I went on a rant...

What you're about to read is a rant - that ironically I wrote in the wee hours of the morning - inspired by the works of an unrelenting Twitter troll. That's how it started anyway, but more broadly it's a rant about the system that enables him and others like him. It is a largely unedited stream of consciousness, a ranting monologue if you like. It is only my opinion, which I am allowed to have, just as the troll in question is allowed to have. Feel free to ignore it entirely, as is your right to do.

If you have chosen not to ignore it, enjoy... 

Middle-aged white man wakes before dawn and spends hours (probably) composing long threads on Twitter ranting about students/postdocs etc complaining on Twitter. He assumes that these folks are entitled and just aren't passionate enough about their research (ah yes, the P word - more on that later). He assumes they just aren't trying hard enough to publish papers to bolster their CV for their future job. He assumes that it's just that simple, and that the odds aren't heavily stacked against them. He assumes that what they post online is representative of everything in their life (yes, I see the hypocrisy here, but this man is incessant).

Let's talk about just how little work a graduate student or a postdoc has done in their life, shall we? To get into a graduate program, they must first obtain a Bachelor's degree and quite possibly also a Masters. That takes hard work. Not only that, to be a competitive applicant, they must show evidence of extracurricular activities. In particular, they should ideally have prior research experience during their undergraduate, possibly even have a publication under their belt. That takes hard work. They compete against thousands of applicants across the world to become one of a select few to enter the graduate program. Once in the program, they must take classes, they must teach, and they must begin their research projects. They must take exams, grade undergraduate exams, give group meeting presentations, all the while still doing active research. That's a lot of hard work. If they are lucky, they have a hands-on advisor and/or mentor who guides them through the early stages. They must pass a candidacy exam - write a report, give a presentation - to prove they know what they're doing and that they have in fact been doing it. They must publish papers to prove to the scientific world that they know what they're doing. That's a lot of hard work. All the while, these students with a minimum of a bachelor's degree are earning significantly less than most of their undergraduate friends who chose not to pursue a PhD. I could go on, but if you're reading this you're probably familiar with the ins and outs of academia. 

The previous paragraph describes a rather idealized situation, I'm sure you would agree. A situation that probably only applies to a fairly privileged white man with a comfortable background and little to no additional responsibilities, and a research environment that is supportive and welcoming. We all know the real world is not quite so perfect. A toxic tyrant of a PI can ruin even a privileged white student's career, as well as their and mental and even physical health. A system that favours established old white male professors can make it very difficult for a young, aspiring academic to flourish. Add in discrimination due to race, gender, sexuality etc, and the entry barrier to academia is starting to get higher and higher for minoritized folks. For those who do pass that barrier, they still face constant oppression within academia every single day. They have to work even harder to stay in the system that has historically tried very hard to keep them out.

I could probably rant for days, but the point I'm trying to make at the end of all of this is that no one person's path is the same. Yet some middle-aged white man thinks that so long as everyone does exactly what he did exactly how he did it, everything will work out fine no matter your personal circumstances. Don't you dare tell folks you know absolutely nothing about that they aren't working hard enough just because they complain about a totally flawed system on a public forum. These people have worked hard their entire lives, in spite of every obstacle in their way, to get where they are today. They, like anyone else, deserve a little complaint now and then – that is life. 

If you find yourself pre-emptively defending what you're tweeting, you are well aware that you probably shouldn't be saying it. It's like when someone pre-emptively says "no offence intended but..." before offending someone. Stop it.

Instead of telling people to suck it up and just work harder, take a step back and really think about just how fucked up academia really is. The few people who truly benefit from it are the ones keeping it that way, making money off the back of criminally underpaid graduate students and postdocs, only to hang them out to dry because they didn't measure up to some whitewashed definition of success. It's no wonder so many people lose their passion (there it is again, that pesky P word) for research and leave for greener pastures.

So the P word...passion. Many people defend the low pay of graduate students and postdocs by saying the money shouldn't matter, it's all about the passion, the thrill of research. When I say low, I mean low versus what their equally or perhaps less qualified peers in the professional world are paid. Can't someone have a passion for research i.e. enjoy what they do very much, but also have other passions? Passions such as having a roof over their head that they don't have to share with several other grown adults because they need to split rent. Passions such as being able to have dinner and drinks with friends occasionally while still being able to fill their refrigerator for the month. Passions such as having a savings account that they can pay into after all of that. People can do a PhD not because they are passionate, but simply that they're interested. Or perhaps after undergraduate they felt stuck and didn't know what to do with their life and stumbled into a PhD program...

Again, I could go on but I hope you're getting the point. People with degrees, whether it's Bachelors, Masters, PhD or all of the above, are highly qualified individuals. Other sectors pay them handsomely for this reason. Why won't academia do the same? Why doesn't academia appreciate the very people it trained? 

Okay, I've gone on long enough, I just had to get some of this off my chest. I don't have a good answer for any of this, but I sure as hell know passion has very little, if not nothing, to do with it. I do however know that privileged white men in the proverbial ivory tower, who complain that we complain about this, are very much a part of the problem.