Federal Agencies Promote DEI Research: Concerns Arise Over Potential White House-Social Media Collusion and Other Critical Perspectives
Science desk: Feds Push DEI ‘Research’
“DEI considerations now profoundly shape” National Science Foundation grant decisions, notes Rupa Subramanya at The Free Press. More than 10% of all grants from 2021 to 2024, totaling more than $2 billion, “prioritized attributes of the grant proposals other than their scientific quality.” That figure jumps to 27% just for the first part of 2024. Projects funded include “researchers seeking to identify ‘hegemonic narratives’” plus “‘systematic racism’ in the education of math teachers.” No wonder 27% of Americans “say that they have ‘not too much’ or ‘no’ confidence in scientists to act in the public interest,” per Pew. But “it’s not just the public’s trust that is at issue — it’s also the quality of the science that NSF grants produce.”
Conservatives: More WH-Social Media Collusion?
“Critics of the Biden-Harris administration are being silenced,” frets the Washington Times’ editorial board. Rep. Jim Jordan suspects Google and YouTube may have “censored FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen at the request of the White House” after a YouTube video he appeared on, where he “prayed the rosary and discussed his experience at the FBI,” was removed for somehow violating community guidelines. He also lost his “his security clearance” after warning there was another side to the story about what happened at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and expressing concerns with the early COVID vaccine. Fortunately, after “nearly 2 1⁄2 years on unpaid leave” Allen was finally “reinstated this year after taking his story public.” That “should embolden others to blow the whistle on misconduct.”
Campus beat: Harass Jews, but Don’t Nix Frisbee
At University of Michigan last spring, “pro-Palestinian students . . . shut down the student government, insisting they would turn the spigot back on only once the university divested” from Israel, sighs Commentary’s Seth Mandel. Student activities were suddenly defunded. The Ultimate Frisbee team was left without money to compete, and a ballroom dance team was unable to rent rehearsal space. Finally, students became interested in student government — and the assembly restored the cash. “Jews needed security just to get around campus at times, but what really shocked the consciences of college students was the dismal possibility of life without ballroom dance rehearsal.
From the right: Vance Nails ‘Expert’ Failures
During the vice presidential debate, Sen. J.D. Vance noted “that the experts [have] been wrong about many things, economic predictions not least,” recall Sander Gerber & Stephen Miran at The Wall Street Journal. They “reassured us that the recent inflation spike would be transitory: and “moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would start a war.” Public-health experts insisted we wear masks and stand 6 feet apart on the beach.” Teachers unions “assured us kids would learn as well at home on computers as in the classroom.” Experts “may have years of schooling, but they can be prone to motivated reasoning.” They know their analyses “are fraught with uncertainty, but they seldom acknowledge it to the public.”
Libertarian: Citizens United Helps Both Sides
“If you get to see The Apprentice in theaters before Election Day, then, you can thank Citizens United,” cheers Reason’s Joe Lancaster. The Donald Trump biopic is now out, but if not for “the unpopular Supreme Court decision, it may have had no chance of hitting theaters before the election.” In 2008, “Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group, released a film critical of Hillary Clinton” that violated the McCain-Feingold Act, which outlawed corporate spending on “electioneering communication” close to an election. Citizens United sued, and “in 2010, the Supreme Court struck the provision.” Though Trump’s lawyers have tried to block the new film’s release, thanks to Citizens United, a “biographical film that negatively portrays” the former president and Republican nominee is seeing the light of day.
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
