Trump's team weighs withholding massive research grants from universities that are too 'woke': Report

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Friday 06 December 2024 23:15 GMT


President-elect Donald Trump’s team is considering the possibility of withholding massive research grants from “woke” schools they claim lack academic freedom. Trump’s nominee to head the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at Stanford, reportedly wants to target so called “cancel culture” at a number of top progressive universities, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Those with knowledge of Bhattacharya’s thinking told the newspaper that he’s considering linking the doling out of billions in federal research grants to a measure of “academic freedom” on campuses and punishing those that apparently don’t adequately embrace perspectives championed by conservatives.

Bhattacharya wants to take on what he views as academic conformity in science, which pushed him aside over his criticism of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including his opposition to school closures and mask mandates to stop the spread of the virus. He suggested in a Wall Street Journal op ed in 2020 that only up to 40,000 Americans would be killed by the pandemic. More than 1.2 million people died.

While he hasn’t yet established how to measure academic freedom, he has been looking at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the nonprofit’s scoring of universities and their rankings based on freedom of speech. The nonprofit bases its rankings on surveys of students’ views on whether they feel comfortable sharing ideas, with schools being negatively scored if their administrators punish faculty for opinions, or if they withdraw an invitation to a speaker following a possible controversy.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-research-grants-woke-b2660318.html

[patricia92243]

1. We are in so much danger :(

[Irish_Dem]

31. I have some family in PhD programs.

Doesn't look good for them.

[Irish_Dem]

34. Yes. America's universities are in danger.

Large American research universities do a tremendous amount of research in many fields.
All in jeopardy now.

In China, all university research must be approved by the political committees.
Nothing controversial or critical of the power structure is allowed.
Topics all must be politically correct.

[moniss]

2. We know that the yarstick they have

to determine too "woke" is going to simply boil down to if Stephen Miller etc. feel the university has "too many blacks, Latinos,etc." and if it has more women than he feels is correct in STEM type courses. If a university dares to openly support LGBTQ+ people it will also be an immediate end to their funding.

[Lonestarblue]

8. They will also look at faculty. Only white males allowed.

Universities in blue states will be targets, and many of the universities that do significant federally funded research are in blue states, so we are likely to see less progress in cancer research and other diseases as well as ways to ameliorate climate warming. I think Musk or another of Trump’s dystopian nominees has already mentioned killing the NIH, which funds a major amount of research for the treatment of diseases affecting many Americans.

[moniss]

12. Excellent point. I've written before about how

University of Wisconsin-Madison was devastated over several years of researchers being constantly under attack etc. After awhile they rightly took their knowledge and expertise and foundation grants elsewhere. The ranking of the university went into a long deep slide not only from a research standpoint but also because the best professors left also. So the value of a degree from UW when seeking a job went way down the scale for a very long time and is even now only slowly recovering.

[DBoon]

13. Climate research is inherently "woke"

A number of common research areas in environmental science would also be forbidden - species extinction, effects of industrial pollution, habitat destruction, etc.

[Puppyjive]

3. Dumbing down America

Replacing facts with opinions.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Replacing facts with opinions."

Replacing facts with opinions lies.

Fixed.

[LymphocyteLover]

5. Academic freedom, my ass. Such complete BS

[enigmania]

6. All institutes of higher education

will be required to offer courses in Flat Earth Cosmology and Natural Healing.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

7. Oligarchs are slow learners.

The terrible murder of the UHC CEO was, it demonstrated, people can only be pushed so far before they snap and retaliate. So keep pushing, assholes.

[NotHardly]

25. They have not read history books very carefully or comprehensively.

[Tanuki]

9. Lysenkoism returns

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

Lysenkoism "was a political campaign led by Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th century, rejecting natural selection in favour of a form of Lamarckism, as well as expanding upon the techniques of vernalization and grafting.

More than 3,000 mainstream biologists were dismissed or imprisoned, and numerous scientists were executed in the Soviet campaign to suppress scientific opponents. The president of the Soviet Agriculture Academy, Nikolai Vavilov, who had been Lysenko's mentor, but later denounced him, was sent to prison and died there, while Soviet genetics research was effectively destroyed. Research and teaching in the fields of neurophysiology, cell biology, and many other biological disciplines were harmed or banned.
....
The government of the Soviet Union (USSR) supported the campaign, and Joseph Stalin personally edited a speech by Lysenko in a way that reflected his support for what would come to be known as Lysenkoism, despite his skepticism toward Lysenko's assertion that all science is class-orientated in nature. Lysenko served as the director of the USSR's Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Other countries of the Eastern Bloc including the People's Republic of Poland, the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic accepted Lysenkoism as the official "new biology", to varying degrees, as did the People's Republic of China for some years."...(more)

[yardwork]

20. I think this led to a lot of Russian scientists coming to the U.S.

U.S. scientists will leave and go to other countries where they can do their work. The U.S. will no longer be a leader in science and innovation.

[mn9driver]

10. In a fascist country, control of universities is required.

Certain areas of study will be forbidden, certain conclusions will be suppressed. If they succeed here, some departments will disappear while others will be pressured to change their positions by withholding funds.

