Mar 3, 2021 08:51 AM
(This post was last modified: Mar 3, 2021 09:02 AM by C C.)
There is no such thing as "white" math
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/there-i...white-math
I naively believed that STEM would be spared from the ideological takeover. I was wrong, says Princeton professor Sergiu Klainerman.
EXCERPT: . . . Math, with its seemingly unbiased tools — 2 + 2 always equals 4 — has presented a problem for an ideological movement that sees any inequality of outcome as evidence of systemic bias. The problem cannot be that some kids are better at math, or that some teachers are better at teaching it. Like so much else, the basic woke argument against math is that it is inherently racist and needs to be made antiracist. That is accomplished by undermining the notion of right and wrong answers, by getting rid of the expectation that students show their work, by referring to mathematical testing tools as racist, and by doing away with accelerated math classes.
If that sounds like a caricature, I urge you to read this whole document, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Sergiu writes about below. As the linguist John McWhorter put it in a powerful piece published yesterday: “to distrust this document is not to be against social justice, but against racism.”
Sergiu wrote me in an email that the situation in his field reminds him of this line from Thomas Sowell: “Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.” (MORE - details)
Biden White House should follow evidence, not ‘Bug Splatter’ junk science
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/01/bi...k-science/
INTRO: Within days of being sworn in, President Joe Biden elevated the science adviser to the president to Cabinet rank, with a seat beside the secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury. This bold move signaled the administration’s commitment to an evidence-based approach to policymaking. Yet some are already hoping to undermine this forward-thinking policy.
Will the Biden administration follow empirical evidence, or junk science? This new activist push is built around an assertion that insects are on a one-way trip to mass extinction. “The Insect Apocalypse is Here” shrieked a New York Times headline, which even rhetorically asked, “What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?” Business Insider used the claim of an activist ecologist to write that, “More than 50% of insects have disappeared since 1970” while National Geographic followed with, “Where have all the insects gone?”
They haven’t gone anywhere. Insects are not in decline. Sensational assertions follow a well-worn pattern... (MORE)
The Myth of Ancient Environmental Wisdom
https://areomagazine.com/2021/03/02/the-...al-wisdom/
EXCERPTS: . . . The enthusiasm for environmentalism is heartening. But by itself it doesn’t necessarily translate into effective action. Without scientific rigour and historical awareness, well‐meaning environmentalists can come to accept unsubstantiated beliefs about the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it. These beliefs can inspire unproductive—or even counterproductive—actions.
One of the oldest and most influential of these beliefs is the myth of ancient environmental wisdom. This is the idea that our current ecological woes can all be traced back to the industrial revolution. Before that time, it’s argued, our ancestors lived in harmony with the natural world. This was partly due to the nature of preindustrial life: in a time before planes, pesticides and petrochemicals, there were simply fewer ways for people to damage the environment.
More importantly, however, the myth insists that our ancestors were guided by respect and reverence towards our planet, and refused to act in ways that were unsustainable or destructive. It was the loss of this connection with the Earth, during the advent of industrialisation and mass urbanisation, that began our rapid descent into climate chaos.
The moral is simple: to save our planet, we must recover the environmental wisdom of our ancestors. Activists, charities and NGOs frequently advocate “ancient wisdom” and “ancestor-approved approaches” as solutions to the climate crisis. [...] The only problem? No such golden age ever existed.
In the centuries before industrialisation, for instance, agricultural societies were already driving a number of species towards extinction. [...] Even further back in time, our ancestors were responsible for significant levels of deforestation across much of the world.
[...] None of this is to demonise preindustrial societies as especially destructive or ignorant, nor is it to dismiss the enormous environmental destruction wrought by our own industrial societies today. What it does suggest, however, is that there was no widespread environmentalist ethic among our preindustrial ancestors—or, if such wisdom did exist, that it was unable to prevent environmentally destructive acts.
