Survey by American Association of Professors shows nearly quarter of respondents are switching due to states’s politics
Many professors in the US south, particularly in Florida, South Carolina and Texas, are considering leaving their state because of the impact the political climate is having on education, according to a new survey by the American Association of Professors.
The survey received responses from approximately 4,000 faculty members across the south and included other states, such as Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in its findings. About 25% of the professors in Texas who responded said they have applied for teaching roles in other states in the last two years, with another 25% saying they intend to start a search.
Last year, salary was the top reason as to why educators across the south were seeking employment elsewhere. In this year’s findings, however, “broad political climate” was the top motivator.
Good.
They can go to blue states and make them better. Red states can suffer and become more desperate until they put pressure on their fascist leader to wage war against blue states and then we can crush them like we did the Confederacy. Except this time we need to execute all their leaders.
Unfortunately that’s not how that’s going to work out and we all know it.
It’s just gonna amplify the stress and hate and ignorance in those areas and cause more problems in the long run even for the liberal states.
Unfortunately that’s not how that’s going to work out and we all know it.
Well not with that attitude! C’mon! Viva la revolution!
This is realistically the only way society/civilization will move forward. The whole democratic way of doing things until now is what has led to all of this in the first place. The US puts their fOuNdInG fAtHeRs and constitution to a pedestal as if they’re some holy text when it’s those very things that have allowed cheeto turd to run free fascist. Believing in the constitution and democracy as some holy grail that will bring everlasting peace is naive when the very population that literally stands against peace has been allowed to survive amongst us for this long. History will repeat itself time and time again just as it is now because people don’t want to come to terms with the fact that we WONT get along. They cling to their romanticized fantasy of people being just for the greater good. Nobody wants war, nobody wants to fight. I get that. Sitting around and allowing ourselves to be disorganized, living in fear will let them take us out. Can’t change my mind. Sorry.
You had me in the first half and the second half.
That’s a horrible headline. “One in four professors are leaving” is way different than what the survey showed, which is “one in four that responded to the survey are considering leaving”.
Some of the other details they bring up are relevant, though. 25% of Texas professors actively applying for positions in other states, with a further 25% stating they plan to do so soon, is still very significant.
The thing about a brain drain is that it is a cascading effect, too. No one wants to be the last person left on a sinking ship. When some leave, more will want to follow.
A professor looking for a role outside their current uni is essentially, leaving already.
They’ve already decided to forgo tenure track, and start over, which is really the biggest hurdles.
Its only a matter of time before a uni reaches out to them, and it usually takes about a year.
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And why wouldn’t they want to leave shithole states?
Why stay where wilful ignorance is not only encouraged, but enforced by law?
The only reason most stay is for family.
Also, I don’t want to “give over” my beautiful state’s natural resources to the fascists without a fight. (But, yes, primarily it’s familial duty that keeps me here.)
They might be in the majority, but sometimes democracy is about changing minds first and winning votes later.
I also just don’t want to give up. Fuck that shit. I like it where I am from and am willing to help make it a better place even if it means I have to do it at any means or cost. I just hope it doesn’t come down to Civil War but I think that’s the path the right wants to go down…
No offense but wtf does memetic mean?
An attempt at clever phrasing to indicate that troll farms and misinformation are where the fighting is happening vs actual open hostilities where we trade bombs.
Yes, this. I certainly didn’t come up with the phrase, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetic_warfare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth-generation_warfare https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2013&context=jss
Listen. This is important. We are in WWIII
I hope democracy and rule-of-law overcome religious autocracy. It’s touch-and-go.
Money, usually.
The professors I know in Texas are usually there because they got a promotion and a significant pay bump to move there.
Anyone with a brain should be doing what they can to get out of 'Murica
The rise of anti-intellectualism is going to make it an even more dangerous place
USAian here. Honest question. What is a good pluralistic tolerant democratic country with very low percentage of credulous adults who have a Sky Daddy?
TIA
What is a good pluralistic tolerant democratic country
I would have recommended Germany till recently, but their far right party (funded by Putin no doubt) is in the lead there now.
I tried and gave up the process to emigrate to Germany, extremely strict and bureaucratic. And mostly hostile if you don’t speak German.
