#stem vs humanities

[quasi-normalcy]

This is what I'm talking about. Like, this is embarrassing. People should be embarrassed for uncritically sharing it.

"STEM people are incapable of knowing when they're being lied to--" JESUS FUCKING GOD! Is this a thing you actually believe? Like...genuinely? That the only reason why anyone understands falsehood is because they read We Have Always Lived in the Castle when they were 17?

Do the black hearts of the STEM people beat at all, in your estimation? If you cut them, do they bleed tar? Sand? Wires? Do they think thoughts, do you imagine, or do they just process binary telemetry through their neural circuitry? Do they sleep in coffins?? Do they regenerate in alcoves???

And what about you? How, one wonders, the fuck do you know what you think that you know? Were you just blindly, credulously, and uncritically believing everything that you were told until some magnanimous English teacher, Moses-like, came down from the Mountain to explain the concept of deception to you?? Do you think that this is how things work? Do you just intrinsically know truth from falsehood because you read Lolita at some point in your long and storied career???

Look---I think humanities are valuable! I'm doing a PhD in a humanities discipline (in fact, applying the techniques of the humanities to the analysis of science), so it would be pretty awkward if I didn't! Humanities can make contributions to the vast ediface of human knowledge that sciences can't. Humanities can even make valid, substantive critiques of science that sciences can't. But this? This? This is just uncharitable, self-important BULLSHIT that any humanist, with their vaunted critical thinking skills, should be fucking ashamed to spread.

[projectpravaha]

On Liberal Arts

Where do the students of liberal arts go, after mastering history’s truths, philosophy’s provocations, and sociology’s structures? They exit universities with minds sharpened but pockets empty, not for lack of intelligence, but because the market deems their knowledge untranslatable. Their CVs are heavy with ideas but light on “hard skills.” They drift into underpaid roles or unrelated industries, watching the very disciplines that scaffold society be dismissed as indulgent or obsolete.

But is this the fault of liberal arts? Or is it the blindness of an economy that can quantify code but not conscience?

The current system appears to conflate demand with value. Tech is in demand, so tech is valued. But politics, economics, law, philosophy—these are not industries. They are inheritances. They are the ancient ligaments of the body politic, the compass for collective existence. Long before a line of code was ever typed, societies were debating governance under banyan trees and in Greek agoras. Without understanding justice, no software can solve social inequality; without political wisdom, no innovation can protect peace.

And yet, here we are—treating the liberal arts as ornamental in a house that is crumbling.

Education is not merely a production line for employment—it is the crucible in which societies sculpt their conscience.

As liberal arts students, we do not seek pity. We seek purpose. And we offer something indispensable in return—context. A code without context can build an empire or a surveillance state. But a society that knows its stories, its struggles, its philosophies—that is a society that endures.

In a world obsessed with speed, liberal arts teaches us why we are running.

And that question—more than any algorithm—is what might save us.

(Read full)

[adventuresinpyjamas]

yes I know, I'm late, that is my bad... I was so depressed this morning. never fear though because I just turned myself into a vampire and it helped

I have a QotD! (question now)(or 2)

Are you studying STEM (or STEAM, i fw that), Humanities, or what? What do you enjoy about the structure of learning in your subject, and what are you jealous of in others?

personally, as a humanities student primarily (arch is too humanities to be considered STEM by STEM, and too STEM to be considered humanities by humanities), sometimes I get jealous of people who have to study for exams, like in the good old fashioned route memorisation with flashcards and stuff... sometimes my brain just needs a break and to ingrain what I know directly into my subconscious. I get burnt out from writing essay after essay after essay, especially when my discipline at my university is notoriously difficult to get HDs (7s or As) in with essays. Sometimes I just want to learn, absorb and retain rather than have to create, yk? probably only bc I'm burnt out rn tho

Day 16 /28

124

to do

edit and cut down section of essay on Newes (again)

add to section based on the new docs found? (I think I will so it's not just a source analysis)

sift through bibliography to find sources

run/walk

once again I have added more that needs to be footnoted, so get onto that

email prof

see people (I'm going insane again)

write paragraph on Fian

write paragraph on daemonologie

make sure my essay answers a fucking question for the love of god

CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT (it is time to start culling words because I have no intro/ conclusion/ Daemonologie paragraphs and my wc is like 4.5k)

Aim for:

write intro and conclusion

cite as much as I can

choose semester subjects or AT LEAST look at pre-reading for Tudors and Rome

bibliography hhhhhhhh

I am sitting at the library and I look like a vampire for accountability, the only thing that is ruining my Dark Academic (tm) look is my massive fuckin computer....

also I realised yesterday how much I HATE using computers to study, I function so much better on physical paper... rip to me I should never have started taking notes on paper at age 10

Duo

3/3 lessons

0/7 spoken exercises

5/5 80% or higher

Forest

0/1 any tree

0/45 mins any tree

0/80 mins Plum Blossom (not a chance it is locked still)

sorry for the insanely long post btw oops

[space-opera-slays]

My history teacher has designated me the science representative for our class, a stem student in a sea of humanity students.

