MIT spirit in Washington, D.C.

by philg

“‘I am deeply sorry for my conduct’: Biden’s top science adviser apologizes to staff” (Politico):

[MIT prof] Eric Lander, the president’s top science adviser and a member of his Cabinet, sent a Friday night email to his roughly 150-person staff apologizing for speaking to colleagues in a “disrespectful and demeaning way.”

“It’s my responsibility to set a respectful tone for our community. It’s clear that I have not lived up to this responsibility,” Lander wrote in an email provided to POLITICO. “This is not only wrong, but also inconsistent with our Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy. It is never acceptable for me to speak that way. I am deeply sorry for my conduct. I especially want to apologize to those of you who I treated poorly or were present at the time.”

Lander heads the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and is leading President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot,” an initiative aimed at reducing cancer deaths that had its splashy launch event earlier this week.

The email appears to reference an investigation POLITICO has been conducting into Lander’s treatment of staff, which Lander acknowledges in his email. “I understand that some of you have been asked about this, and I thought it was important to write directly to you,” he wrote. “I also realize that my conduct reflects poorly on this Administration, and interferes with our work. I deeply regret that.”

Biden himself declared a zero-tolerance policy for improper conduct on the first day of his administration. He pledged that “if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Lander pledges in his email that “[w]e will take concrete steps to promote a better workplace. We will schedule regular forums to check in with staff on how we are doing in creating and upholding a safe and respectful workplace. We will also ensure that every employee knows how to report conduct that concerns them.”

Lander is probably one of the nicer people at MIT (like being a dwarf among midgets, admittedly), so perhaps this shows that Science is something to follow every day while scientists are best restricted to their labs.

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26 thoughts on “MIT spirit in Washington, D.C.”

  1. Did you mean a “dwarf among short people?”

    A dwarf is an extremely short adult who is less than 58 inches tall. The word midget is considered derogatory and offensive. Both words describe a short person but refer to different physical characteristics and genetic conditions.

    “Midget” refers to a person who is very short but normally proportioned. The term midget is now rarely used and is considered offensive. But its usage was very common until the end of the twentieth century. It has given way to “short person” or “little person”.

    Dwarf vs Midget – Difference and Comparison | Diffen
    https://www.diffen.com/difference/Dwarf_vs_Midget

    • I’m just looking more carefully at the Wikipedia page on the German non-midget submarine and it shows how powerful language is. A Seehund-class submarine is on exhibit at the “Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology”. Not too many people in Britain, the U.S., or Russia would be likely to characterize the weapons built during Hitler’s time in power as “defensive”.

    • Pjilip, referenced wikipedia article provides following info: “In commission 1944–1953”
      Barring rumored Nazi Antarctic base headquarters direct line of report, it was likely used by fledgling West Germany defense forces. Or by East Germany?

    • “Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung” is “Military technology study collection”. They appear to have historic weapons from all countries, including MiG and Lockheed fighters. So the English translation as “Defense Museum” from the Wikipedia page indeed looks wrong to me.

    • “So the English translation as “Defense Museum” from the Wikipedia page indeed looks wrong to me.”

      “Defense” as in “Department of …”?

      Until it was sold off not so long ago, the UK Ministry of Defence still made use of a fine Whitehall building, the Old War Office.

    • /df: The ministry is also called “ministry of defense” in Germany, but in the case of the “museum” the whole name “Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology” is a mistranslation.

      1) It is not a museum, but a study collection of historic weapons by and for the German army (presumably for its historians) that also allows visitors. Many weapons are kept in working order, which would not be allowed in a museum.

      2) It does not focus only on “German Defense Technology”. It has weapons from all over the world, e.g., MiG planes and Gatling guns. It is a diverse collection with cultural appropriation!

  2. The tribal nature of codes of conduct becomes apparent again. Biden disallows disrespecting colleagues, but constantly lashes out at journalists and called one of them “son of a …”.

    What was the horrible crime of Eric Lander? Did he pass the port the wrong way?

  3. I recently learned that the most popularly famous picture of Einstein (the one where he sticks his tongue out) occurred because he was being hounded by the relentlessly annoying guy who took it. He kept asking for more photos while peppering him with questions, and Einstein finally snapped, stuck out his tongue, and photographic history was made as the World’s Most Famous Genius “lost it.” Correct me if I’m wrong.

