Leading journal accused of abandoning science over ‘social justice agenda’ - "Nature, which produces several leading science journals, faced criticism over its position on equality, diversity and inclusion from leading scientists. Prof Anna Krylov, a professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California, shared an open letter online encouraging fellow scientists to boycott Nature until it “recommits to scientific excellence”. She said: “The Nature group has abandoned its mission in favour of advancing a social justice agenda.” She accused it of trying to play identity politics and promote specific demographics instead of focusing on science, which is supposed to be “guided by a commitment to finding objective truth”. The letter was backed by Prof Richard Dawkins, an expert in evolutionary biology, who said on X: “Nature used to be the world’s most prestigious science journal. “Now it’s one of many accused of favouring authors because of their identity group rather than the excellence and importance of their science.” Prof Krylov claimed Nature had “institutionalised censorship, implemented policies that have sacrificed merit in favour of identity-based criteria, and injected social engineering”. “The result is that papers published in Nature journals can no longer be regarded as rigorous science,” she added... Prof Krylov cited examples of guidelines and policies whereby the publisher appears to prioritise inclusion over “scientific rigour”. For example, she stated that the Springer Nature Diversity Commitment published in 2019 tells editors to “intentionally and proactively reach out to women researchers”, while authors are instructed to suggest reviewers “with diversity in mind.” She added: “I cannot stop but wonder – was I asked to review the manuscript because of my expertise in the subject matter or because of my reproductive organs?” Prof Krylov also criticised one of the publications, Nature Reviews Psychology, for encouraging authors to practice “citation justice”. She said it was “to social-engineer their manuscript’s bibliography to promote members of favoured identity groups”, and that it was “particularly harmful because it undermines the rigour and reliability of published research”. Prof Krylov, who is an expert in theoretical and computational quantum chemistry, said when references were being selected based upon demographics, that “the integrity of science itself is compromised”. She also said Nature Human Behavior had “published a censorship manifesto… in which they openly declare their intent to censor legitimate research findings that they deem potentially ‘harmful’ to certain groups’”. She said it was “arrogant for editors to presume they have the expertise to make such judgments” and “antithetical to the production of knowledge”."
Alan Turing Institute scraps diversity drive under pressure from ministers - "Britain’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) institute has scrapped a key diversity scheme after coming under pressure from ministers. The research initiative from The Alan Turing Institute, which last year was handed £100m in taxpayer funding, had aimed to get more women into science and promote “equity in the data science and AI fields”. However, the programme has now been axed following a review by the organisation’s board amid calls for it to focus increasingly on defence. The decision means the institute will no longer have a mandate to investigate “diversity and inclusion in online and physical workplace cultures”, while it will also end inquiries into how “social bias” risks being built into machine learning systems. It comes just days after Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, urged the institute to “reform”... a report from British Progress argued the organisation had “lost its way” and needed “major reform”. The think tank said the institute had a “fragmented and thinly spread research portfolio” and that it had been “susceptible to mission creep”. The report added: “The most significant example of this has been its drift away from its core technical mission toward work rooted in social and political critique.” British Progress warned that, if it failed to reform, there would be grounds to “decommission the institute entirely”. While the institute has made moves towards reforming its research, its staff have also criticised its allegedly chaotic management and a lack of diversity in senior roles. Last year, more than 180 staff signed a letter questioning its decision to hire four top male academics, as they criticised a “trend of limited diversity within the institute’s senior scientific leadership”. In December, The Telegraph reported that external consultants had raised concerns from staff about “tokenism” and “nepotism” at the institute, warning of “pervasive issues of low morale”. That month, staff also sent a no-confidence letter to its leadership team and board, warning it had been left “rudderless”... Yet in recent years, the institute has been dogged by concerns that it missed out on the emergence of a new wave of technology. In 2023, a report from the Tony Blair Institute argued it had “not kept the UK at the cutting edge of international AI developments”."
