Ted Cruz Targets NSF Funding Over "Wokeness"

You know, I get the anti-woke stuff but this is one of those areas where I have to ask "Why?"

A few months ago, Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he had uncovered $2 billion of science grants funded by former President Joe Biden’s administration that prioritized “radical political perspectives” or “neo-Marxist theories.’’ His aides on a congressional committee assembled the list by searching the project descriptions for 699 key terms like “women,” “diversify,” “segregation” and “Hispanic culture.”

When Cruz released the database of this allegedly “woke” research earlier this month, we decided to run our own experiment. We asked one of the models powering ChatGPT, which can sift through large amounts of data, to evaluate all 3,500 grant descriptions in the database as if it were an investigative journalist looking for Marxist propaganda, “woke ideology,” or diversity, equity and inclusion. The model tried to give us descriptions of how each project might fit those themes. We were particularly interested in the grants where it came up blank. We then read through the researchers’ full summaries of those and many other grants, including each one described in this story, looking for references to some of the keywords on the list. (ProPublica)

Now, as much as I like to slag ProPublica they're not wrong here; me thinks the Cruz Report mentioned above (link) simply went any program that didn't hew to today's Republican view of the world - that anything that benefits someone who isn't a straight white Christian male is somehow "woke" and undeserving of federal grant money. Three problems with this: (1) federal laws are on the books which require NSF to consider multiple factors in determining which ideas receive grants, (2) everything they flagged was based off of the very things they want -- "one’s talent, work ethic, or intellectual curiosity" (that cuts across race, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and (3) the Constitution, specifically Article 1, Sect. 8, Clause 8's first part, "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."

Most every project flagged passes all three points.

Repeat after me: WTF is Ted Cruz and compatriots smoking up there?