Climate Change? Not real. Gender and ethnic studies? Disappeared without a trace. Political Science? You get the idea. This is what they want. And they’re very close to getting it.

[heckles65]

11. As soon as they actually compose a

definition of "woke."

[GiqueCee]

16. See reply #15...

... a definition from Merriam Webster.

[jvill]

14. MAGATs: "We support the freedom... do violate your rights and everything you hold dear.. including your sheep..."

...

[GiqueCee]

15. These malignant shitstains...

... that surround Trump don't even know the definition of "WOKE".

Fools with an (R) after their name, attend: WOKE: [To be] aware of, and actively attentive to, important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

If you consider the word "woke" to be a pejorative, then you are one sick fuck, and have NO business in a position of authority. You should slither back into the cesspool of malice and deceit that spawned you.

[EndlessWire]

19. Part of fascism playbook

Destroy the media and free press. Destroy the educational system.

And, apparently, destroy the health system, the banking system, relationships with allies, and basically, the Federal Government.

They know what they are doing.

[GiqueCee]

29. Sun Tzu said in "The Art of War"...

... that such men would burn their country to the ground so they could rule over the ashes. The diseased minds of the sycophants sucking up to Trump are just such men (and women), and they are all in thrall to Vladimir Putin. They're gladly doing his bidding, even if they think it's for Trump. And he does Putin's bidding as if his life depends on it, because it does. I'm sure he knows what a messy death defenestration delivers. As they say, it's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop.
Every breath the Orange Gargoyle takes is in furtherance of Dear Vlad's fevered desire to bring America to its knees by gutting its institutions from within. It's been his publicly stated desire all his malevolent life. And he's well on his way to achieving his evil dream by exploiting the malice and greed that motivates every Republican that Satan ever defecated, starting with the blubbery embodiment of malice and greed himself, Donald J. Trump.
So, to all you Trump-humping traitors out there, you deserve whatever fate befalls you as a result of your treachery. The rest of us do not.

[EndlessWire]

17. What a shame

"Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at Stanford, reportedly wants to target so called “cancel culture” at a number of top progressive universities..."

This will prove to be embarrassing to Stanford, one of the world's most elite universities. It will be interesting to see if Stanford loses its grants. Or, if just the other Ivy League universities that students can choose from get hit. Not saying that Stanford is Ivy League. But, its standing in the academic world is megastar.

I am most concerned that it was mentioned this weirdo doesn't believe in standard medical practice in the face of an epidemic. What is wrong with these nutty people? We had so much trouble in the last pandemic, what with astonishing suggestions from the pResident in speeches to the American public, that I have no faith that they will do anything beneficial for us. It is truly frightening to think that this person would be in charge of NIH. I can see professors now being forced to teach shoving a uv light up your butt in order to receive grant money--probably to research lights up the butt medical practice. Whatever Donald, who knows everything about everything, wants.

It was a mistake to vote for Donald Trump, and those that did are going to find out.

[rampartd]

30. united healhcare will require preapproval to see a proctoluminologist. n/t

[EndlessWire]

35. Hahaha!

[Mblaze]

18. Their "wokeness" will be judged

By those who insist that America stays in a Fascist coma.

[dalton99a]

21. Jayanta Bhattacharya from Calcutta... Hey MAGA: Why so many Indians in the Trump administration?

[rampartd]

32. because the caste system is a model for conservatism.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. This is what "cancel culture" actually is

Conservatives and authoritarians spend a few years making up claims about being "cancelled" (which in reality is individuals ignoring or boycotting them), and then when they have sufficient power and have brainwashed their followers enough, they actually do "cancel" their ideological enemies. Just like Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler and Mao did.

[rampartd]

33. cancel culture has happened in america

the hollywood black list
the smothers brothers
phil donahue
the dixie chicks

[Vinca]

23. These are the same people who thump their Bibles all day. They should ponder whether Jesus was "woke."

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Too woke means

They refuse to kiss his oversized ass.

[surfered]

26. Theirs is a faith without works.

[LoisB]

27. How many rubles does it take to convince one to destroy one's own country?

[LeftishBrit]

28. Isn't THIS a denial of academic freedom?

[keithbvadu2]

36. Huge grants soon headed to Trump University?

[Scrivener7]

37. Does the executive branch have anything to do with this?

I don't think so.

[bmichaelh]

38. Trump jeopardizes healthcare

Whether a university is what they term 'woke' should have no relationship on what research grant it receives.

For example, US News and World Report ranks Harvard as #1 University for Oncology but Trump probably also considers them 'woke'.

[City Lights]

39. MAGA Race to the bottom.

I am so upset with pretty much all the news coming out of that evil circus. Leaves a pit in my stomach.

[turbinetree]

40. Maybe someone anyone should ask this Bhattacharya two questions.............

did you get childhood vaccinations to go to school...............yes or no............
and second what do you think of this dude, see below............what's his / your opinion of this person..........

The Doctor Who Fooled The World.
Andrew Wakefield’s War On Vaccines
By Brian Deer

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7759370/

[Beartracks]

41. This is a fantastic way to let China become the world's leader in medical/technology R&D.

Such dumbshit policy proposals.

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