Clearly, it has been underperforming because of insufficient diversity, so this is a mistake
Bank of England scraps diversity rules amid DEI backlash - "The Bank of England has scrapped planned diversity rules amid a global backlash over the liberal corporate agenda. Regulators are to shelve proposals that would have forced 42,000 UK businesses to report diversity and inclusion data collected on their employees. It followed criticism from the industry and politicians about putting even more bureaucratic burdens on British business, and comes amid a wider fightback against so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that critics say stifle growth and prevent companies from hiring on merit. The Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), as well as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said introducing the rule would have led to duplicate burdens for firms."
Less than half of public believe diversity is a strength - "Less than half of the British public think diversity is strength, a survey has found. The National Centre for Social Research found 49 per cent of the British public feel that diversity strengthens society, compared to 64 per cent of Americans. People in the UK are also more likely to have tougher attitudes on immigration, according to the research based on a survey of 2,000 people. The findings show that a common narrative about Britain being more socially liberal than America does not ring true across all issues... Their survey found 42 per cent of people in the UK think there should be legal efforts to deport immigrants living here without permission, compared with just a third (33 per cent) in the US. When it came to how open their country is to people from around the world, 63 per cent in the US felt this is essential to national identity but only 49 per cent of people in the UK were like-minded... “In the UK, the sharpest divides are around immigration and national identity; in the US they’re around social issues and the role of government. These differences will shape political debate on both sides in the years to come.”"
Suffolk all female construction project highlights industry gaps - "A couple trying to renovate their home using an all-female team said they had struggled to find women for certain roles. Kat and Fi Parsons are in the process of renovating their home in Gosbeck near Needham Market, Suffolk... "There's some gaps that we had," she explained. "Scaffolding was a nightmare; we could not find a female scaffolder. "There's been some bits and pieces we've had to rely on some brilliant guys... it has been tough. "Only 1% of the industry is women on tools, so we have had to be creative and use local resources."... Another of the roles needed was a glazier, but Kat said they could not find a female glazier "anywhere"."
Time for more gender quotas to encourage women to enter some fields
Mediacorp responds to ex-BBC journalist's allegations of bias, says it hires based on merit - "National broadcaster Mediacorp on Wednesday (Aug 11) said it was committed to equal opportunities and diversity in hiring, following allegations that one of its editors had said "viewers did not like watching darker-skinned presenters". In a radio programme aired on the BBC World Service over the weekend, former BBC journalist Sharanjit Leyl said in a segment on racial harmony in Singapore that she had struggled to get hired at a local news broadcaster some 20 years ago... Some 30 per cent of CNA news presenters are from minority groups, it said. As for the channel's documentaries, specials and commissioned programmes which feature a presenter over the past two years, 60 per cent were presented by a person from a minority group. Across the entire CNA newsroom - including reporters, producers and editors - 40 per cent are from minority groups, the broadcaster added. "This is significantly above the national average," it said." Undermining other minorities is good, apparently. Too bad there's no way to measure and aggregate skin tone
No Cause for Alarm - "Wells Fargo chief executive Charlie Scharf’s leaked comments describing “a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from”—taken from a company-wide meeting and accompanying memo regarding black underrepresentation among bank executives—have ignited a firestorm, trending on Twitter and prompting outrage from media figures and celebrities... According to a large-scale Georgetown University analysis in 2016, African-American students are significantly underrepresented in the top majors for getting a banking job, such as finance, business, economics, and mathematics. One’s college major is an important factor in shaping the talent pool from which employers such as Wells Fargo hire. Black students make up 7 percent of all STEM majors, roughly half their percentage share of the American population. As Thomas Sowell has pointed out, inequality between groups is the norm, not the exception, in human affairs. Black Americans are overrepresented in the NBA by a factor of six. African-Americans outperform other racial groups in other areas, such as popular music. According to one analysis, a successful musician from the 2010s was twice as likely to be black than the average American. Black success in the music industry recently culminated in a historic Pulitzer Prize win in music awarded to rapper Kendrick Lamar. Contrary to media narratives about systemic police racism, black Americans are the most overrepresented group in law enforcement (they make up 15.5 percent of law enforcement members but 12.3 percent of the population). Asians are significantly underrepresented in professional sports and law enforcement. No one claims that these disparities reflect systemic bias against Asians... Human variation across race and gender lines in various occupations is complex. Women are overrepresented in psychology and nursing; men are overrepresented in trucking and HVAC maintenance; Asians are overrepresented in STEM; and Jews are overrepresented among American Nobel Prize winners and the film industry. Discrimination is not a universally plausible hypothesis for why some groups excel in some fields but not in others. Apart from the larger ramifications of Scharf’s controversial comments, his statement was not universally deemed as racist even by even those present for his remarks. “The meeting was incredibly constructive,” Alex David, president of the African-American Connection Team Member Network, told Reuters. “I walked away being incredibly surprised at how genuine and sincere he is.”"
