My ladyfriend and I walked out of the march for science today.

We knew, before we went, that it wasn't going to be perfect. There were plenty of signs leading up to today that the organizers were deaf to anyone's concerns but their own. They had clearly decided that science was not a "political issue," but that the concerns of anyone else suffering under the current regime WERE "political issues." And, thus, would sully the imagined purity of their march if mentioned or acknowledged in any way.

None the less, science is important to the two of us. Both on a personal level, as she is a scientist working in the government herself. And also, on a social level, as science is essential to the public good. We figured that there are always going to be problems with mass movements, but that there was value in showing solidarity with what was likely to be a large showing of opposition.

So we gave up our Saturday, took a few buses up to Seattle, and joined the crowd. It was an immediately offputting experience. They had popular music playing over loudspeakers. Everyone was was dressed up in goofy costumes, and holding signs with jokes and pop culture references on them. There were even a bunch of people reusing old slogans from the Hilary campaign, as if that was still relevant, or ever something to get excited about in the first place. No one was angry, they were just having fun. It felt like more of a party than a protest.

We endured some cutesy novelty music about science that sounded like something you'd find on a cassette tape in a 3rd grade classroom. Then the speeches started, which oscillated between being bland, and being thinly disguised democratic party stump speeches. The governor even made an appearance to remind us all to vote for him.

Then, a woman who seemed appropriately angry for a protest started to speak. She acknowledged that we were all standing on Duwamish land, the land of a tribe that is not recognized by the U.S. federal government. Her speech was really started to get going, then her audio cut out. It was silent for about 40 seconds, then it cut back in. A different woman said something like "Summarize your statement," to which the first woman responded "I will resume reading." Then, she started her speech again, from a few lines before she had been cut off. A moment later, her audio cut again, and some pre-recorded music started to play.

At this point, my ladyfriend and I were standing pretty far from the stage. We were concerned about what we'd just heard, so we pressed forward through the crowd. We asked a few people what had happened as we got closer, and they confirmed for us that a native woman had taken the stage, and been silenced by the event organizers, who then had her arrested.

No revolutionary action can even conceivably involve using the police to enforce your message.

Up front we met up with a small cadre of other people who were similarly upset. They were led by a young woman who was eloquently explaining to one of the march's coordinators why what they just did was wrong. The coordinator just replied with a smarmy repetition of "well, what she did was against the rules." The whole of that little group decided we weren't going to support the protest after that.

We did stick around for a couple more speakers, just because it was a friggin' hour round trip for us, so we wanted to get our time's worth. Hilariously, one of the very next speakers was a congresswoman who went on and on about how important diverse voices are.

How fucking typical is that? They arrested a native woman for speaking out of turn, so that a white member of the ruling class could tell everyone how important it is to listen to oppressed voices.

Is it possible to keep this march as much as possible out of politics If we are to be honest, scientists are a minority, so we can't expect to have an impact if we aren't smart about it. Can't we just focus on making people care about ACTUAL science?

aka: be smart like Elon Musk

Trump's policies will also negatively affect men, and part of the reason that more men than women voted for Trump was because liberals only focus on women's issues. There is far more media already focusing on women's issues than men's issues.

I would like your statistically-based opinion on this.

How often do you open your mailbox and find that it is full of either junk mail or paperwork that can easily be emailed? If every household received just one junk letter per day that’s 300,000,000 pounds of garbage per year. Even recycling all that paper uses massive amounts of energy. We have to do our parts. We should cancel our mailboxes for all non-parcel deliveries and make a statement that paper waste is not okay. I don’t need a paper copy of my electric bill and a magazine for a store I never shop at. This is reckless waste at its worst.

Wrote the groundbreaking book Darwin's Black Box in 1996 which rocked the scientific community and convinced many of those same individuals that the science of evolutionary theory is completely lacking in explaining many of the most fundamental aspects of living organisms, casting serious doubt on the entire foundation of Darwinism.

I am a scientist. Overall I support this event, however, I must point out one aspect of this event that I find very troubling. Real science, by definition, cannot be politicised and, in my opinion, this event is dripping with political bias. I think it is shameful that almost none of these "science supporters" are protesting what I believe to be one of the greatest threats to modern science: institutionalized leftism in universities, espicially in the humanities and social "sciences". It should at least be recognized as a legitimate threat to societies perception of scientific integrity imo.

The idea (which I believe to be true) that it is more socially acceptable to criticize one type of scientific dishonesty over another is itself a problem imo.

Thank you for your time.

P.s. my current research topics: monte carlo markov chains, dynamic bayesian belief networks, deep Q-learning.

I know he is polarizing, but I feel MIT Professor Noam Chomsky could be a perfect orator for this march. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Noam Chomsky is a lifelong political and environmental activist as well as a man of science. He is commonly referred to as the "Father of modern linguistics" and is one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. His influence extends into fields from computer science to neuroscience, from anthropology to education, mathematics to literary criticism. He is a dry speaker, but he is also a clear, impactful and stirring one.

He's easy to get in touch with directly via email ([email protected]) which is a plus. On the downside, he is 88 years old and doesn't seem to travel as much as he used to.

Here's a recent talk he gave on the Republican Party and climate change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcKiUAiXdE

I'm proposing we learn from the Women's March success and create snowlake pins. My thinking is to combine the need to craft (see Full Frontal's review of the pussy hats), Rump calling us "snowflakes", education (climate change loss of polar caps), and the safety pin (inclusive).

The snowflake can be pinned on easily and it's very easy/quick to make. It's just one more way to show support.

What do you all think?

The lack of organization of people trying to organize a march, seems almost like someone got a hold of this who didn't want it to happen. I say we make a poll pick a date and everyone show up. If Trump supporters can jump on bikes from all over the country and ride out to form a "wall of meat" at his inauguration, then we can make it to D.C. to tell them they are being idiots! Lets do this, and not stop till we are at the white House!

I'm sure some of you will cheerfully wave goodbye and tell me not to let the door hit me on my way out. That's fine. There are multiple threads in the sub Reddit about how the diversity angle for this march is coming on too strong, and I have no other way to agree and share my voice other than to make this thread and let you know without room for ambiguity that the SJW posturing has pushed me (moderate liberal) away from this march, and I will no longer be attending or supporting it.

The website and twitter are more concerned with diversity and intersectionality than science and making this a bipartisan march. I came here to publicly support science and demand factual integrity from this administration, not to represent the collective agenda of every marginalized group the organizers can put on their checklist, several of which I belong to. So I'm out. I sincerely regret that it has come to this. I hope the organizers manage to find a better balance of inclusivity and core message, but I'm not waiting around to find out

Science based policy is intertwined with social issues, you won't ever be able to totally separate the two no matter how much you want to. So rather than trying to do that, focus on why science based policy is important to you personally. Are you a farmer? You support science based policy because agricultural research can make your farm more successful. Are you trans? You support science based policy because the government can fund research about trans lives in the US. Do you work on Wall Street? You support science based policy because cutting edge computer programs make the current stock market possible. You can make the focus of the march science based policy without excluding other messages or diluting the ideas behind the march.