Professors from across the country have long been lured to Florida’s public colleges and universities, with the educators attracted to the research opportunities, student bodies, and the warm weather.
But for a swath of liberal-leaning professors, many of them holding highly coveted tenured positions, they’ve felt increasingly out of place in the Sunshine State. And some of them are pointing to the conservative administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as the reason for their departures, according to The New York Times.
DeSantis, who was elected to the governorship in 2018 and was easily reelected last fall, has over the course of his tenure worked to put a conservative imprint on a state where moderation was once a driving force in state politics. In recent years, DeSantis has railed against the current process by which tenure is awarded, and with a largely compliant GOP-controlled legislature, he’s imposed conservative education reforms across the state.
I’m sure republicans love that since it is their goal to replace them.
They won’t. They don’t want universities, because that implies more education.
What I suspect will probably happen is the universities will shrink or close, and/or lose their accreditation, further increasing their brain drain.
So any way you slice it, this is not a loss for Republicans, they’re getting precisely what they want here. Unintended consequences? Probably, but they’re too blinded by their belief in their own superiority to be able to imagine any.
It just means that science communicators on the internet are becoming vitally important, so the young can still access quality information.
It might be a double edged sword, but unless Republicans can stem the flow of information on the internet (and they have and are trying different ways to do that), this is a battle that they have no chance of winning.
It just means that science communicators on the internet are becoming vitally important, so the young can still access quality information.
That’ll only work until the Internet is drowned out by fake AI bot science videos and blogs, stressing certain narratives.
YouTube is already today fighting those videos, AI generated trash science stuff.
It’s happening now, today. That’s why I always rage against shills and bots, because it really will mean the death of communication for Humanity if it goes to its logical conclusion. And when Humanity doesn’t communicate, War is not far behind.
can stem the flow of information on the internet (and they have and are trying different ways to do that), this is a battle that they have no chance of winning.
If you pollute the virtual ‘Town Square’ badly enough, those who want communication to not happen will win.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it’s good to remember that the “public square” is vast. Poisoning it isn’t going to be as simple as poisoning 4chan.
Also, on the topic of AI, what if their information-gathering improves over time, too? Sure, there will be bad versions, but there are already bad human actors, and we’ve mostly learned how to identify and fact check them.
I think your scenario is certainly reasonable, but I don’t think it’s the only option, either. Plus, I’ve already seen people saying things like, “That sounds like an AI wrote it.” Current and future generations may simply learn to detect AI and take any claims skeptically.
Either way, hard to say what the future holds with any real accuracy.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it’s good to remember that the “public square” is vast.
Well there’s one Facebook, there’s one Twitter/X, there’s one Reddit (or two if you want to count Lemmy), etc. Not as vast as you might think.
Bots are very fast and inexpensive to use and can be done multiplicatively very easily.
I hope you’re right, but I don’t have your confidence in the future that you seem to do.
I get why they’re doing it,
But what exactly do they think is going to happen when those highly coveted positions get filled by people complacent or supportive of DeSantis’ agenda?I mean, to the professors themselves? Nothing. To the university system? Arguably, what the people of Florida want and deserve
It’s nice to say one would stay on principle and try and change things /fight back, but in reality, it’s a huge emotional and professional drain, especially on families. I’ve personally drawn a line at applying for positions in Florida
That said, I’ve got a number of friends who work as professors in Florida and they haven’t given any indication this affects them, or they’re even remotely interested in leaving. Professors have high mobility and move often, especially if they have a competing (better) offer. The turnover rate only increased by 2% in the last year, according to the article…
Arguably, what the people of Florida want and deserve
Try considering the polling places per capita of blue versus red counties and several other kinds of voter suppression before you go victim blaming millions of people.
the brain drain is real. the ‘red’ states are getting dumber and dumber, and as a result, ‘redder’ and ‘redder’.
Is that true? That would imply the younger generations are getting dumber, and I’m not sure if that tracks. It might be correlative with the fact that younger generations are getting more and more info from Internet sources (Tiktok, YouTube, podcasts, etc.), however.
Talented and ambitious young people from such places leave
Or never realize that they actually have the talent because no one has helped him with it, so they stay with that undeveloped, making the world a lesser place in their lives as well
This is true to an extent, but it’s complicated. Money talks more than cultural vibes, and so to that end, there are plenty of smart and educated young people moving to southern states simply because of affordability. Texas in particular has been attracting a lot of tech workers who don’t want to deal with cost of living in San Francisco or NYC.
The top ten states by net migration are: Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Idaho, Alabama, Oklahoma
While the bottom ten are: California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota
Those bottom five also have the worst housing markets in the country, which probably isn’t a coincidence. Blue states have been torpedoing themselves in the foot by not building enough housing to meet demand and causing prices to explode way past any semblance of affordability. While this data relates to all people, not just young educated people, and is also influenced by things like conservative boomers wanting to join DeSantis in building the Christian Republic of Florida, the effect of housing costs can’t really be denied.
Blue states have been torpedoing themselves in the foot by not building enough housing to meet demand and causing prices to explode way past any semblance of affordability.
You’re not wrong, it is definitely a housing issue as well, but it’s also an infrastructure issue, it’s just the land and infrastructure can only handle so many citizens living there before it doesn’t work.
Ask anyone trying to drive to and from work in Los Angeles every day as an example of the freeway infrastructure how much it can handle.
Brain drain affects both the states that people are leaving from, and the states people are moving to.
The article keeps saying “conservative” when the correct descriptors would be “fascist”, “bigoted” and “anti-education”.
the
conservativefascist administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantisworked to put a[n]
conservativeanti-education imprint on [the] statewith a largely compliant GOP-controlled legislature, he’s imposed
conservativebigoted education reforms across the state.The conservative platform is all of those things, so it’s completely fair to call it that. The entire party is rotten to the core because they are simply ok with being the party of all of those things.
I’m not defending “normal conservatives” and other delusional participants in hate from being associated with this kind of barbarism. My gripe is with threefold:
1: Don’t just repeat the same word when synonyms and even better suited words exist. It’s lazy writing and annoying to read
2: More importantly, the rise of fascism and related far right demagoguery is a worldwide emergency, not least an American one.
When venerated right wing and/or centrist outlets such as Business Insider, CNN and New York Times keep calling fascism conservatism, they not only ignore the crisis and thus the need to adress it, they severely hinder anyone calling it out from being taken seriously, much less doinh anything to fight it.
