The Not-Space Story of the Day. Maybe of the Year

It's good news, for once, coming out of the colleges.   A team of researchers from Oregon State University sent surveys meant to assess the representation of "transgender and gender nonconforming" of undergraduate STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) majors.  The proportion of sarcastic answers they received (which frankly wasn't terribly high) was high enough to trigger some of the researchers and cause them to whine about the rise of fascism in STEM programs; proving once again they don't understand what the word fascism actually means.  Of 723 responses, only 299 were considered valid, and 50 of the 299, 15%, were classified as "malicious."  It even led to one of their data analysts being so triggered they (it? I don't know their pronouns) had to be given weeks off from looking at the responses.

This story has hit the headlines over the weekend, but the best and deepest coverage I've found is on ZeroHedge, so I'll be quoting from there the most. 

The 28-page paper is titled "Attack Helicopters and White Supremacy: Interpreting Malicious Responses to an Online Questionnaire about Transgender Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Student Experiences." It was rejected by multiple engineering-education journals before finding a home at "Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies,"  which Northwestern University alumni can proudly claim as their alma mater's contribution to society.  

“Online memes associated with white nationalist and fascist movements were present throughout the data, alongside memes and content referencing gaming and ‘nerd’ culture,” wrote the authors, who call for academia to face STEM's surging fascist menace head-on, as the survey results demonstrate "social justice STEM education must include perspectives on online hate radicalization and center anti-colonial, intersectional solidarity organizing as its opposition."

What sort of dressing would you like on that word salad?  

The questionnaire first asked students the gender they identify as:

• I identify as a gift card
• Apache Attack Helicopter
• F-16 Fighter Jet
• Pansexual attack helicopter
  
• Cis gender lizard king
• A human being
• F**king white male
• V22 Osprey
• DID YOU JUST F**KING ASK FOR MY GENDER
• Non-cookie-cutter cis-furry dragonkin. Don't judge. 
• Quasi-Demi-poney; bankai-released state queercopter with a hint of faggotdrag lesbian and homosexual upside-down Frappuccino cake
• I'm just here for the gift card

A total of 24% of respondents used the second through fourth answers: an "Apache Attack Helicopter," a "pansexual attack helicopter," and an "F-16 Fighter Jet."  So many chose the Apache that the paper's authors singled it out for criticism. 

"It is notable that the specific descriptor of an Apache Attack Helicopter is referenced by several different participants—itself a synthesis and reflection of U.S. military force and the appropriation of Indigenous language by colonizers." 

They asked about Race/Ethnic Identity:

• I'm an ethnic gift card.
• My skin color is not important 
• Afro/Klingon-Asicatic Galapogayation
• AH-64 Apache
• Republican
• Come on man, these questions are stupid. Everyone is a grab bag of genetics from all over the world
• I'm a Swedish Muslim
• Native American (Elizabeth Warren)
• Pansexual attack helicopter
• Cracker
• Colored Native Mix w/oppressed ancestors
• Born white but I spend a lot of time in the sun so I identify as a light skin black male
• My skin is blue, I think I might be a smurf

If they had a Disability: 

• I don't have enough gift cards
• My country is run by communists
• Being 2.86% white
• Pedophilia
• Gender dysphoria
• Thinking I'm not a man
• Being trans
• That I'm a tranny
• I'm mentally retarded
• I have hands where my feet are and feet where my hands are 
• Like all transgenders, my disability is the inability to come to terms with biological reality. Madness, essentially.  

The many references to gift cards are because the group conducting the study used $5 Amazon gift cards to entice students to participate.

There were other great responses.  I've probably copied too much of this already, so let me just refer you again to ZeroHedge.  Another good source I found was a Fox News piece.  That piece included this nugget that's worth quoting:

The research team declared that the mockery they received "had a profound impact on morale and mental health," particularly for one transgender researcher who was "already in therapy for anxiety and depression regarding online anti-trans rhetoric." The paper claimed that "managing the study’s data collection caused significant personal distress, and time had to be taken off the project to heal from traumatic harm" of having to read students' responses in the survey.

This quote is the very embodiment of where the idea comes from that you just shouldn't use resumes from people who list their pronouns.  Slip them under the papers on your desk, or somewhere even less accessible. "Are you sure you sent that to me?  I can't seem to find it."

I find this story the most encouraging news I've seen in quite a while.  Engineering undergrads are still being wise asses.  Instead of reflexively parroting the indoctrination they've been fighting for years, they're making fun of the indoctrinators to their faces.  It gives me hope for driving across bridges or flying in airplanes over the next 20 to 30 years.  Maybe everything isn't going to fail.  Those of us who have been talking about how new dark ages are being forced on the world by people who think math is racist have some inspiration.  The answer to "what's your race/ethnic identity?" that one person gave, "Come on man, these questions are stupid.  Everyone is a grab bag of genetics from all over the world" displays common sense in quantities rarely seen anymore.