Academia’s ableist culture laid bare

I find myself wondering if this a parody:

> My biggest barrier is other people’s assumptions about what I can and can’t do. While I was doing postdoctoral fieldwork in Panama, our team needed to collect female butterflies from the rainforest. There was some scepticism about my taking part, because I wouldn’t be able to hike. I convinced them to drop me off by a river with a stool and some nets, and I parked myself by plants that I knew the butterflies like. I caught two females. The hikers caught only one — and were bitten by chigger mites and mosquitos. It was a great moment to flip life a middle finger.

Academia encourages people to portray themselves as victims. Applications for most jobs and grants typically have a "Personal statement" component which is universally understood as the place where you are supposed to write your sob story. If you see yourself as a "normal" person and you don't want to write an emotional essay about your personal life and how oppressed you are, you probably won't get the job or grant. This article reads like a personal statement. And it's dripping wet with liberal kool-aid.

The guy who figured out you could crystallize proteins had only one hand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Sumner . My biochem teacher said he’d keep test tubes in his pocket and pipette into them!