I saw a poll today that 85% of scientists in the US want to go to a different country. When asked where, the most common response was "anywhere that believes in science." The US is going to experience an unprecedented brain drain that it will never recover from. - ThreadSky

ashleylynch.bsky.social • 10 days ago

I saw a poll today that 85% of scientists in the US want to go to a different country. When asked where, the most common response was "anywhere that believes in science."

The US is going to experience an unprecedented brain drain that it will never recover from.

Comments

muddles1968.bsky.social•10 days ago

We fix this by showing up to vote and earning back the country we want. It will take a long time.

ceu---azul.bsky.social•9 days ago

bccjc55.bsky.social•10 days ago

This could be a generational loss. If you can't work in an environment where you feel safe & valued why would you stay? People can't live in a state of fear. It will take a long time to rebuild what is being destroyed. All so the oligarchs can get a bigger tax break. Do Republicans benefit as well?

ashleylynch.bsky.social•10 days ago

Businesses benefit. To them scientific research was what told them they had to shut their door during COVID. Killing research means they continue to profit no matter how many die.

justjim12.bsky.social•9 days ago

Canada will never be the 51st state and we believe in science.

frankstake.bsky.social•10 days ago

It was the same in Germany in the 1930s. It was a scientific powerhouse before the Nazis drove the scientists out of the country. German Science never fully recovered from the brain drain. The American‘s gave the scientists shelter and a future. So should Europe do now with the American scientists.

somekittycat.bsky.social•10 days ago

German scientists fleeing Germany to America now fleeing from America back to Germany lmao.

frankstake.bsky.social•9 days ago

Well that was 90 years ago. Hardly the same people - and I personally also do not find it funny.

kokojo66.bsky.social•10 days ago

March for science ! http://theblop.org

mrlky.bsky.social•10 days ago

AND all the fired ones will.

We are surrendering to Putin

AND

We are surrendering our academic dominance in science and health

imm71.bsky.social•10 days ago

Many European countries are working on special funds and visas to host US scientists and keep on doing the great work they’re doing

blazesboylan.bsky.social•9 days ago

Germany will welcome scientists in an ironic reverse brain drain. Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the UK, and others will be scientific centers - and will charge Americans dearly to use their breakthrough work.

thefewtheproud.bsky.social•10 days ago

“The US is going to experience an unprecedented brain drain that it will never recover from.”

I believe we already have. And that’s why they are leaving. 😕

nowsentient.bsky.social•9 days ago

Come on up - we love science, scientists, professionals, educators, free thinkers, doctors …

spacegizmo.bsky.social•10 days ago

It is not actually inevitable. Though it's going to take regular Americans having at least some of the fight past Americans did against fascism. #1 reason Trump & Elon need to be removed this year. The reason Cory Booker's filibuster matters is because it reminds Americans that they can fight.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•10 days ago

If we don't have the courage to fight for a better future then we deserved to be brained drained. The political landscape that existed since the 1994 midterms is gone for good. If we have courage & convinction we can shape a better America now in this moment.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•10 days ago

Also, I'd argue we should fight for that future because if we don't we're all screwed. Not just the US. Yes Europe & Canada CAN brain drain us and should if we refuse to fight but that would put science back like 20 years at least.

frankstake.bsky.social•10 days ago

I agree with most of what you are saying, but US science is nowhere close to 20 ys ahead. The US has very successfully brain drained the rest of the world for decades (congrats, no pun intended). It may have a slight edge in many areas but nothing like 20 years.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

Science is not something you can just turn back on like a switch. It's why those that suggest we stop going to space until there is peace on earth are stupid. Humans are your skillset, and that knowledge is just lost when you stop. So a lot of those skills will just be lost

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

when there aren't enough resources to fund as much science as there used to be.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

It's not that the US is 20 years ahead. It is more that it takes time to build new labs/new teams/and again the EU/Canada resources are likely going to be limited because again EU/Canada have to increase security funding also. That means some science will just fall to the wayside.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•10 days ago

Europe & Canada with a hostile US have to increase SCIENCE & SECURITY FUNDING to make up the difference. So that means some science will just fall short of funding that otherwise would have been funded/etc. No cure for cancer for sure.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•10 days ago

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but also 3 experts on fascist governments have already decided to leave the US. They look at the current conditions in the context of history and say "I'm safer in a different country."