The Canadian Forces jobs where only women need apply - "Depending on the week and whether employment equity (or EE) targets are being met, the Canadian Forces periodically closes some of its approximately 100 occupations or trades to any applicants but women... “diversity is a consideration” – a significant one, especially near the end of the recruiting year when she said “We will look at diversity applicants first” – and that what the sheets indicate about Indigenous applicants is correct. The sheets say that Indigenous candidates either are “not required to write” or “must write but don’t need to pass” the CFAT, the Canadian Forces Aptitude Test... The CFAT – which has been frequently tested for bias and found to have none — as well as a personality traits test results in a score which is then used on a Priority Control Line by recruiters. The PCL used to be what determined how applicants were prioritized, but now, as the sheets say, “PCL does not apply to EE applicants.” Though on the sheets the terms are used in a confused fashion, in the military, Tattersall said, EE includes visible minorities, Indigenous people and women. What used to happen is that those who scored high on the CFAT and had certain traits (which indicate that they tend to perform well in the military) would be processed. But since late 2017 and early 2018, when the CF formally responded to a parliamentary report on recruitment, the military has increasingly focused on diversifying its work force... In its desire to achieve EE targets, the source said, the military has built a two-tiered system – “one tier for white men and the other for women and visible minorities. It’s a very different affair for some applicants than for others.” Particularly grating, the source said, is that “While the (recruiting group) has made no secret of their goals, they have not been honest about their methods.”"
DEI is so anyone who isn't a straight white man can get a job
From 2019. Surely DEI will solve the recruitment crisis of reaching a larger population
Sophie Corcoran on X - "I am being called a ‘racist’ because I believe it is unfair that white kids are being rejected from top universities with 3A*s whilst BAME kids get in with ABB That IS unfair. It is not racist to say it is unfair. Why should you have to do more because you are white? White kids from state schools face no less barriers and have no greater advantage than their BAME counterparts To suggest that they do is simply a lie. So why should they take the placer of a student more deserving just because they aren’t white."
When left wingers say DEI is so anyone who isn't a straight white man can get a job, it shows they think all minorities are incompetent, since it's about lowering standards for them
Rupert Lowe MP on X - "Vile anti-white racism from the Bank of England. An eight week paid internship, and 'at least' a £5,000 grant - white boys and girls banned from applying. You're a disgrace, @bankofengland. This racist filth must be removed and opened to all - including white people."
