Science enthusiasts are preparing to march on Washington, D.C., to lambaste President Donald Trump for supposedly embracing the antithesis of science, but these same enthusiasts consider ableism, transphobia, colonization and native rights to be eminently important scientific issues.
Organizers for the March for Science tweeted out Saturday that “colonization, racism, immigration, native rights, sexism, ableism, queer-, trans-, intersex-phobia, & econ justice are scientific issues,” raising questions about how much the protest is about classical conceptions of science as opposed to social concerns from progressives, who also happen to like science.
The March for Science project is new as of last week, but has since racked up 300,000 Facebook likes and almost 300,000 followers on Twitter in short order. The movement describes itself as a collection of “scientists, science enthusiasts, and concerned citizens.”
According to the group, Trump has expressed unacceptable skepticism about global warming and Vice President Mike Pence has in the past downplayed the theory of evolution as little more than a theory.
Although much of the concern over free speech crackdowns in the federal government have been overblown, a lingering sense of fear has remained, prompting organizers to emphasize the importance of open scientific inquiry.
For example, orders to the Environmental Protection Agency to cease external communications and the removal of climate change policy from the White House website are quite routine parts of a presidential transition period.
But before a date has even been set for the march, participants have already started attacking each other over a perceived lack of diversity among leadership of the march.
As one Facebook post from the march organizations on Saturday notes, “We are taking seriously the many important criticisms regarding (lack of) diversity on social media stating that for this march to be meaningful, we must centralize diversity of the march’s organizers (both in leadership positions and at all levels of planning), speakers, and issues addressed as a principal objective for the march.”
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