In Defense of Merit

by peanutcrisis • 3 years ago

16 4 3 years ago

Spivak2• 3 years ago

postmodern worldview that purports that reality is subjective and can only be understood through a scientist’s "lived experience," which in turn depends on gender, ethnicity, and other immutable characteristics. This ideology is enforced by "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) officers and bureaucracies, which have become entrenched throughout academia.

It's really easy to argue against a thing that nobody actually believes.

#1 Boys aren't from Mars, girls aren't from Venus. Averaged over entire fields and over time disparity in representation of shit that doesn't matter to the job -- race, gender, sexual orientation is indicative of systemic imbalances.

"But girls don't choose to go into <blah>." Yes that's the problem.

"You don't see people arguing for equality in trash collectors." I am, as well as men in nursing.

"Sexual orientation has nothing to do with science." Correct, which is why it's surprising that certain sexual orientations are underrepresented.

"Not choosing the best candidate for a position because of diversity quotas is *-ist." Correct, which is why the game is to train up people of underrepresented backgrounds and recruit from more diverse pools.

#2 Diversity in lived experience leads to better outcomes both on the small scale of teams and departments but also across whole fields.

"So political views too, right?" Yes.

"And what about majority populations?" Yes, it's not a win when departments have no white people or no men. Stop reading rage bait on the internet.

neotrope• 3 years ago

It's really easy to argue against a thing that nobody actually believes.

Are you sure nobody believes critical theory?

Spivak2• 3 years ago

Everything I just said is in line with critical theory.

I really gotta find the wikipedia author and buy them a beer for exactly the quote I need.

The term critical theory is often appropriated when an author works in sociological terms, yet attacks the social or human sciences, thus attempting to remain "outside" those frames of inquiry.

Identity and lived experience matters to the subjective experience of science, not the objective one. The OP also makes this mistake and gets into a huff about it.

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

In Defense of Merit

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