All Things Grow

In regards to that post about anti-evolutionism, I would like to say that I kind of hate this attitude of “Omg we have to make our kids be better because FOREIGNERS ARE COMING IN AND TAKING OVER THESE FIELDS”

because

oh no?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am all for America being as awesome at science as it can be and I hate the way people treat science like it’s some kind of bizarre cult when, no, it’s just learning and knowledge and knowing how to analyze and observe things and make deducations based on what you’ve observed. It’s as objective as it’s possible for anything created and done by people to be. That doesn’t mean there aren’t biases, because there sure are, and it doesn’t mean science is infallible. But it IS an attempt to look at things and judge them objectively, based on the facts being observed, and try to figure out what’s happening and what it means. Science isn’t a subjective opinion cult and it isn’t an infallible pillar of knowledge, either.

SO THAT’S HOW I FEEL ABOUT SCIENCE, back to the point of the post.

It’s not like the western world hasn’t been super behind in scientific fields before, and I’m sure we will be again. It’s not like there’s one Way To Be The Best At Science and if you don’t do that, then you suck at it forever. 

I’m really tired of seeing people use OH NO THE FOREIGNERS (who are almost always BROWN foreigners, of course) as a way to incite American/white students to action. Like, OH NO, THE ~ASIANS~ GET BETTER GRADES, WORK HARDER! or OH NO, BROWN PEOPLE ARE COMING OVER FROM INDIA TO STEAL ALL OF OUR TECH JOBS, WORK HARDER! or OH NO, FOREIGN PEOPLE ARE BETTER AT SCIENCE THAN US, WORK HARDER!

I feel really similarly about posts that are like, “Look America, INDIA says it’s okay for women to have abortions, why don’t you???” which obviously has the very clear message that if THIS backwards-ass place does it, why isn’t America, land of freedom and enlightenment, doing it? It’s just gross. It’s trying to spur us into action by pointing out that these people who are WORSE THAN US IN SOME WAY are doing something better, and aren’t we just shocked and appalled? Don’t we want to fix that?

Human rights is not a fucking competition. And scientific advancement is scientific advancement, whether it occurs in Brazil or America or India or China or France. Competition in scientific fields is good in that it spurs discovery and creation of new technologies, but we aren’t losing at science if there aren’t as many good ol’ American kids in scientific fields.

So can we all just stop with the xenophobic fear-mongering?