90% of what passes for research is worthless and a waste of time. That’s because much of it involves ‘social science’ rather than science and even the things that look like science inevitably turn into social science, examining social conditions, prattling on about race and sex, and producing nothing more than an argument for social change rather than useful data.
The Department of Defense is now dropping some of this nonsense.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) is scrapping its social science research portfolio as part of a broader effort to ensure fiscal responsibility and prioritize mission-critical activities.
And the outrage didn’t take long to arrive.
Dozens of researchers with grants under the Minerva Research Initiative (MRI)—studying violent extremism, disinformation, and threats from climate change, for example—have had their grants terminated in recent days.
Whatever will our national defense complex do without researching ‘climate change’ and ‘disinformation’.
“Many of us cut our teeth as assistant professors with support from the Minerva initiative which allowed us to support students and carry out field work,” says Joshua Busby, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin and a senior adviser for climate at DOD in 2021–22. “Losing one of the key sources of support for the social sciences is another big blow to academic inquiry and likely undermines our government’s capacity to understand and respond effectively to threats the country faces.”
The “senior adviser for climate” part is the problem right there. The military exists to win wars. Not to be another adjunct of the academic social change garbage paper complex.