FILDEBRANDT: Canada has more generals than tanks — more admirals than ships - "Chief of the Defence Staff and weepy DEI-hire General Jennie Carignan signed a directive to increase the size of Canada's reserve forces from 25,561 to 400,000. For those rubbing their eyes at that number, that is a 16-fold increase. Cue the laugh track. Canada's already paltry reserve force has thus far failed to ever hit its personnel target of 30,000 every single year since it was set in 2017, when it was 26,500. Even if the Canadian Armed Forces were fully funded and furnished with adequate equipment and resources, it will never happen. At least not without conscription. The thing is, the federal government and the senior military leadership appointed by it, openly loathe the very things that have traditionally fueled voluntary military recruitment. The new military prioritizes DEI in its recruitment and promotion. This is a problem for a profession that, by its nature, is attractive to nationalistic, young white men. On aggregate, they tend to like guns, struggle, camaraderie, and feeling a part of something meaningful. When they join a nation's armed forces, they take pride in the uniform. Other demographics are great and are welcome. But the main source of recruits has been made to feel decidedly unwelcome. The martial culture of the CAF has been thoroughly replaced by cultural marxism and bureaucracy, and generations of pacifist propaganda have destroyed the broader martial culture of our society. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen can now have long, neon-blue hair, face tattoos, and fake pink nails. Many cannot even perform a simple march-past at a level that teenage cadets could in the 1990s... We've got 145 flag officers. That is officers with the rank of general or admiral (including commodores, which are the navy's equivilent to an army or air force brigadier-general). Of this, an estimated 27 are in the navy, 77 are in the army, and 27 are in the air force. Another 15 are in joint commands across the branches or other organizations like NORAD. So how many Indians are our chiefs leading? Lock and load dear reader. This is going to be good. As of January 2025, the Royal Canadian Army had just 82 Leopard-2 main battle tanks in its armoured forces. But due to maintainance issues, only 41 were combat-ready. That means that for ever combat-ready main battle tank, Canada has nearly two generals... The Royal Canadian Air Force is in, slightly better shape. On paper, we have 88 CF-18 Hornet fighter jets, mostly built in 1980. Of that, only 30 to 35 are combat ready, but let's be generous and round up to the high-end of that figure. That means that our airforce could almost have one general piloting every single fighter jet in operation. If you're not going to have a big air force, then you'd better put your best men where it counts, eh? And the vaunted Royal Canadian Navy? The floating force that ended the Second World War as third-largest navy on the planet? Well, it's got six-to-eight combat ready warships, mostly Halifax-class frigates. Again, let's round up to eight to be generous in this exercise. With 27 flag officers, that means we have more than three admirals for every single combat-ready warship in the RCN. With the deck so crowded, they may need to bunk-up. But perhaps I'm being unfair. In April, the RCN posted on X that the HMCS Corner Brook was upgraded and ready to return to operations. "Freshly upgraded, it's now the most advanced submarine in the Canadian fleet." Correction: the HMCS Corner Brook is the only submarine in the Canadian fleet. One, diesel submaine, build in the 1980s, to patrol the largest coastline of any country on the planet."
Diversity drive to recruit more women or ethnic troops threatens to humiliate Britain's military and sideline white candidates, Shadow Defence Secretary warns - "A fresh 'tokenistic' diversity drive to recruit more women and ethnic troops is threatening to humiliate Britain's military and sideline white candidates from joining the forces, the Shadow Defence Secretary warned. James Cartlidge fears the military could be sucked into another RAF-style discrimination scandal over its new recruitment deal with operator, Serco. Defence chiefs are still reeling from the 2023 controversy, which saw Royal Air Force top brass coming under fire for a secret bid to discriminate against male applicants seeking to become pilots. The decision sparked widespread fury and was found to be unlawful. Military bosses have since u-turned and urged previously overlooked candidates to re-apply for training in a frantic attempt to fill cockpits with combat-ready flyers. However, fears of a repeat fiasco have emerged today after Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard revealed new details about the Government's latest recruitment contract, set to go live in 2027. In a statement, the Labour minister admitted the deal would include 'annual mandated performance indicators focused on enhancing equality and diversity' - which Mr Cartlidge said could lead to white recruits being sidelined by contractors... sources say there is concern among top brass that 'arbitrary targets' to ramp up the number of women or minorities being recruited could ultimately to more harm than good. Questions have also been raised over whether there will be any financial incentives to hit potential diversity quotas... 'Red tape or performance targets that distract such a fundamental thing like recruiting to the armed forces don't help when our total focus should be on the national mission to restore our deterrent strength, given that you've got the first land invasion by a peer military since the Second World War, threatening Europe and Nato."