[...] What won’t get us out if this mess are the low-tech solutions offered by believers in the myth of ancient environmental wisdom. ... Ultimately, the problem with the myth of ancient environmental wisdom is that it’s an unevidenced—and thus unscientific—belief. (MORE - details)
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/there-i...white-math
I naively believed that STEM would be spared from the ideological takeover. I was wrong, says Princeton professor Sergiu Klainerman.
EXCERPT: . . . Math, with its seemingly unbiased tools — 2 + 2 always equals 4 — has presented a problem for an ideological movement that sees any inequality of outcome as evidence of systemic bias. The problem cannot be that some kids are better at math, or that some teachers are better at teaching it. Like so much else, the basic woke argument against math is that it is inherently racist and needs to be made antiracist. That is accomplished by undermining the notion of right and wrong answers, by getting rid of the expectation that students show their work, by referring to mathematical testing tools as racist, and by doing away with accelerated math classes.
If that sounds like a caricature, I urge you to read this whole document, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Sergiu writes about below. As the linguist John McWhorter put it in a powerful piece published yesterday: “to distrust this document is not to be against social justice, but against racism.”
Sergiu wrote me in an email that the situation in his field reminds him of this line from Thomas Sowell: “Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.” (MORE - details)
Biden White House should follow evidence, not ‘Bug Splatter’ junk science
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/01/bi...k-science/
INTRO: Within days of being sworn in, President Joe Biden elevated the science adviser to the president to Cabinet rank, with a seat beside the secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury. This bold move signaled the administration’s commitment to an evidence-based approach to policymaking. Yet some are already hoping to undermine this forward-thinking policy.
Will the Biden administration follow empirical evidence, or junk science? This new activist push is built around an assertion that insects are on a one-way trip to mass extinction. “The Insect Apocalypse is Here” shrieked a New York Times headline, which even rhetorically asked, “What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?” Business Insider used the claim of an activist ecologist to write that, “More than 50% of insects have disappeared since 1970” while National Geographic followed with, “Where have all the insects gone?”
They haven’t gone anywhere. Insects are not in decline. Sensational assertions follow a well-worn pattern... (MORE)
The Myth of Ancient Environmental Wisdom
https://areomagazine.com/2021/03/02/the-...al-wisdom/
EXCERPTS: . . . The enthusiasm for environmentalism is heartening. But by itself it doesn’t necessarily translate into effective action. Without scientific rigour and historical awareness, well‐meaning environmentalists can come to accept unsubstantiated beliefs about the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it. These beliefs can inspire unproductive—or even counterproductive—actions.
One of the oldest and most influential of these beliefs is the myth of ancient environmental wisdom. This is the idea that our current ecological woes can all be traced back to the industrial revolution. Before that time, it’s argued, our ancestors lived in harmony with the natural world. This was partly due to the nature of preindustrial life: in a time before planes, pesticides and petrochemicals, there were simply fewer ways for people to damage the environment.
More importantly, however, the myth insists that our ancestors were guided by respect and reverence towards our planet, and refused to act in ways that were unsustainable or destructive. It was the loss of this connection with the Earth, during the advent of industrialisation and mass urbanisation, that began our rapid descent into climate chaos.
The moral is simple: to save our planet, we must recover the environmental wisdom of our ancestors. Activists, charities and NGOs frequently advocate “ancient wisdom” and “ancestor-approved approaches” as solutions to the climate crisis. [...] The only problem? No such golden age ever existed.
In the centuries before industrialisation, for instance, agricultural societies were already driving a number of species towards extinction. [...] Even further back in time, our ancestors were responsible for significant levels of deforestation across much of the world.
[...] None of this is to demonise preindustrial societies as especially destructive or ignorant, nor is it to dismiss the enormous environmental destruction wrought by our own industrial societies today. What it does suggest, however, is that there was no widespread environmentalist ethic among our preindustrial ancestors—or, if such wisdom did exist, that it was unable to prevent environmentally destructive acts.
[...] What won’t get us out if this mess are the low-tech solutions offered by believers in the myth of ancient environmental wisdom. ... Ultimately, the problem with the myth of ancient environmental wisdom is that it’s an unevidenced—and thus unscientific—belief. (MORE - details)