Australia
My fiancée and I are working on her visa to get her here with me
Canada or Australia would probably be my top choice, but it seems like they’ve also become a target for far right propaganda
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/how-russian-propaganda-makes-its-way-to-australia/14d547fci
Their goal is and always has been global domination. I worry you can only run so far before it eventually finds you wherever you end up. I’m definitely trying to plan an emergency exit strategy, but I think we always need to remember the more people that flee the easier it is to completely take over. Once that happens, I am very doubtful the authoritarian axis will be satisfied. They’ll just start plotting how to continue taking over other countries.
Look at what the U.S. was just caught doing in Greenland. If it sounds familiar it’s because these guys are all getting their strategy from the same playbook.
they’ve also become a target for far right propaganda
Of course that’s the calculus. Stay and fight the disinformed where I am, or go to a more well-defended location?
It’s easy to forget that record numbers of US citizens have gone from proudly having belief with no evidence in a Sky Daddy, to not having any affiliation with anti-reason traditions
From only 8% back in 1980, up to 2024 where 25+% are now at least ostensibly members of the reality-based community
Australia is very very hard to emigrate to if you have no link to it. I’d wager most Americans wouldn’t make it.
Most places are hard to emigrate to unless you have a degree that’s valuable and/or have familial ties to the country.
If the US gets too insane then the undocumented crisis might reverse direction as undocumented americans migrate out of the country as refugees.
There’s a specific visa for people who have skills in high demand
USAian? 🫤
edit: let me clarify. who speaks this way? I have never heard someone use this type of speech or writing and it makes me wonder if you are actually from the United States?
As a kid and young adult, I used to say “American” to mean “Citizen of the USA”
Then I started working with multinational companies and a big chunk of my team was in Mexico and other parts of central/south America.
I’m happy for another word for “USA citizen”, tell me what to use
American is a term synonymous with US citizen. I have done a fair amount of traveling and I’ve never heard another country’s citizen refer to themselves, read another country’s articles, or heard another country’s news refer to anyone other than the USA as “America” or calling its citizens “American”. I’ve heard “the Americas” though when referring to places in North or South America.
Caveat is that I am a US citizen so it’s possible that it’s said but I’ve never heard it used in any other way.
I had a lot of Central and South American friends growing up (well, “a lot” relative to most people in the Midwest in the 80s). Some of them said their families back in their parents’ home countries got upset if they called themselves Americans. I understand that feeling, but my response was, “OK, so what should you call a person from the United States of America?” They didn’t have a better idea than just saying American, which is why I think most people around the world just accept the term even if it is a little separatist. There just isn’t a better term.
Mexicans and Canadians are also Americans. Hell, every country in South America is American.
US citizen is what is commonly used in circles with lots of exposure outside of the US.
The ones who think “American=US citizen” I’ve found have rarely, if ever, left their home state…
I’m aware that all of America is the entire north and south. I actually addressed that in my comment. What I’m trying to get you or anyone who is making your point to do is to prove that others refer to themselves as American or that any other media piece calls them American. I will change my mind if you can prove it.
Do Mexican citizens think of themselves as American? Do Canadians? More than likely they will say, or even think that are Canadian or Mexican and not American. Brazilians don’t think of themselves as “American”, neither does a Chilean.
Once again, please provide evidence that anyone else in North or South America refers, or generally thinks, of themselves as American. It just isn’t a thing despite it being geographically true. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, but “American = US citizen” is universally used by the entire world regardless that it’s technically more encompassing because of geographical naming conventions.
I get the sentiment, wanting to avoid us defaultism and all that. I work with big international groups too, and they refer to us as the Americans, it just seems like a non issue. after all, the official name of our country has the word america in it. does any other country in north or south america?
I realize it’s kinda annoyingly P.C./woke
But yeah, I also have taken to referencing “allowlists” and “denylists” instead of “whitelists” and “blacklists”. And “worker nodes/manager nodes” instead of “build slave”/“master node”
I think that sometimes enforcing particular speech can act as cultural wedges that distance the people instead of bringing them together. kind of like “latinx”. nobody asked for that lol.
don’t get me wrong, I’m not some “anti-woke” guy, I just feel like sometimes these feel like misguided attempts to show respect
I hear you and will make a terrible confession – I used to be a hardcore libertarian and very opposed to “speech police”
I still am 100% opposed to enforcing speech. Don’t give someone a fine for saying the N-word, just treat that person as you would anyone who is vulgar or objectionable.