Clearly, there being targets for "minorities" means that there will be no discrimination in hiring, because failure to achieve the targets would be the real indicator of discrimination - against "minorities"
Welfare Chauvinism in the Face of Ethnic Diversity: A Vignette Experiment across Diverse and Homogenous Neighbourhoods on the Perceived Deservingness of Native and Foreign-Born Welfare Claimants - "The tenuous relationship between ethnic diversity and welfare solidarity has become a central focus in sociological and political inquiry. Yet, the question whether ethnic composition of the residential environment affects welfare chauvinism (favouring an encompassing welfare state that is preserved for ingroup members) has remained fundamentally unanswered. This article integrates extensive experimental data on welfare solidarity with hypothetical, unemployed persons from domestic and foreign origin among 23,015 native participants (to isolate welfare chauvinism), and detailed registry data (on the residential neighbourhood of these participants) from the Netherlands. This combination of contextual and experimental data allows us to test rivalling theoretical arguments on the relationship between ethnic diversity and welfare chauvinism, namely conflict, contact, and constrict theory. The outcomes of this enriched vignette survey experiment show that ethnic diversity has a specific and sizeable effect on welfare chauvinism under a range of model specifications. Diverse neighbourhoods drive down natives’ support for welfare distribution with migrants but not with natives. Ethnic diversity thereby stimulates the deservingness gap between natives and migrants, i.e., welfare chauvinism. We discuss the implications of these findings for conflict, contact, and constrict theory."
Left wingers like to claim that billionaires are trying to get normal people to blame immigrants instead of them. Which ignores how billionaires are the ones pushing mass migration; wage suppression, union-inhibiting effects and diversity eroding support for social welfare and willingness to pay taxes aside, more consumers means more profits. It's so amusing that they have been psy-oped into pushing the billionaires' agenda
Trust, welfare states and income equality: Sorting out the causality - "The cross-country correlation between social trust and income equality is well documented, but few studies examine the direction of causality. We show theoretically that by facilitating cooperation, trust may lead to more equal outcomes, while the feedback from inequality to trust is ambiguous. Using a structural equation model estimated on a large country sample, we find that trust has a positive effect on both market and net income equality. Larger welfare states lead to higher net equality but neither net income equality nor welfare state size seems to have a causal effect on trust. We conclude that while trust facilitates welfare state policies that may reduce net inequality, this decrease in inequality does not increase trust."
Societal diversity, group identities and their implications for tax morale - "We study how the tax morale of individuals is influenced by societal diversity in their place of residence. Using data from the World Value Survey, we compare the effects that diversity has on self-reported measures of tax morale at the national, sub-national and individual level. We show first that, both across countries and within countries across sub-national regions, greater diversity is associated with lower average levels of tax morale. We then document that within countries and regions tax morale is lower among individuals who are less similar to others and this effect operates more strongly in places characterized by higher levels of diversity. This pattern applies to diversity in terms of different social cleavages, including income, ethnicity, language or religion, but is particularly pronounced when it comes to diversity in terms of cultural values. This suggests that social identification is important for how people perceive their responsibility of paying taxes."
Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution - "This paper investigates the causal link between the ethnic diversity in a society and its inhabitants’ preferences for redistribution. We exploit exogenous variation in immigrant shares stemming from a nationwide program placing refugees in municipalities throughout Sweden during 1985–94 and match data on refugee placement to panel survey data on inhabitants of the receiving municipalities. We find significant, negative effects of increased immigration on the support for redistribution. The effect is especially pronounced among high-income earners. We also establish that estimates from earlier studies failing to identify causal effects are likely to be positively biased (i.e., less negative)."
Group Loyalty and the Taste for Redistribution - "Interpersonal preferences—preferences that depend on the characteristics of others—are typically hard to infer from observable individual behavior. As an alternative approach, this paper uses survey data to investigate interpersonal preferences. I show that self‐reported attitudes toward welfare spending are determined not only by financial self‐interest but also by interpersonal preferences. These interpersonal preferences are characterized by a negative exposure effect—individuals decrease their support for welfare as the welfare recipiency rate in their community rises—and racial group loyalty—individuals increase their support for welfare spending as the share of local recipients from their own racial group rises. These findings help to explain why levels of welfare benefits are relatively low in racially heterogeneous states."
Axios on X - "This year, white men made up a majority of new directors at S&P 500 companies for the first time since 2017, showing how quickly the Trump admin has set back diversity gains."
Auron MacIntyre on X - "This is a weird way to admit ensuring white people don’t have jobs is an explicit goal of the diversity regime"
