Well, that was a depressing read...

Well, that was a depressing read...  Depressing, that is, if (like me) you believe engineers and scientists need to be competent.  Consider:

The science diversity charade wastes extraordinary amounts of time and money that could be going into basic research and its real-world application. If that were its only consequence, the cost would be high enough. But identity politics is now altering the standards for scientific competence and the way future scientists are trained.

Read the whole thing here.

The article is primarily about American education, but the same sort of thing is playing out in other parts of the world as well. It seems clear there's only one possible end result of this craziness: America's work force will become increasingly less able to compete in the world.

That leads immediately to the next question: where in the world is this sort of thing not happening? What comes immediately to mind is India (where they have a host of other education problems), China (ditto), and little outcroppings of sanity like Estonia and Hungary.

So if I let this play out in my mind, the next century's best scientists and engineers will be dominated by citizens of those countries. How will that impact Americans? The last 30 or so years of Greek history provide a model, I suspect: bigger, more socialist government, out of control debt, emigration of the best of us, and so on.

Oh, I get so depressed thinking about this...