Hacker News Reader

> The fact that he is putting that the ideas are lame and amplifying the idea that they might be political loyalty tests is a wildly supportive position for him given his usual approach to politics.

Sorry I deleted the original comment. Interesting take.

A simpler explanation is he's changed his mind. Or maybe he thinks that the hype for his original view has ended; he predicts that the opposition is gaining more support within the state government, the academic community, and the people; and he therefore is positioning himself closer to the opposition where there will be more future support.

> This represents a bit of a move in how I've seen Bret approaches culture war topics. He's supporting the view instead of denigrating it. He must be quite worried about the issue to take this position

I agree that even acknowledging that there's criticism of these initiatives (like mandatory DEI statements) is seen as an extreme reaction, especially in academia. Don't know anything about Bret in particular, but I liked his position, was pretty well rounded.

(FWIW, I wholeheartedly support the goals of DEI. But I think I just broke the taboo within DEI of acknowledging that it's taboo to acknowledge that some people have opposing viewpoints.)

Deleted comment

He literally says "For what it is worth, my own view is that too many universities use DEI paperwork as a lame replacement for the actual work of trying to reach a wider range of students"

We've got an academic posting on his blog that "others" think this is a political litmus test of, effectively, academics. Does he believe this conspiracy theory? Well it is complicated! He's just telling you what "others" think. He does think DEI is lame. He's doing a lot of work here to get these uncited "other" ideas into the conversation.

He is in the perfect position to call bullshit if this view was false, because these are political litmus tests targeted at his community. What he should be saying is that "I'm an academic with X years experience and this just isn't how it works! These statements are an important plank in promoting minorities!". The fact that he is putting that the ideas are lame and amplifying the idea that they might be diversity statements is a wild position for him given his usual approach to politics.