    I had a hard enough time toiling away in a much lower echelon of academia holding my tongue and not yelling at people because I grew up in a household with a father who yelled in frustration quite a bit. It usually meant: “Hey, I need some help here and you’re just sitting there!”

    I just adjusted to it and realized that some people respond to stress differently than others, and some have a bit lower “trigger point.” It’s nothing personal, and understanding that is just part of life, but you can lose your job for raising your voice. It’s absurd, but it’s another psychological control and restriction mechanism that has become a minor part of the much larger “anti-bullying” crusade. Some women (all of them in the segment) were talking about it on NPR the other day.

    Emotional control depends on self-restriction to some kind of norm. The problem is that there appears to be absolutely no lower bound to a “trigger moment” or a microaggression now. If a male colleague stuck his tongue out at a subordinate now – or even just an annoying photographer – particularly if there was an Intersectional or Power Dimensional frame in place, I think they’d be doomed.

    The British have almost totally succumbed to this and most of their news is about people having to apologize profusely for being human while pundits flail their skins off on the Interwebs.

    Or maybe Linder just isn’t as cute or smart as Einstein was.

    https://tinyurl.com/7d8rzn4x

  4. The continual feminization of American culture. Feelings are paramount. Hurt feelings are a serious issue. Appologies for who knows what are continually required

    • Haha! Female here…couldnt agree more.. appearances over substance. Have a mom who is a master poser! And a Prime Minister that is… arghhh makes me yell in frustration!

    • I’ve noticed, especially at work, that people are losing the distinction between thoughts and feelings. They’ll say “I feel like” when they really mean “I think,” and don’t seem to remember the difference.

    • @Sam – could it be that they’re not thinking at all? One could get suprisingly far in life by being lucky humaniform parrot.

  5. OT:OT: Haven’t heard anything about this since Feb. 2nd. Hhhmmm???

    nbcnews.com, 02/02/22 – FBI identifies 6 juveniles as persons of interest in bomb threats at Black colleges

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/six-juveniles-identified-fbi-persons-interests-bomb-threats-historical-rcna14591

    “Six “tech savvy” juveniles have been identified as persons of interest by the FBI in threats to historically Black colleges and universities that appear to be racially motivated.

    More than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities received bomb threats on Tuesday, the first day of Black History Month…”

  6. Great to see a newspaper reporting its journalistic victory in forcing an apology from a government official for acting meanly. Democracy dies in darkness!

  7. One other thought: The article reports that Lander took the job because he truly supports Joe Biden and really wanted to work in the Administration on this “moonshot” goal, devoting his formidable brainpower to deliver progress for his boss and cancer victims.

    I have to say that it’s tough for me to hear about his troubles and not point out the huge blind spots. For someone as intelligent and capable as Lander not to grasp what the Democratic Party and the Left has become in this country is really pretty amazing. Maybe didn’t think it would happen to him. Maybe he thought there would be some kind of residual respect accorded to his academic status and reputation. I think he’s finding out that the Party made him and the Party will take him away!

    These are not the Liberals and Democrats he grew up with, and he’s finding that out the hard way, as did Larry Summers and Mike Bloomberg, Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, and a lot of others in the past decade or so. They don’t care about your decades of excellence or your great reputation about being a “nice guy” and a “good person” among all your students. The minute these people have the opportunity, it’s GOODBYE.

    Lander should quit the Democratic Party. It has quit him. And I should know.

    • Alex,

      Sometimes it can be puzzling to explain “how and intelligent person like that cannot understand this or that”. It is puzzling only until you realize that human abilities in one area do not necessarily extend to another, a brilliant mathematician can be in an utter and arrogant fool when trying to handle social issues. Perhaps, Landers is one of those, especially taking into account that religious matters he is likely passionate about completely shut off the reasoning he arguably is capable of in his scientific area of interest. He may happily go to a gulag just like some Old Bolsheviks under Stalin did thinking either there was a mistake made by Stalin’s underlings or more likely he was not passionate enough about the cause and deserves the punishment.

      He has resigned by the way.

    • I agree with Ivan. Many people in science are too apolitical and absorbed by their work to notice the power dynamics of parasitical mobs who spend 100% of their time forming cliques and exploiting other people’s labor.

      So he resigned and the left apparatus has another publishable victory. This is why one should never apologize in the first place.

      Perhaps people at MIT will slowly realize where we are heading.

  8. > I can’t wait to see who Biden chooses to replace him.

    I hear that Whoopi “Goldberg” is available, but perhaps she is already booked for the Supreme Court!

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