defending science: an open letter to other scientists

thoughts on what science for the people is and believes, prompted because the massive enterprise of American science is truly under fascist attack vs the liberalism of before. lowkey my own draft of the sftp statement

To other scientists,

​American science has come under attack in Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States, as he and the Republican party put Project 2025 into motion. Between his first term’s attack on climate science in 2017 and today, we have faced numerous global crises including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, increasing climate catastrophes, and still-building CO2 emissions. In a sane world, science and society would work together to find solutions for life-threatening problems. Instead, this American administration threatens federal science & research funding, which if cut would destroy the lives of millions, both inside the United States and out. We've seen more plane crashes, bird flu, measles, scrubbing of information, mass firings, cuts to DEI, cuts to environmental protections, slashing of scientific departments in the name of government efficiency & the promotion/insertion of far right figures and billionaires into government.

American scientists are called upon at this moment to take a political stance declaring a defense of science and society. Among federal science workers, there is a call to protect the American scientific enterprise & restore the liberal status quo, using slogans like “Science for all”, “Science belongs to the people”, “Science is for everyone”. But we (the people) have seen that a liberal version of science has been unable to to curb the problems it creates, and it has satisfied itself with making technologies for war and genocide. The truth is that American, Western science has never been for all or belonged to the people.

Science is more than an abstract concept; it is an enterprise intertwined with politics and capitalism. Science has everything to do with information warfare, labor rights, the battle of the mind, class struggle, and human discrimination. It underlies our entire society, but only a few get to access that knowledge and advance it. Scientific advancement of the U.S. is built upon historic and present-day colonialism and slavery, toxically dependent on resources, labor, and knowledge from the Global South. “Progress” and “enlightenment” for some is exploitation, death, destruction, and displacement for others. For too long it has regarded too many other humans as subject, rather than pursuers of science. If you believe you understand the sentiment of science for the people, that means you understand how long we’ve lived without one. There has been at least 400 years of science serving the agenda of capitalism, imperialism, and white supremacy: an ongoing assault and manipulation of science against the people for centuries.
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Today’s owners of science are private equity and investment corporations (including universities), the military-industrial complex, and wealthy, privileged individuals. The owners dictate the direction of scientific research, access to science education, and the availability of scientific labor. The direction of scientific research depends on politics, and the ruling class has had full control of the political system of America through enforcing repressive Republican policies and cultivating “liberal democracy” for decades. Both serve science for capitalism: the true American dream. Speaking on recent events, I want to say that the current attack on federal science funding & jobs did not occur on a whim. It is the planned next step in a class war waged by the 1% to defund education, healthcare, and anything that retains the promise of benefitting working people and communities. This attack on science that supports people would result in economic booms for private technology (AI) companies, military weapons contractors, agribusiness, health insurance companies, credit card, real estate, private prison companies, oil & gas drilling, and big pharma, all of which already gouges billions across the globe. The plan is to make us sick, make us work more, make things less safe, so 1% of the population can have a nice big bank account and cushy jets. They rely on us to exist because they crush us, and it's simply unacceptable.

To assert political agency and affect the Western science enterprise, we must organize our own communities and understand our larger roles with social movement & unified struggle. Literally gather with other scientists and TALK about social problems because you'll see who your friends and coworkers really are, their identity outside of science. We all have one. It is crucially important to decolonize the mind: reject STEM and academia exceptionalism, share knowledge in as many ways and places as you can, and be courageous enough to reject authority that favors misinformation, greed, and fear tactics. If you want to change the state of science right now, you have to act politically, economically, socially, and scientifically too, particularly through translational science and education.

I want fellow scientists to understand that the problems in science are layered. The obstacle course one has to navigate to get a science education is unnecessary. Your education is determined from birth by your zip code and if you are born in a shitty school district & neighborhood, like most Americans, you will struggle to "climb" the ranks. K-12 educators are so overworked, underpaid, and unsupported it doesn't surprise me that few students retain a love for learning or even learn how to critically think. If you're lucky enough to get into college, all you will be greeted with is new mountains to scale. Weed-out classes get rid of perfectly intelligent individuals because they cannot keep up with the demands of egotistical professors who don't know how to teach or talk to people who are different than them. Graduate school demands your labor and money, and makes you dependent on an incredibly unstable donor under the guise of intellectual achievement. The culture of publish or perish is not for the benefit of science. The promotion of “objective” science is a myth because human discrimination runs deep within the minds that make institutions. Regarding our impact, missiles and surveillance technology (drones, satellites, AI) are made to scare the people and contribute very little if anything to the pursuit of science and the health of the earth. We’ve understood the use of fossil fuels damages our planet for decades yet it continues because of capitalism, I cannot believe we live in a world that enthusiastically embraces "Drill baby drill." Plastic pollution chokes our ocean and trash orbits around us in space. Overconsumption and production has created landfills with millions of tons of trash. And millions of people die from illnesses we have cures for & get their lives ruined trying to afford medical care.

These problems seem insurmountable, I know. Just writing this out and linking all the sources of knowledge I have on these problems is exhausting and feels like I might never finish. But fixing Western science requires political and scientific and economic and social change, and it is worth trying to renounce the legacy of science to kill. I call on other scientists to defend a litany of efforts. Pick one issue and learn a little more about it. Google a question you have and scroll past that AI summary. Harness your natural curiosity & intelligence.

​This list is long yet incomplete because the scientific fields & causes that have been ignored are innumerable. We must defend public health, transgender healthcare, medical research, Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start, reproductive rights, climate research, public lands, DEI and accessibility programs, Indigenous communities and science, vaccine research, land restoration, animal sciences, education for everyone... Boycott BDS and Focus Congo targets. Level up your ecological consciousness. Consider a world that embraced the pursuit of mass medicine, instead of mass destruction. Join a political science organization like SFTP. Educate yourself because the revolution starts in the mind. Educate others where you can because part of scientific privilege is educational privilege. Share the wealth. Protect vulnerable & marginalized communities. There are huge resources we could be using to pursue these positive goals but they’re inaccessible to us because of greedy individuals. Human minds drive science-- make sure yours is clean of capitalist corruption. The time is now to take back science and make sure it serves all, not 1% at the expense of 99%. Stand up for a science that serves you.