A team of researchers, composed primarily of Oregon
State University professors, sent a questionnaire link to over 3,000
“department chairs, program administrators, and faculty at accredited
engineering bachelor’s degree-granting institutions,” according to a recent
article on campusreform.org.
The post noted that the survey was intended to be sent
to “transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) students in undergraduate
engineering and computer science programs” and consisted of “numerical and
open-ended text box questions probing students’ perceptions of gender,
engineering education culture, and communities of support.”
Apparently, some students did not take the survey as
seriously as the gender researchers did, and have therefore drawn the ire of the
intrepid, if humorless, investigators. Of the 349 completed responses, 50 were
of a mocking variety, and deemed “malicious” by the scientists-- who said they
included “slurs, hate speech, or direct targeting of the research team.”
Fully 12 percent of the “malicious” respondents
identified their gender as an "Apache attack helicopter" (or similar
aircraft), an apparent reference to a long-running meme meant to make light
of individuals identifying as a broad range of “genders.”
One student had the sheer audacity to write: “I
believe that is what is wrong with higher education. Students should be taught
to focus on their chosen field and not their gender.” Students should be
instructed in their chosen field, the one they are paying through the nose for,
instead of being subjected to a radical social agenda? Egads!
Another respondent wrote, “While I of course do not
condone bullying or discrimination, I wish people in universities (especially
the faculty) would not focus so much on gender and identity. That doesn’t
matter.” Telling the faculty that’s supposed to be serving you that gender
isn’t important to you, but being educated in your field is? The temerity! Hitler
alert, Hitler alert!
The integrity-laden analysts were stung by the
responses and were highly critical of the students/responders. The thin-skinned
but utterly unbiased researchers went so far as to state: “The targeting of
social justice research and marginalized academics fits into theories of
fascism as a pathway the right-wing can use to exert power, one act within a
larger effort.” Say what? The only “targeting” that occurred was on the
part of the researchers who inanely aimed their questions at the STEM students.
(And “fascism?” I guess my “Hitler alert!” warning at the end of the
prior paragraph was prescient.)
Incredibly, the social “scientists” went on to compare
their findings to the January 6 Capitol riot, saying, “This analysis is a
rebuke of conspiracy theories and misinformation which not only barraged our
research but also underpinned the fascist storming of the U.S. Capitol on
January 6th, 2021.” Are you kidding me?! They make it sound like it’s a wonder
any of them are still alive after 14.3% of their survey’s respondents
failed to take it seriously. And these are adults. Not so long ago, kids
used to say, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt
me.” Oh, and I don’t believe the researchers were even called names. Yet one of
them, a transgender woman who was already in therapy for anxiety and depression
regarding alleged online anti-trans rhetoric, claimed to have experienced
"significant personal distress" as a result of managing the data and
had to take time off of the project to "heal
from traumatic harm."
OMG. Suggestion: get over yourselves.
Wonder how these researchers would have handled
themselves on the beaches at Normandy?
The researchers also helpfully suggested potential
changes that could be made to engineering curricula, noting: “Engineering
graduates in the U.S. frequently work in fields such as fossil fuels, defense,
construction, and technology upon graduation, and could be taught about these
field’s relationships with national and global racial capitalism and ongoing
apartheid in Palestine.”
“Ongoing apartheid in Palestine?!” Non sequitur
much?
These researchers checked all the boxes for world
communism. But, unlike STEM students, that’s not going to help build a bridge
to utopia. Or anywhere else for that matter. At least not one that would long
stand.
The researchers’ analysis wasn’t “a rebuke of
conspiracy theories and misinformation,” it was itself filled with conspiracy
theories and misinformation.
When you
refuse to recognize reality, it doesn’t matter if you claim your pronouns are,
xir, Apache attack helicopter, golf ball, or rainbow trout.
(These
researchers’ pronouns should be “Marxist” and “whack-job.”)
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