Woke physics - image

[Jon]

Previously we looked at woke mathematics, in which the basic principles of math were cast as white supremacy.

What's next? Physics of course. Behold DecolonizingLight.com. This one is a disturbing mix of blaming white people for physics and indoctrinating "racialized" students (a politically correct way of excluding white people), all in the name of "the concept of light".

A screenshot from their website.


This reminds me of Aryan Physics, or Deutsche Physik, a 1930s German physics movement in which the work of Einstein and other theoretical physicists was rebranded as "Jewish Physics". This movement actually predated the Nuremberg Laws (which forbade Jews from working in universities), and attempted to replace German physics professors with supporters of "Aryan physics".


More:

https://decolonizinglight.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik

Previously:

Woke mathematics
NASA renaming cosmic objects for woke movement - image

[neilbourjaily]

Yeah, thanks. I think.
My wife is an artist, a deliberate person who catalogs every move she makes in her medium (media). It's rather scientific behavior. I make a living doing science daily. I read math for entertainment. Check out Paul Lockhart's "Measurement" a truly great read in mathematics. He's a teacher at a girl's school in New York.
My wife can understand the concepts of math. She won't, however do the hard work of math. Quite frankly, I think that they who hate science, who hate math, are people who just won't do the hard work of it.
I say, take their cell phones away.

[elk-a-holic]

you just ruined my day.

[CharlesWaugh]

It's a zero-sum argument: If you have, I have not.
Then, add to that the demand of equality of every sort (not just the inherent value of each person) and you end up with tearing down and diminishing and 'leveling'.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am a fierce leveler - we are ALL sinners in need of God's love demonstrated when Christ died for us while were yet sinners (Rom 5:8).

The ground at the foot of the cross is level. No one stands higher, no one stands lower - all are in need of His forgiveness, and me most of all.

[Frank S]

The best way to win any confrontational argument with every woke cultural safe space seeking cherub is to suddenly add a double 180° swing to your argument pausing with just enough antithetical connotations to your statement during mid swing to cause them to think you have reversed your opinion on which ever subject is at hand will cause them to melt like a snow cone in a blast furnace. The results are utter confusion on their part.
I'm sure there are many who frequent these forum's who have forgotten more about science mathematics, physics or history than any of these wokens' will ever learn

[DIYSwede]

The best way to win any confrontational argument with every woke cultural safe space seeking cherub

FWIW: My personal experience is that in order to "win an argument",
there has to be a shared notion of what a relevant argument even is,
what would constitute necessary and sufficient facts for,
but also against the assumed hypothesis to be proven or disproved.
And lastly - a mind open enough to even for a moment consider having beliefs being false.

My rather depressing conclusion is that these prerequisites are "not always present",
but also that you cannot "win" against a person/ group that mistakes their personal sense of
fervor, entitlement and devotedness for knowledge, insight and expressiveness.

You might believe that you "won the battle" (as per common argument analysis),
only to find any peace forever impossible with those concerned.

I've realized it's nothing personal against me (this time), merely the result of "hypocognition":

"People think, feel, and behave within the confines of what they can conceive.
Outside that conceptual landscape, people exhibit hypocognition
(i.e., lacking cognitive or linguistic representations of concepts to describe ideas or explicate experiences)."

"...hypocognition impoverishes one’s mental world, leaving cognitive deficits in recognition, explanation,
and memory while fueling social chauvinism and conflict in political and cultural spheres.
Despite its pervasive consequences, people cannot be expected to identify when they are in a hypocognitive state,
mistaking what they conceive for the totality of all that there is. To the extent that their channel of
knowledge becomes too narrow, people risk submitting to hypocognition’s counterpart, hypercognition
(i.e., the mistaken overapplication of other available conceptual notions to issues outside their actual
relevance)."

From Wu & Dunning "Hypocognition: Making Sense of the Landscape beyond One's Conceptual Reach" UMich, March 1, 2018

For text-challenged, a 54 min video:

Ah- yes - the most crucial insight of them all:
I too suffer from hypocognition from time to time, and cannot (inherently) know when I do, just as all of us!

Cheers,
Johan

[mklotz]

...
Quite frankly, I think that they who hate science, who hate math, are people who just won't do the hard work of it.
I say, take their cell phones away.

I couldn't agree more; I've had the same thought many times.

[old kodger]

Quote from Frank "I'm sure there are many who frequent these forum's who have forgotten more about science mathematics, physics or history than any of these wokens' will ever learn" end quote.

The problem seems to be that these folks haven't "Woken", and because they are not intelligent enough to do the hard work, never will.
But hey, lets bleat about it, and find reasons for our ignorance, other than us.

[neilbourjaily]

I FEEL compelled to revisit this subject. I think therein lies the root.
Elementary students are asked how they feel about things. They are not asked what they think about things. Math, chemistry, physics, biology have to do with thinking about relationships not how we feel about them. How do I feel about math? I feel like it's hard for crying out loud.
In addition to that students appear to be taught what to think instead of how to think. I feel this is done in the name of critical thinking, the art of questioning answers and their relationship to fact.
Facts, in fact, are themselves to be adjudged as to their place in one's already anchored mind. Anchoring is the bane of our existence as a civil society. We reject possibility to confirm an already held belief.
How is it a new concept can be muddled without having a group with sufficient openness of mind to give a concept consideration? Sigh, I give my rant a rest. That doesn't mean it's over. That depends on how I feel.

[Jon]

If this topic interests you, read The Diversity Delusion by Heather Mac Donald. What's happening is that governmental organizations and academic accreditation groups are pressuring universities to fulfill diversity requirements, rather than just offering student and faculty positions to whoever is most qualified. If they don't fulfill quotas, then they risk losing their funding or their accreditation. Small groups of hard science professors are rebelling, but they are few and far between. Medical schools are especially under pressure. New England Journal of Medicine has gone full woke. The editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association recently was placed on leave, and a deputy editor forced to resign, over questioning the existence of structural racism.

Less-qualified teachers are given posts based on their minority status. The situation is worsening because we're getting more and more people in positions of academic authority who then influence students with their worldviews. Ironically, these people aren't even always numerical racial minorities; they're just members of the currently fashionable racial/gender/sexual preference groups.

We've seen this before, with Jewish quotas at US universities. Richard Feynman was famously denied entrance to Columbia because they had already fulfilled their Jewish quota.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Mac_Donald