Ultimately the people who stay and fight are the ones who can't leave.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

They're cowards pure and simple. We don't need more of them anyway. So I'm fine with them leaving. If the US falls to tyranny it's a sort of semi-collapse of civilization as we know it. It's do or die stuff, but the good news is the people that voted for this aren't in touch with reality.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

Convictions & courage vs people with none of that. At the very least some things are more important than surviving. Like being able to live without yourself. We know where this road goes. These guys are such fucking losers, the last thing we should do is give up everything without a fight.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•9 days ago

They're not cowards. They're survivors. Do you call the people fleeing Ukraine cowards?

That feels like a very American Exceptionalism response.

spacegizmo.bsky.social•9 days ago

Not really. If you have the resources to leave this country, you have resources to stay and fight for those who can't leave. It's pretty simple stuff. Do you fight for your fellow human beings or do you not? Sure some people should leave (IE: the vulnerable minority).

christianmcintire.bsky.social•10 days ago

I do not accept that this country has become ignorant of reason, current leadership aside. It’s not who we are to ignore science and logic.

Is it?

ashleylynch.bsky.social•10 days ago

30% of the country believes in some part of the Qanon conspiracy, so....

christianmcintire.bsky.social•10 days ago

That’s still a minority.

Okay, a scarily large minority, but a minority.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•10 days ago

It means if you're riding the bus with two other people, one of them statistically believes that Democrats have an underground pedophile network where they drain the blood from children to keep themselves alive.

resistasista76.bsky.social•9 days ago

Not a scientist but just want to be able to get a mammogram without fighting to figure out if I have to pay more out of pocket or not before I get it. So fucking sick of privatized everything. I am for universal govt run healthcare, a robust center left government with a STRONG social safety net.

wonderwomna.bsky.social•10 days ago

keep looking to Germany for hope. I lived there - I love Germany. For a long time it seemed they couldn't recover, but they have - they have become a pillar of human rights. The US is destroying itself - current extent unknown - but in time we might redeem ourselves as Germany did.

frankstake.bsky.social•10 days ago

And yes, the incredible sacrifice the Americans made to free the world of the Nazis shall never be forgotten. And it should never be forgotten that the US not only allowed but helped Germany to rebuild itself as a free and democratic nation. These ties are strong, despite the hostile present regime

frankstake.bsky.social•10 days ago

It is starting right now in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Special funds and programs for American scientists are quickly emerging as Trump drives the United States over the cliff.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•10 days ago

One thing I keep thinking about is how Germany created laws to try to prevent their shameful past from repeating. There was a refusal to look away from what had happened and a genuine need to atone.

America still refuses to atone for slavery. They're very different cultures.

wonderwomna.bsky.social•9 days ago

There was a huge effort from the Allies to de-nazify the people. It resulted in a culture shift and a reckoning. The US needs a similar truth telling and un-whitewashing of history on a massive scale, to start.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•9 days ago

It’s not going to come from within and Americans are too brain poisoned with “American exceptionalism” to accept it coming from outside.

wonderwomna.bsky.social•9 days ago

It either has to come from within, or it has to come from overwhelming outside military power and de-nazification a lá WWII Allied program, or the US is going to sink into soviet-style irrelevance. Take your pick.

ashleylynch.bsky.social•9 days ago

Since there is no larger military force my pick is the latter.

hgilmour.bsky.social•10 days ago

Leaving and choosing not go to the US.

eric-az.bsky.social•10 days ago

Once again history is repeating itself. In the late 1930s to mid 1940s many scientists left Germany instead of working for Hitler.

eric-az.bsky.social•10 days ago

orionkidder.bsky.social•10 days ago

Totally. It's already started.

timpoandante.bsky.social•9 days ago

I'm not even in science, I'm in a niche tech industry, and if the opportunity ever arose I'd leave and never look back

stilke.bsky.social•9 days ago

hopefully!

pbnewman.bsky.social•9 days ago

So, here's the story that supports the skeet. (I'm thinking I'm going to make a project out of linking to stories that back things like this. I'm old school in that I won't repost or like anything that I can't at least prima facie confirm.) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y