Thread by @EvolOdonata

Fully agree with @IslandGenomics and @tncvidya about the US-centric discussions on academic Twitter in general and EEB Twitter in particular, including (unfortunately) recent discussions about #diversify #EEB 1/

https://twitter.com/IslandGenomics/status/1484965904991633414

Many of us not living in the US or not being affiliated with US academic institutions have no clue about many of the specific issues being discussed and various acronyms such as "gre scores", "DEI initiatives" and so on 2/

It would be useful if our colleagues in the US and North America could look up a bit on the horizon and critically reflect upon the fact that what is being discussed by them on US academic Twitter and EEB Twitter is not always as of much general relevance as you seem to think 3/

In addition, US academia seems to be quite toxic, and filled with identity-political demarcations against those who are "good" vs. "bad" and excessive amounts of virtue signalling aiming to demonstrate ideological purity 4/

To get out of this destructive and navel-gazing loop, I think many US academics both within and outside the EEB field would benefit from broadening their perspectives and outlook and seek new contacts outside their narrow social media bubbles 5/

Believe it or not: everything is not centered in the US or US academia, but there is a large academic community outside North America who feels quite alienated from many of your internal discussions. 6/

My general feeling is that many US academics are still caught up in the postmodernist and identity-political "science wars" of the 1990ties that Naomi Klein criticized already a long time ago in her book "No Logo" 7/

theguardian.com/books/2019/aug…

(End of rant) 8/