[quinnfabrayapologist]

website that matches sapphics in STEM with sapphics in humanities so between us one of us can earn a decent income

[gold-onthe-inside]

lil rant under the cut - mostly about the education system

okay. i don't know how the system works in everyone else's country. but here, it costs a ridiculous amount of money to go to university and complete a course. i don't know if we have a big student debt crisis but here's what i do know. here's what i absolutely abhor. having to pay just to apply to a university. just to have your application processed. if you're lucky enough to do it through the university admissions centre, it might cost you $70 tops to apply for like 5-9 colleges?

after that, it's trying to find the cheapest seat possible in your course, trying for commonwealth seats or scholarships. some people might 'win the lottery' and end up not paying for their specific course at all. then after that, every course is divided into a number of classes that you have to take and each class has its own requirements.

that's right, i'm talking about textbooks. these heavy ass, expensive ass textbooks that after a period of time, you are never going to look at again. now the smart thing to do which is what my high school used to do, is take the textbooks that you're going to prescribe every year to every class, have the institution buy it from the money they rip off every year and fucking loan it out to the students that need it. at least one class set that you can give to the students that can't afford it. my high school teachers used to scan fucking textbooks because there weren't enough of them for all the classes.

you wanna tell me that education isn't classist? forcing students to pick between food, rent and textbooks? forcing parents to make those fiscal decisions for students that might be financially dependent on them to choose between having three meals a day for a month or a fucking college textbook?

and in a society where you can't get a job without experience? education is exclusive. it always has been.

and you know what else? fuck subject hierarchies. stem isn't more important than the humanities. they are just as important as each other. yes, stem helps us fix the physical problems in our society. it cures diseases and fixes bridges and advances society. but that doesn't make the humanities any less important. we've always sought out to fix the cracks on the outside of the shell but what about the cracks inside us? stem doesn't solve political problems. political science does. stem doesn't cure psychological trauma. psychology does. stem doesn't fix racism. sociology does. so if you wanna get all high and mighty about having to work your ass off to memorise the human anatomy and patronise me about trying to figure out practical solutions to solve massive social crises, fuck you.

and to those idiots who criticise social studies students for focusing on topics that you don't think are necessary to society, fuck you too. if someone wants to go and study classism in harry potter, that is just as valid as studying classism in shakespeare. if someone wants to do a phd in gender studies, let them do it. because they're the ones who might just be able to generate change in the subtlest ways possible. because that research is valuable. it influences publishers to change direction in the content of the books they produce. it influences corporations to change systems. it influences the government to prioritise different values. our society is an ecosystem and everyone, everyone, plays their role in it. nothing, no job, no person, no subject, nothing is meaningless.

and to the students who read all the way to the bottom, you are the people that give meaning to these subjects. you are the people who take harry potter, a book that some might say defined a whole generation, and find it's weakest points, it's harshest implications and you might influence a more critically researched book. if you see more poetry in john green's books rather than jane austen, that is valid and you can prove it. academia is wonderful and thrilling and enlightening and you are the people that make it so.

[quillify-tries-to-talk]

Omg you’re studying English lit? I was thinking of going for it too! AND I’m torn between that and stem too lmao

Omgg welcome to the club, buddy! I mostly left it behind because a) I am absolutely horrendous at math and that affected my overall percentage (seriously, how did I pass my exams??? It's still a mystery to me) and b) because I realized that I'm actually really good at writing and reading and analyzing books, especially in English and I enjoyed all of it. So that's what I chose!

(I made it sound simple but it was a bit more chaotic. But, still, if you love a particular subject, trust me, college and university becomes a lot more bearable. You understand your stuff and you enjoy your assignments. That's a bonus)

I hope my story helps you reach some sort of decision? Lemme know if it does <3

[college-out-of-context]

I am going to KICK YOUR ASS

Math teacher racing English teacher in rolly chairs