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robbiewxyz | 1 year ago

I hold the idea that brain drain, i.e. emigration of skilled people, is one of only a small handful of real methods to hold fascism to account.

With that, as things start to get real bad it seems leaving is something of a moral duty for anyone who cares, has skills that hold real weight, and can still afford to do so.

Obviously where this "real bad" point is is hard to say, and there's important tradeoffs to consider. I also could be talked out of this position but from what I see it seems about accurate.

discuss

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lanstin|1 year ago

And really who would choose to stay in 1938 Germany if you could leave. Even if you are some rich upper class Herr Doktor Professor, life for the next 20 years in Germany wasn't that great compared to England or the US. Why risk having your children killed paratrooping into Greenland. The world is still quite beautiful and quite full of kind people.

nmfisher|1 year ago

Interestingly, Werner Heisenberg was decidedly non-Nazi (and was regularly attacked as a “white jew”), and even though he had ample opportunity to leave, he chose to stay to work on the German nuclear fission program.

I don’t think it tarnished his scientific legacy, but it definitely created some friction in the post-war years.

nyc_data_geek1|1 year ago

There were skilled people in the French and Dutch resistances, as well.

spacemanspiff01|1 year ago

I am withdrawing my money from the US stock market. Other people might not give a shit, but I want to invest my money in a functional democracy.

_t9ow|1 year ago

Out of curiosity, where are you moving your money to?

tc4v|1 year ago

It works better when there is some viable alternative. Research job market is terrible in Europe right now because our governments are trying to make a US like system (project driven and without stability) but without putting the money. There isn't a lot of space in the world to accomodate US brain drain. A bit in Japan, a bit in Europe, most of it in China maybe.

nonrandomstring|1 year ago

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TheOtherHobbes|1 year ago

At this point it's a question of whether the fundie extremists take out the broligarchs first, or vice versa.

You can't run a modern economy by being anti-science and anti-education. Believing otherwise is a self-harming absurdity.

There will absolutely be a brain drain, and the EU is already thinking about how to take advantage of it.