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How I've been thinking about all of the rapid horrible changes in the United States

I'm not telling you how to think or feel, but maybe letting you know where I'm at might be useful to you.

Feb 8

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I was chatting with a colleague a few days ago, and she said that there are two responses that she’s seeing among the scientists around her. Some folks are responding with panic and worry coupled with paralysis. The remainder are smugly detached and morally superior as they take it all in.

It should go without saying that neither of those responses are healthy. understand how all of us could arrive at either of those emotional states, because that’s exactly what this barrage was designed to do.

For better or for worse, I’m positioned in a geographically distant place as this all goes down. I’m currently on a research trip to work with a collaborator in Australia, and so not only is the news time-shifted and I’m happily busy doing research stuff, but also I’m not surrounded by people who are being impacted. (Meanwhile, back at home, my home hasn’t burnt down, but many of my friends are recovering the loss of everything as best as they can. This is a hard time.) Taking all this in at this awkward distance is rather different. I think this gap has been useful for perspective.

First, let me fill you in on the variety of science-relevant things that have been going on, to the extent that I’m aware of.

NIH just announced that they’re capping overhead to 15%. This is beyond wild and if this decision is allowed to stand, it’ll be incredibly brutal for those of us in research institutions. I’ve heard some folks say that the people behind this decision don’t understand how research happens, and while that might be true, they fully know the impact of this and that’s precisely why they’re doing it. They are working to destroy universities.

The White House’s budget request for NSF is a 60% cut. In general, the executive request for NSF has little bearing on what Congress funds. Will that be true this time? I imagine that congresspeople in every district with research institutions is hearing from folks.

More broadly, because the Secretary of the Treasury has handed over the keys of the place to Elon Musk, he may well have the capacity to stop allocated funds from flowing where Congress has directed. This sincerely can only be seen as a coup by an unelected and unappointed person, who also is the richest person in the world, but that’s not how the papers are covering it inside the US. (In Australia, among folks I’ve been talking to, that’s how it is understood, it seems.) One scholar was invited by the New York Times to write and op-ed about this, but once they saw it, they decided to take a pass. It’s worth your time.

While all of these changes within the government are stunning and horrible, what I think portends the absolute worst is the decision by HHMI to simply throw its “inclusive excellence” funding program into the trashcan. They deleted the website, told people who are halfway through a 6-year grant cycle that their funds are being cut, and issued the vaguest public statement that they’re committed to inclusion, yadda yadda. This so scary because HHMI is a privately funded organization that can spend its money wherever the hell it wants, and so the fact that they gave up on their program designed for diversity, equity, and inclusion when they didn’t have to shows that how willing they are to comply in advance. It’s cowardice of the highest order, and the fact that they are so ready to do this, so quickly, and with absolutely no regret expressed whatsoever, bodes very poorly for the national direction in general. The only salve here is to realize that HHMI has always taken an elitist approach to its funding and even its programs designed for inclusion where poorly crafted to prop up its flawed meritocratic model. Here’s a bit more on that. Anyhow, the premature caving of HHMI bodes very poorly nonetheless.

That’s just the start with attempts at sweeping destructions all across the federal government. On other fronts, they’re ignoring union elections, prepping to dismantle the antiquities act, and so on and so on. People are talking about what will happen in midterm elections in two years and a presidential election in four, and the scholars who study these things for a living are telling us that this is not a recourse we can count on.

Let’s be honest, this is extremely bad. We are, arguably, witnessing the collapse of democracy in our own country, and along with that, incalculable pain and loss among the victims targeted by our leadership. How can we deal with this in a healthy and effective manner? What the heck are we supposed to do? I’m not sure, but here’s where I am at right now.

I’ve found three pieces of advice to be very helpful to me now. I’m going to share them here, and I if we heed what these folks are saying, we will be doing what we can in a healthy way.

First: “Despair is not an option: How scientists can help protect federal research.” This is a perspective piece from Dr. Gretchen Goldman in Nature. She’s the new President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and she’s been a strong public voice for science at the federal level for years. This advice is directed at federal scientists, but I think applies to all of us, and keep in mind what our federal colleagues are going through.

Second: “You can’t post your way of out fascism.” How do we organize? Well we’re not going to do it effectively using the media controlled by the oligarchs we are defending ourselves against. We might find community there but conversations there aren’t going to advance our cause.

Third and last, here is a bunch of wisdom from the de facto leader of the opposition party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the first several minutes of this recording, she puts into perspective what is going on, and lets us know that it’s not possible for any of us to fight against everything that is happening. We need to pick a lane, and focus on being effective in that lane. We are scientists, so we should fight for science.

As a bonus, here is some good news. please keep in mind that no one person can halt progress on climate change. We are steadily making things better on a global scale, even as the US is getting worse.

Fighting for science will mean different things for all of us. But it means we need to be externally engaged. It genuinely, truly, does make a difference when you call your reps to tell them that defunding science is hugely problematic. Every single one of us should be calling our house reps about this immediate cut of NIH overhead, like, now. Especially if your rep is a beet red science-denier. Cutting funding in their own district is a bad thing for them. And as always, they want to destroy our research and our teaching, so every day we make scientific discoveries and help junior scientists learn about the natural world, we register a win. We have one another. Not only is that something, that is everything we are fighting for.

We don’t have the luxury of being frozen in inaction, or to feel superior that we saw this coming and that the people doing this are nincompoops.

Even as HHMI has folded, the only professional society that I’ve noticed to take a formal stand here is the American Society of Naturalists. (I imagine there are others that haven’t, but not on my radar yet.) You can be involved in this effort. What are you doing in your university and your community to protect those most at risk? Again, action will look different for all of us, but we can’t afford inaction at the moment. And in all of this, it’s okay to have fun and enjoy yourself. Don’t let them take the joy because this is what keeps us going.

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