Science Government Science Grants Increasingly Support "Woke" and Politicized Research

[Husky_Khan]

The original article from the Washington Examiner:

Government science grants increasingly promote ‘woke’ ideas, study finds - Washington Examiner

Nearly a third of government science grant abstracts now use terminology such as “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion,” a new report says, up from just under 3% in 1990. The report, published earlier this month by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, details how the National...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

Nearly a third of government science grant abstracts now use terminology such as “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion,” a new report says, up from just under 3% in 1990.

The report, published earlier this month by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, details how the National Science Foundation, the government’s primary distributor of scientific grants, has substantially increased the use of “highly politicized terms” in grant abstracts.

“The frequency of documents containing highly politicized terms has been increasing consistently over the last three decades,” the report says. “As of 2020, 30.4% of all grants had one of the following politicized terms: ‘equity,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion,’ ‘gender,’ ‘marginalize,’ ‘underrepresented,’ or ‘disparity.’ This is up from 2.9% in 1990.”

And the report itself from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology:

https://cspicenter.org/reports/increasing-politicization-and-homogeneity-in-scientific-funding-an-analysis-of-nsf-grants-1990-2020/

 

[Laskar]

“Taken together,” the report continues, “the results imply that there has been a politicization of scientific funding in the US in recent years and a decrease in the diversity of ideas supported, indicating a possible decline in the quality of research and the potential for decreased trust towards scientific institutions among the general public.”

And now we know how "The Science" always lines up with whatever Progressives want today.

It's not that different from woke capture of other institutions. Instead of doing its proper function, which is to fund scientific efforts that might benefit the nation, whoever has taken control of the NSF is using it to further woke ideology. That money goes out to woke researchers in order to produce studies that 'prove' that woke talking points are real and science based. This keeps their ideological soldiers employed, and gives them ammunition for the battle for public opinion.

The solution is to replace the leadership and the middle management of the NSF and institute hard criteria for what science will be funded, and what will get kicked out the door. Rinse and repeat for any other organ of government that gets co-opted.

 

[Simonbob]

The solution is to replace the leadership and the middle management of the NSF and institute hard criteria for what science will be funded, and what will get kicked out the door. Rinse and repeat for any other organ of government that gets co-opted.

I disagree. Just shut it down. Anybody can fund research, but why should the Govenment have anything to say in that?

 

[Laskar]

I disagree. Just shut it down. Anybody can fund research, but why should the Govenment have anything to say in that?

Yes. Absolutely.
The lib-left loves to prattle about meritocracy and how it is simultaneously good (Because that's how we technocrats got our jobs) and horrible (Because oh noes, representation in the technocratic class doesn't perfectly mirror the 2020 census) but the meritocracy we see in government is the curious kind that doesn't seem to meet any objective standards.

Time to change that. Time to require objective standards of quality, not of progressive talking points about representation and diversity.
This Libertarian "Get the government out of everything and let the free market have its say" is horseshit, because it cedes the battleground to the Progressive Left. The Left is never going to meet us for a fair fight.

 

[Buba]

IMO no government should be involved in any not hard science/technolgical research.

 

[AnimalNoodles]

The victors in the culture was are claiming thier spoils from the fallen.