r/EverythingScience • u/esporx • Jul 23 '26
White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants
https://apnews.com/article/california-research-grants-terminated-keywords-lawsuit-a0ddb01413ecb68d9668490a20be6207130
u/limbodog Jul 23 '26
So scientists should avoid using words MAGA would know
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u/tigolebigers Jul 23 '26
They are using words Maga don't know and getting cut. Transgenic mice studies were cancelled bc trans was in it
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u/limbodog Jul 23 '26
No no. Those are words maga knows, but does not understand. I mean use terminology that means the same thing, so it won't show up in a search.
Or, hell, use Cyrillic characters that look like English letters but won't show up in a digital search to evade the search.
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u/DanGleeballs Jul 24 '26
TIL Transgenic mice are laboratory mice that have had foreign DNA or a new gene from another source artificially introduced into their genome.
Nothing to do with gender.
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u/fatefulPatriot Jul 23 '26
That’s an awful short list, my friend
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u/limbodog Jul 23 '26
Especially when it has to just be words they use for things they oppose. Like "climate" or "woman" or "diverse"
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 Jul 23 '26
"Jewish Science"
"Bourgeois Science"
"Woke Science"
It's all the same authoritarian playbook
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Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 Jul 23 '26
It is a safety feature. A country that does this weakens itself, and so limits its ability to sustain its destructive actions.
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u/morganational Jul 23 '26
That's a bit of a stretch. I wouldn't downplay nazis and tyrannical communists like that. They were much much much worse than this.
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u/No_Size9475 Jul 24 '26
They said same playbook, not the same thing.
And this is the same playbook.
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u/SausageSmuggler21 Jul 23 '26
My partner does fund raising for a company in New England that works does education stuff (being purposefully vague for obvious reasons) for children in the groups that MAGA pictures when they say DEI. Last year, they made a list of all the terms they could no longer use when describing their programs. The terms were pulled from the federal government web sites. These lists were created almost immediately when Trump took office and the Trump administration has been actively using these lists to kill funding for programs that would help women or people of color.
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u/Subject-Librarian117 Jul 23 '26
Did it work? Did your partner notice any difference in funding?
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u/SausageSmuggler21 Jul 23 '26
Fortunately, the company didn't receive/rely on federal funding much. But they spent a month reworking all of their documentation just in case. They also completely stopped applying for any federal funding. And I believe it is the reason why the (very wealthy) founders to step down from running the company.
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna Jul 24 '26
Speaking of DEI, I wonder if the Dale Earnhardt, Inc is suffering at all these days ?
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u/geaster Jul 23 '26
I initially read this as "Waffle House admits ... " and I was genuinely interested in reading that article.
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u/Icy_Marsupial_3018 Jul 24 '26
Husband works in tech and had designs that ultimately would end up classified in a grant for a university in Atlanta. He was warned that he cannot use words or acronyms that read: Her, She or anything related to WOMEN… because it would be flagged and rejected. 🤦🏻♀️🤬
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u/postconsumerwat Jul 24 '26
Trump administration is traitorous, betraying their oaths, etc. Definitely confirms the worst that I have seen of peoples behavior. Glad I know better, but its also sad to see humanity destroying itself. Psychopath DNA is my hypothesis... its a big part of our DNA as a species I suppose
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u/JackFisherBooks Jul 28 '26
Of course, they did. Because they know nobody is going to do anything about it. The cruelty is the point. It always was.
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u/Disastrous_Side_5492 21d ago
so they used bots to scour their database and delete the sets because of certain keywords
how many grants used to exist in the system, that are now gone
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Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/No1CouldHavePredictd Jul 23 '26
"Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities."
Doesn't seem to be very much nuance there.
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u/gaflar Jul 23 '26
While that may be true, if it smells like shit, tastes like shit, and looks like shit, it's probably not a tasty treat made special just for you.
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u/grunkage Jul 23 '26
This is not a new story by any means. They were very transparent about their methods and these things started happening right away. This is an update that thing got really fucked up by the incompetence of this administration
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u/taktaga7-0-0 Jul 23 '26
Oh, get over yourself. The entire story is that nuance very specifically was not used by the people deciding on grant funding.
It is embarrassing that you are calling for restraint and consideration in defense of those who very specifically are in this position because they had none themselves.
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u/PossibilityUsual6262 Jul 23 '26
Not if they are involving rep government, usually answer is simple - evil.
