Not really a post with links, more of a rant, but... I'm currently trying to get "back into" the academic world, because it seems that life is dragging me that way again. But then I look around and see the massive gender gap, and it puts me off again.
I know multiple women who've got engineering scholarships, and a significant number who are younger than me who are currently doing their PhDs. I know three Rhodes scholars, two of whom are women. Almost every woman from my finishing year has at least a Masters, which is crazy to me. Combined with scholarships, exchanges and "topping the class", I've been surrounded by female high achievers for more than a decade.
And then there's a girl I know who didn't even finish school, yet who somehow gets to work in Antarctica regularly, and represent the Air Force at airshows, despite being a civilian, and not even a pilot. Because she's "model pretty" (literally a fitness model), and "charismatic", and "works hard" (she's basically a hustler. Though I still have absolutely no idea how she got to where she is).
Meanwhile, as for the guys I know..? I can only think of two who have even started their PhD. Several I know didn't even get a degree (like me, unfortunately), or, in a couple of cases, didn't even finish school. At least three committed suicide. I've seen multiple men I know have breakdowns in the "academic world" (as did I), and drop out. Yet I barely ever saw that happen to the women I knew, and if it did, they always bounced back. Sometimes even scoring cushy government jobs in completely unrelated fields (like, actresses becoming heads of government departments, for fuck's sake), afterwards.
And yet you can't even get a relationship here (much like the US), if you don't have the six figures, stable job and decent "bachelor pad", even if you are in reasonable shape and over six foot. Because there's always some other dude who has all or most of that who can take your place...
This is just so... Blatant, that it is really bringing me down. Combined with woke bureaucracy (mandatory "consent training" for one. Enforced smartphone use for another), and the false allegations I detailed last year, I'm just so... Fucking over it.
No wonder men are dropping out of "mainstream society" at the rate that they/we are. The deck is completely stacked against us, at this point.
/endrant
We're from the same place.
People have the wrong impression of Australia. I was listening to Konstantin Kisin on Alex Antic's podcast today and he said it seemed that Australia was less far down the woke path as the rest of the world. That seems to be a common impression people have of Australia that seems to come from the laidback attitude we have.
The reason the culture war doesn't seem to be a thing over here, is because there's literally no-one to fight against it. The rest of the anglosphere have cucked conservative parties to at least act as a punching bag which looks likes a "culture war"
Here in Australia our most recent "conservative" PM was Tony Abbott and he's fairly active in speaking tours etc since his time as PM, I've listened to a few of his interviews and what's immediately obvious is that he has no idea what happened during his tenure, nor has any insights in his post political career.
We are a deeply authoritarian country that culturally hates people exceeding, we are actually quite bitter and spiteful, we might be descended from convicts, but we are also descended from their jailers.
If you're not from Aus you might think it's a pretty good place. Let me tell you we combine all the worst aspects of the anglosphere in one, laidback apathetic mishmash.
Don't worry, I've never heard from anyone with that impression. Canada, NZ, and Oz seem like the worst places in the Anglosphere now.
Nailed it.
I forgot about him. Says it all really.
Crazy, innit? I’m a biologist and even I have classes like that. Which is absurd, but they’re determined to force it into everything…
Except my pure maths courses, which, at least when I took them, remained relatively un-pozzed. But yeah, anything less “hard” than that seems to be completely infused with ideology at this point, unfortunately…
This is in Qld, too, so… Yeah.
Cell biology, yes, but I work in the marine, botanical and zoological (animal) spaces, so it's not too difficult for them to still shove it down our throats, while incorporating it into "official" dogma/curriculum...
Re comp sci, yeah, you're not wrong, although my GIS classes still managed to bring in quite a lot of woke environmental/post-colonial shit, at least partly because the teacher and department head was a Cape Malay South African immigrant with a massive chip on her shoulder, lol...
South African first-gen immigrants are... "Fun", to say the least. As I'm sure you're well aware.