The Race to the Bottom

Hands up those of you who still have any trust in the medical profession.

Anyone?

I see a gentleman at the back there raising his hand.

What’s that you say? Ah, I see

You were just picking out some earwax

Well strap yourself in and put on your seatbelts (they work against covid, too, don’t you know) because it will get worse.

I’ve woken up a bit too early today. Not enough sleep at all, but I couldn’t get back to sleep and so I thought I’d have a quick squint at Twitter. Big mistake¹.

My attention was drawn to this thread

John Sailer @JohnDSailer

In the long run, DEI initiatives could have an enormous effect not just on university curricula—but also on scientific and medical research. No better case study exists than that of UC San Francisco. My latest in @tabletmag. tabletmag.com/sections/news/…

I’m not from the US and so I might have this wrong, but my perception is that California is a bit like the black hole of crazy. It sucks in the latest woke idiocy with a vengeance.

UCSF, it seems, has gone full-on woketard in its latest recommendations for ‘achieving’ equity and anti-racism in its research.

Here’s the frontispiece

Not having had a woke lobotomy, my first inclination would be to immediately file this in the round filing cabinet in the corner of my room.

Remember 2020? Some dude with enough Fentanyl in his system to kill a friggin elephant made the headlines. The tragic combination of police negligence and over-enthusiastic self-medication resulted in his death. The person happened to be black and so, naturally, hundreds of thousands took to the streets and helped themselves to new Nike trainers or TV’s. It was a cold summer and so it was important to keep warm by burning down the odd store - especially if it was out of trainers.

All perfectly reasonable and understandable.

But it wasn’t any old summer, it was a covid summer.

Play areas for kids were taped off, benches were made illegal to sit on, skateboard parks were filled with sand because, erm, something. That something was drawn straight from science fiction thrillers. There was this super-duper-deadly little bastard of a virus which originated from somewhere that we can’t name because that might be racist. And if you were within 50 yards of another human being you might kill them in your asymptomatic zeal - especially if neither of you were wearing masks. It was a very dangerous time.

Outdoor gatherings? Well that was pretty much the equivalent of committing genocide - particularly if your gathering included your friendly neighbourhood ‘super-spreader’ ²

Thankfully, our scientists, working round the clock with their enormous brain-power, eventually came up with cheap solutions so that we could venture outside again

A small bit of clear plastic, and some used plastic crates attached to limit numbers, and we could all enjoy the benefits of outdoor dining again without fearing for our lives.

But in 2020, it was touch and go.

Meet up with your friend, in the park, outside, with a cup of take-out tea? You selfish, thoughtless granny killer!! You Nazi scum. This was a fineable offence in the UK - and, yes, people were actually fined for this. If only they’d taken a plastic screen and a packing crate with them - all would have been well.

Protest, outside, on the streets, in your thousands?

Perfectly fine - go right on ahead.

Racism, you see, is a public health crisis - and it’s much more serious than covid. It’s OK to kill granny if you’re virtue signalling fighting for justice.

The experts, those sciency types with their big pointy heads and galactic level intelligence, told us so. They even wrote letters in their hundreds telling us that it was OK to get yourself a new pair of trainers in the pursuit of social justice and that covid would understand.

So it’s gratifying to see that UCSF is committed to bringing us more of the same ultra-high quality research. Indeed, they’re going to make things even better, as their recommendations document shows

None of that quantitative shit, you see. That’s all colonialist bullshit, obviously designed to suppress the noble conquered of alternative hue.

Mind you - looking at medical science over the last 3 years and their ‘ability’ to assess quantitative data is quite possibly not the best example of the scientific method in action. More of the science anti-method in action. I suspect the odds are a smidgeon better than 50/50 however, that the proposals outlined above will actually make things worse.

UCSF is building upon and strengthening the work of others. UNC, for example, implemented the following changes to their lecture programs back in 2021

You can see how these recommendations are going to catapult scientific understanding and expertise into the fucking stratosphere. Well done UNC!

“Structural context”? Every lecture should have one. Whatever it is. It needs to be there. When discussing basic immunology or the microbiology of the cell it’s so bloody important to understand how these ideas have contributed to the oppression of POH (people of hue).

There’s so much more - and you can read the thread on Twitter for yourselves. I’m not sure if the thread reader app link will work - but here it is anyway.

I’m so sick of this shit. It’s nonsensical bollocks. It’s a buzzword bingo of batshit bonkers biliousness.

I know I should be all ‘rational’ and calm and measured and scholarly - but I just can’t. This stuff is just too damned stupid to take seriously on any intellectual level. It is, however, important that we don’t ignore it - because this stuff is more toxic than masculinity³.

How have so many people let their minds be poisoned with this crap?

The answer, at least partially, might lie in the ‘comments’ section of the UCSF proposal. The document was circulated for comment. Some brave souls stepped up to the plate.

You will be shocked, shocked I tell you, astounded beyond measure, your flabber will gast all over the place, when I tell you that these comments caused trauma.

Yes, really. Although, by now, it’s not any surprise to any of us.

The authors got upset - their “emotional labour and psychic exhaustion” in having to defend their (obviously) correct proposal was almost too much for any human to bear and added to the impossible burdens already placed upon POH.

The standard woke defence here is applied. Do not argue using facts or reason. Do not engage. Just go all wibbly-wobbly and claim some ‘trauma’ or injustice.

They are finding it so, so difficult and “struggle to survive in this system rooted in white supremacy”

For fuck’s sake.

How the authors have coped with their “lived experience” in all of this is difficult to comprehend⁴. They need to be awarded the Silver Star, or something, for their extreme bravery in the face of unspeakable terror and danger.

I state here how grateful I am to these authors for their fearless struggle against the oppressive structures they face. I am pleased to know that the high-quality research and understanding the medical profession brought to bear on the covid issue will be carried forward, and strengthened, in the dawning of this new age of equitable enlightenment.

I don’t want any old pill, doc, I want the ones that have been developed outside of the hetero-normative, structurally white, colonialist and quantitative mindset.

1. It usually is

2. Doris, just a few doors down from me, is our friendly neighbourhood super-spreader. She is certainly very friendly.

3. Feminist scientists previously thought that masculinity was the most toxic substance in the universe.

4. “lived experience” - or just “experience” to those who are still sane