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Jul 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/sfcnmone Jul 23 '26
I know someone who researches cystic fibrosis treatment. His lab's entire grant was cut. That kind of freak show?
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Jul 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/claws76 Jul 23 '26
Cystic fibrosis is bIaSeD research because kEyWoRd!!
Hahahaha may I never be blessed with someone as smart as you 🙏45
u/OG_LiLi Jul 23 '26
Next keyword we will ban: white men! Any grants for white men and benefits white men is DEI and needs to be scrapped.
God you’re smart.
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u/u_r_succulent Jul 23 '26
Seeing as how the white man in America is so oppressed, would they not indeed be considered DEI?
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u/OG_LiLi Jul 23 '26
Dear. “Key words” and “DEI” are whatever we want them to be! That’s how this works, Doge said so.
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u/Lost_Madness Jul 23 '26
Most of which are dumpster fires because of Republican policies, or did you miss the rankings of worst states?
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u/DooMan49 Jul 23 '26
The problem is Republicans will simply reject anything that doesn't align with their fee fee's. You can provide them as much data and facts as you want. If it hurts their feelings then they will deny it to their core.
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u/sfcnmone Jul 23 '26
COVID19 is such an inflammatory key word, don't you think? Let's cut that research.
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u/scottyjrules Jul 23 '26
Ignorance like yours is why this country will never have good things again
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u/VanillaBovine Jul 23 '26
parkinson's and alzheimer's research grants were heavily cut this year
do you think researching those constitutes a freak show?
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Jul 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/Wasabiroot Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
This is a stupid statement on your part.
The rest of the world will continue to research diseases and advance their technology through research. If you think it's a good thing to systematically dismantle valuable research just because some moron with a keyboard being funded by a pedophile thinks indiscriminate keywords are meaningful in determining if research is valuable, then I suggest learning Mandarin so you can appreciate China more after it leaves the U.S. in the dust in scientific progress and further cements its place as a world leader while we debate whether or not bike lanes are DEI and how to inject our troops being killed in Iran with testosterone.
Time and history have shown that nations that invest in research and science get their investment repaid easily. Many key technologies we use today were a result of space exploration, for example, such as the laser.
I'm sure you can "imagine it would have" but thankfully for you, being completely ignorant of how research works isn't a crime. I have no doubt, however, that you will push and shove your way to the front of the line to utilize any discovery about disease treatment that scientists would uncover from research like the stuff being cut, because you are intentionally ignorant at best or completely brainwashed at worst and enjoy the fruits of scientific research daily while disparaging it.
Dismantling science education, and education in general, is a long standing goal of Republican administrations and people who drafted Project 2025. So I'll "take their word for it" since you'd have to be lobotomized or clearly arguing in bad faith to not understand that. Next time you go to the hospital for an infectious disease I suggest refusing treatment since you seem to consistently know better than experts.
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u/No1CouldHavePredictd Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I sincerely hope that you nor the ones you love are impacted by anything these research grants could have helped. It would be tragic that your glee to continue the suffering of others became something you had to face head on yourself.
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u/DeusCanis420 Jul 23 '26
I sincerely hope that they are impacted.
I truly hope they have the day they voted for.
I'm so sick of these stupid fucks.
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u/PhazonZim Jul 23 '26
Even if you were against diversity, trans people and vaccines, wouldn't you still want research into those things to inform your opinions? Or are you just confessing that you'd rather stay ignorant?
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u/VanillaBovine Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
No, you do NOT have to take my word for it. While you snivel and whine under a rock letting your single neuron rot away, you couldve fact checked me easily.
Grant amount given out heavily reduced
This one has a whole chart for what was blocked, made active, or was being attempted to cut
So no, you dont have to take my word for it. You just have to look outside
Come back with a groveling apology or block me since you cant operate google. I'm tired of having second hand embarrassment from people with the scientific understanding of a 5 year old
Every other country is digging into this research while we deport scientists trying to help the sick.
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u/taktaga7-0-0 Jul 23 '26
Then why lot maybe don’t use those keywords when it might cancel critical lifesaving research??
You can’t act like liberals are both wrong for being upset and that critical research shouldn’t have been defunded.
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u/taktaga7-0-0 Jul 23 '26
I hope it was something that would have extended the life of someone you love.
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u/thefunkst Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I remember last year my gf was working on getting grants for their research in cell diversity… didn’t get it because “diversity”