Many parallels here to the previous piece on the "denouncements" and censoring at Harvard via the students union (Critical Mass - passim).
There are of course topics that are considered "sensitive", perhaps when viewed through the lens of previous historical wrongs, yet in the "reformed" modern world are scientifically valuable to study, distribute and discuss. In such cases perhaps only judicious (sympathetic & empathetic) language and impeccable data are required to produce a product of value and above reproach in its intensions?
This is worrying, nonetheless.
I'm sure that it is already seen in academia and research, but for me there is a natural extension of this behavior to the underlying research itself! How long before research topics and researchers are targeted for censorship from the get go, and as the norm, thus restricting fields of research or biasing the data out of such fields?
My own field research is already being skewed by outside pressures (chemical/pharma companies) towards researching predominantly commercial imperatives, much to the detriment of advancing the actual field of knowledge. It doesn't seem such a stretch that another skewing of research could take place, only self-inflicted this time.
Continue down this path..... our publications will become stenography... not scientific reporting.
George Orwell said: 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'.
That applicability of that quote doesn't seem that far off some days.
Wouldn't it be nice if you were allowed to create speculative science fiction to entertain yourself, unfortunately fiction is held to the same standard of forcing the production of innocuous content as non-fiction, so its a cognitive pit of despair. Imagination should not have constraints, but that seems to be the goal.
Many parallels here to the previous piece on the "denouncements" and censoring at Harvard via the students union (Critical Mass - passim).
There are of course topics that are considered "sensitive", perhaps when viewed through the lens of previous historical wrongs, yet in the "reformed" modern world are scientifically valuable to study, distribute and discuss. In such cases perhaps only judicious (sympathetic & empathetic) language and impeccable data are required to produce a product of value and above reproach in its intensions?
This is worrying, nonetheless.
I'm sure that it is already seen in academia and research, but for me there is a natural extension of this behavior to the underlying research itself! How long before research topics and researchers are targeted for censorship from the get go, and as the norm, thus restricting fields of research or biasing the data out of such fields?
My own field research is already being skewed by outside pressures (chemical/pharma companies) towards researching predominantly commercial imperatives, much to the detriment of advancing the actual field of knowledge. It doesn't seem such a stretch that another skewing of research could take place, only self-inflicted this time.
Continue down this path..... our publications will become stenography... not scientific reporting.
George Orwell said: 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'.
That applicability of that quote doesn't seem that far off some days.
Wouldn't it be nice if you were allowed to create speculative science fiction to entertain yourself, unfortunately fiction is held to the same standard of forcing the production of innocuous content as non-fiction, so its a cognitive pit of despair. Imagination should not have constraints, but that seems to be the goal.
and you know, this crap is not being enacted by social media mobsters. Its being implemented by mature adults who ought to know better.