I currently work as a postdoc in biomedical research, so my line of work was directly in the line of fire of recent Trump administration nonsense… Not great.
Beyond this though, I’m just impressed at how almost delusional my boss and some of my lab members has been. Lab PI/group leaders are responsible for bringing in grants, yet they don’t seem to even care about the fact that almost all grant reviews are paused (and some of their grants are due early Feb!)… Not to mention they seem almost happy about RFK and Bhattacharya; I do not approve of such behavior as a researcher… Especially since another student in the lab is fucking suffering from long COVID-induced chronic fatigue. I don’t understand how could some other ppl in the lab be so insensitive
To be fair, I’ve been essentially “fired” from the lab anyway. Not actually fired, but was on an 1-year contract and PI refused to renew (and it’s more difficult to fire someone than not renewing contract in Illinois law anyway). Pretty shitty behavior but I guess I should have expected a newer PI to not know how to properly lead a lab… Partly due to that, I’ve started applying for jobs in Europe two months ago and have just recently started getting interviews. All of them are scheduled early morning for me, I’m not a morning person, and at least one or two have been somewhat disrespectful so… At least I’m hoping to get at least one offer I hope?
Also am worried about selling some large possessions (furniture, hobbyist items) since I’m probably leaving the US soon. So a bit stressed recently between work and personal matters
All in all, I’m… surprisingly calm for the amount of bullshit I need to deal with. No ideal why. Maybe it’s just the power of video games lol
Yes, I already did, even before this particular news broke out…
I tried to individually tell every one I know IRL (which is not too many ppl sadly), basically told every single one of them to consider back-up career options… There are a couple of 1-year exchange students from Europe in my floor and I have not-subtly hinted at them to make contingency plans for PhD training back home. I’ve been following the news very carefully recently so I can share relevant items as soon as possible… The people need to know. I’ve even considered making know-your-rights printouts before they claimed they’re doing an ICE raid in Chicago, but realized how little resources I have for that… I absolutely will do something. Not sure what it is but I can’t see society go this way.
I just feel bad that as a non-US citizen there is only so little I can do… I don’t even know if I could join a protest without being considered for deportation at this rate. Am planning my leave as well so there’s that.
Funny incident, I blurted out to my family 2-months ago that Trump will probably build a concentration camp and was told to shut the F up… Murphy’s law I suppose