But I do see value in cultural shifts that bend in the direction of greater inclusivity and tolerance. I am with you in that I will absolutely not go along with ones I don’t see as authentic or valuable (eg “Latinx”, or for example I am a heteronormal male who presents as male. I don’t bother adding “he/him” under the photo in my work profile)
Most can’t afford to leave. Strategic action is more realistic
Intra-national brain drain
Yeah, i’ve seen the talent slowly abandon the southern states. We are left to struggle like designed.
It’s really unfortunate because the type who would leave are needed now more than ever. The south will be even more of a cesspool of hate and ignorance when they’re gone. Not that I blame them, I left the south myself long ago because I didn’t feel like I related to the average person at all
Canada has some really nice universities. We’d be happy to welcome you folks.
As nice of a sentiment as this is, I’m already seeing colleagues that have dedicated their entire academic and public sector careers to Canadian institutions get passed over for promotions and jobs because there are other Canadians fleeing the states with prestigious names in their resume like Yale, Harvard etc. These people haven’t worked/experienced a day in Canada since they were 18 years old, but are now expected to be leaders in big Canadian institutions. Some are already floundering, tbh.
Not saying new blood isn’t good, but the Americanization of our institutions is already getting somewhat bad. You can see why many of my colleagues wouldn’t be happy about that.
As a Tennesseean, IDK if Texans/Floridians are ready for the culture shock that is a Canadian winter.
Eh, it’s a big country. Mild winters on the west coast. Snow bound hellscapes in the middle. Wind-chill and fog on the east coast.
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Are you tired of winning yet?
It’s almost like a whole lot of idiots voted for Taco, knowing he’d do all the really ridiculous and harmful things all throughout our country, and trying to disrupt every single institution and every single norm, but thinking, “yeah, but I need tax cuts”, or gawd forbid they vote Democratic for whatever identity reasons.
I’m sure many of his voters thought that everything would still somehow continue as normal, even as Taco and his thugs target POC and LGBTQ and try to punish his enemies and ultimately, over half of the country. I’m sure some of these same people are going to act like they are the victims if they are the least bit negatively affected by normal Americans leaving red areas or leaving the country as a response to Orange Jesus idiocy.
And the south is celebrating.
No we aren’t. Some of us are stuck here.
This is going to be a mass exodus not seen since Jim crow. I expect millions of people will flee to blue states in the coming decade. Probably my highest priority ATM outside of giving my kids a good upbringing. Also the death of federalism is going to be interesting, probably mostly bad.
It would be better if they fled to red counties in purple states, cheaper too.
I have no issue with this, I would gladly so long as my state protected my basic humanity and human rights.
I’m assuming exodus to blue states more division ala West coast health alliance, hyper gerrymandering wars and many more things that will less to a break up or even war… Although I sure hope not
I don’t want war, but I’m crossing my fingers for the break up. This is an abusive relationship and there are no benefits to continuing it. Time to let them suffer and die in their own ignorance.
Please try to stick it out until the midterms if you can.
stick it out until the midterms
So dictators do allow elections, but just like russia they are sham elections. So dont expect too much from the midterms.
Well I guess it depends on what kind of wacky changes are made to voting laws beforehand.
One of the things that stuck out most to me from Alexi Navalny’s memoir was when he said people in Russia learned to show up in big numbers on voting days expressing very public support for a candidate, bc it makes it harder to convincingly steal an election.
Too late. We’re already off to Germany. Not necessarily the best move, but it’s at least free for a while.
Sunken cost fallacy.
That’s… not at all what that term means.
Could you clarify how that applies here?
I’m aware that you shouldn’t continue an action/behavior that will be bad for you, just because you already spent resources (the “sunk cost”) on it. But, I’m not sure exactly how that applies here. At least I believe the request to “stick it out until the midterms” comes from a belief that voting in the midterms will bring a benefit to the individual and the collective.
These guys should not have to sacrifice their careers and their mental health for these sinking states and help “save” the state when even the Democratic leadership abandons these states and with the current leadership that won’t GTFO, they’ll abandon them and the state if there’s even a whiff of it might be hard.
If they get the opportunity to better themselves, they should take it and not pass it up for some redemption arc.
My two cents of a person who abandoned a Red State life.
I still think you misused the “Sunken Cost Fallacy”.
But, I agree that it’s not some sort of moral imperative to stay. That decision depends on so many factors, not the least of which is how much you actually believe the midterms will occur and have any positive impact.
Somebody needs to fight for them, else it guarantees we’ll be fighting against them.
I dont see many gun loving Texans fighting back…
Reverse Reconstruction
