11 Comments

This this this everything about this. I have worked in ~academic medicine~ for the past two years, thinking that I wanted to become a clinical neuropsychologist. The labs that I worked for were almost solely populated by very wealthy White PIs who think they're championing DEI initiatives (lol!) by creating studies that try to uncover ~*social determinants of health*~... and I'm sitting in these meetings like, um, aren't these ~*social determinants of health*~ obvious, not requiring government-funded research grants to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars to uncover? What are we doing here? And when they're finding these ~*social determinants of health*~, why are they literally doing nothing of substance about them other than writing MORE grant applications to look DEEPER into these MYSTERIOUS DETERMINANTS? Such a "the emperor has no clothes" moment. I couldn't take it anymore and have doubled-down on my abolitionist work instead of pursuing academic medicine and clinical psych - I couldn't rationalize the current system of utter wheel-spinning and navel-gazing on a road to nowhere. Maybe someone has the patience to embed themselves to work towards dismantling it from within, but I'm not it! Best decision that I ever made. I am so grateful for your work and the community that you're building around this.

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Oh my god this was soo good. I just got brutally fired tdy from my first ever job as a research assistant in a well-reputed uni in singapore for not being "objective" even tho i supported my writing with published theories and just wrote up the findings as they were and i have only been given the opportunity to write 1 paper draft in the past 1.5 years. The project was about participatory health communication/engagement with South Asian migrant workers in Singapore. They literally told me to not write about the structural problems and inequalities that migrant workers themselves cited as reasons for their poor health; while over-exaggerating the "success" of the project- and these are very well-reputed doctors. Just made me realise how fake everything is- how people can present a front of working for/with a community and use the right words and give just enuf to keep the employees and volunteers from leaving. I'm pretty sure I was the token minority in the team. Reading this was so healing; it made me feel less lonely and isolated amidst all the gaslighting and narratives of "doing good for the community" and "saving lives". Also, the elite need not only be white people, can also be the internal colonisers in each country (In the case of Singapore, it is english-educated chinese people).

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Gosh, this is good. I worked in academia for a number of years and it was truly a cult. I still consider myself a scientist but I just love what you say about science and spirituality being two sides of the same coin—good science needs to be approached with intellectual humility which takes the stance of “knowing that you don’t know.” Thank you so much for this, Ayesha!!

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Yes I love this!! Put in a way I didn't have the words for. It does make me wonder... how can we then make the argument to conservatives and COVID-deniers to listen to the science if we also say at the same time that science is subjective?

Thanks for the great article! Love we you're doing :)

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I think this article is an embodiment of the answer to your question in itself. Also we have to pick and choose our battles- I’m not going to argue in comments sections with conservatives who are clearly determined to hold their biases and not listen. However I care more about the communities who are worried and justifiably so about the harm that science/ medicine has caused. Privileged white anti-vaxxers aren’t the same as communities of color who are terrified of the healthcare systems that prey on them.

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Mmm very very true.

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By being honest, direct & addressing the problems in science while also explaining the complexities of which science is more reliable & has been shown to be helpful. Taking a fear based approach is what’s gotten us here. Being reductive, fitting binaries of good/bad & avoiding the abuse science as an oppressive system has unleashed on communities is essentially a cover up- and pretending we have no problems by trying to assert that science is great, infallible etc is scooping down to the same oppressive logic that is leveraged against us. I’m sure a hell of a lot of people were able to listen to scientists and care providers who were open, honest, taking accountability (like me) rather than those that claim science is great & has no issues at all.

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*Love what you're doing

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Being afraid of admitting the truth is exactly the problem with people who claim to be “pro science” but don’t really care to address capitalism, colonialism, and all the oppressive systems that define science. Not sure why that was EVER a great strategy- because objectivity is a western concept in itself and upholding it has always been about erasing all alternative systems & ways of living.

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Ahh I think I see what you're saying. It's important to be open and honest about the subjectivity of science and how much we don't know while advocating for helpful things that have come out of it (like vaccines)

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so after correctly calling out $cience you are upset that their untested, rushed to market at warp speed--inferior dangerous experimental gene therapy product wasn't shared MORE widely with the global south????? What do you think now about that garbage product and all the lying bullying and coercion that took place to force everyone to play roulette regardless of age or health status? one size fits all 'medicine' is literally murder.

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