Let's Destroy American Science | Hacker News Reader

Let's Destroy American Science

nasawatch.com

34 pointsvoxadam27 comments

You can put in a public comment on these changes here:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/29/2026-10...

Given the ideological capture of American science, I don't see how it gets saved without a drastic overhaul of the kind this administration is pushing. We now have conferences about decolonizing scientific disciplines, which is absurd. These fields are filled with people who believe in censorship and are completely dogmatic about whether this kind of ideology should be part of their disciplines at all. It's hard to even have a dialogue about it because the people pushing this stuff refuse to entertain any real criticism of their core principles.

Mmm. What have you done to make sure you're not letting your ideology lead you into misinformation and misunderstanding?

In my experience, people who get mad about "decolonization" tend to either not understand what's actually being discussed or they got ragebaited by something inconsequential that they've blown up to ridiculous proportions.

I assume you don't think you're somehow immune from this phenomenon?

To be clear, the only ideology that belongs in science is the pursuit of objective truth. Not my views on economic growth and technological progress, and not the push for equity or other political goals. Once you start requiring anything beyond finding out what's true, you're bringing a non-scientific ideology into science. You're essentially masquarading political activism as science, which discredits the whole enterprise

In my experience, people who get mad about "decolonization" tend to either fully understand what's actually being discussed or they got ragebaited by something consequential that they've blown up to rational proportions.

Can you elaborate how I'm not understanding what the decolonization movement is and how properly understood it belongs in science?

Reread my comment. It doesn't belong in science.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com