefore needed to be rescinded in order to "strengthen America's scientific enterprise." The order (since rescinded by Biden) quoted Martin Luther King, stating that in government-supported scientific institutions people should "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." It argued that materials from places like Argonne National Laboratories that equate "color blindness" and "meritocracy" with "actions of bias," or from Sandia National Laboratories which state that an emphasis on "rationality over emotionality" is a characteristic of "white male[s]," were inappropriate training materials for government-supported science institutions. It concluded that "it shall be the policy of the United States not to promote race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating in the Federal workforce."
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