Do you believe that scientific truth trumps money?

Dear Readers,

I am not unemployed because I do not want to work or because I am mentally ill. If anything, the long-term unemployment I have suffered has contributed significantly to me developing overt PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Before getting laid off, I was working days, nights, and weekends with little to no rest. I spent two years day and night looking for a job. I stayed positive and kept my hopes up and did not complain or say anything negative.

As a Chemist, Microbiologist, Immunologist, Molecular Biologist, and Virologist I can attest to no observable increase in demand, even during a pandemic. If you think differently, then here is my CV to share with anyone who may be interested.

Yes, I have been diagnosed more than once with PTSD, and I believe that I do have PTSD. My first rapist was a teacher when I was 15 years old. I was severely beaten by my boyfriend with whom I was living when I was 18 years old, and many stitches were put into my face in the emergency room. Because I am an immigrant who grew up in the USA, I have suffered horrendous bullying, especially as a child. One of the physical fights resulted in a concussion. I was also stabbed with an ice pick, and many other terrible things have happened to me (see Understanding and Surviving PTSD, if you can handle it).

Still, I finished near the top of my high school class. Then I worked my way through college by myself, which took me five years instead of the usual four years. I was so stressed out working full-time while working on my Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry that I ground my teeth during my sleep until my jaw was sore when I woke up. I was a server in restaurants, a cocktail waitress, a tutor, an Organic Chemistry teaching assistant, and I worked odd catering jobs. I had so many W-2 tax forms each year that one got lost one year, which triggered an audit by the IRS. Nevertheless, I won awards and honors and finished at the top of my class.

After I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, I got a job at a major pharmaceutical company where I was instrumental in developing a rapid-acting insulin product that is still saving lives today. Then I went to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology & Immunology. I finished my Ph.D. degree in less time than my Bachelor’s degree, only 4 years, when the average time in my department had been 8 years or longer. My Ph.D. thesis won the most prestigious award across all disciplines and campuses at Indiana University. My thesis was written so well that I even beat the liberal arts candidates.

Then I got a temporary position as a postdoctoral researcher at an Ivy League school. I left that laboratory after 5 months because I believed that my boss, with his M.D. and Ph.D., would inevitably kill someone on his quest to be the first successful gene therapy researcher. I tried to warn the scientific community, but they accused me of being crazy, even though most knew that I had worked in the pharmaceutical industry and knew about product safety and FDA rules. This was long before I was ever diagnosed with PTSD. And when that former boss killed an 18-year-old boy with his gene therapy experiments, there was no retribution for me (see Eugenics Therapy for more of that story). My science career was already damaged just for being honest and caring about the lives of other people.

Most people have not studied enough science to be able to read and understand my peer-reviewed publications or the meaning of my accomplishments, especially as a woman working in the man’s world of science. Most people have no idea how abusive the STEM fields are to women, how much women are held back and exploited, and how hard it is to achieve any kind of success. Yet, most people judge me and blame me for the lack of opportunity in STEM because they believe the lies and brainwashing about the demand for STEM propagated by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

“Judge not lest ye be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)

To all my judges, here is your judgement.

Many people believe the lies that there is a huge demand for STEM and that if they could only get a STEM degree, then they would have it made. Such lies about STEM are falsities that are inconsistent with observable facts. I can only conclude that people are believing what they want to believe if they believe these lies. I can only lead a horse to water, but I cannot make the horse drink. So, here is the water.

Why is the truth so elusive? A main reason is that people have been pressured immensely to think and talk positive and never say anything bad about their current or former employers if they want to keep earning money. Only saying positive things and oppressing negative things, even if they are true, is a way of keeping down women, minorities, and those not in power.

I mastered this technique of “positive thinking” so well that I developed a split personality, splitting off bad memories and denying that part of myself. I am sure that this also contributed to my PTSD getting so bad that I was diagnosed at 49 years old.

This positive thinking mantra is really not about living a healthy life, it is really all about suppression and oppression of the truth.

Think positive with no critical questions or negatives or you will find yourself without a way to earn money. Science jobs require references. If you don’t have a reference from your last employer or your Ph.D. advisor, then you may as well go back to school and start over again, if you can get loans.

Do not believe the lie we were told that if there weren’t enough jobs for people with Ph.D. or Master’s degrees, then these highly educated people would have priority for lower-level jobs if they were willing to work for less money. I have applied for countless lower-level jobs, and each time encountered a hiring manager who was obviously threatened by me and all my accomplishments before they even met me. The oversupply of Ph.D.’s has even been observable in advertisements for jobs stating “no Ph.D.’s need apply.” This was especially true before the human resources people could use computer systems to filter out people with Ph.D.’s from the applicants. Indeed, I have been told by several recruiters and coaches to take the Ph.D. out of my resume, which is a lie because every employment application I have ever seen asks the highest level of education achieved. So, once again I have been pressured to be a liar in order to get a job in the USA.

After quitting my postdoc with the murderer, my now ex-husband and I went to Europe to work at another pharmaceutical company because of the lack of opportunity in STEM in the USA even then, in the late 1990’s. This lack of opportunity was, in large part, due to corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as consolidation of government research into large laboratories staffed by low-paid workers on temporary contracts in despicable working conditions located in some of the most unaffordable places in the world. In each of multiple rounds of mergers and acquisitions of the pharmaceutical industry alone, tens of thousands of scientists were laid off. Operations were moved to China and elsewhere, and the jobs were never recovered, leaving tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of the most educated people in the country under- and unemployed. And every year, there are more STEM graduates around the world.

Not surprisingly, most people in the USA have no desire to work so hard for so little compensation, so much job insecurity, and such terrible conditions.

Even now, when you look at science job openings, most of them are for people with limited experience (less than 5 years) along with a few jobs at the mid and high levels to make it look like there is some opportunity there. However, when you read most of those job descriptions, you will notice that they have been written so specifically that they must have been written specifically for the one person in the world they wanted to hire. This is often cronyism or nepotism, neither of which is merit.

All of this shuts out the mid to late career scientist. And the longer you have not worked as a scientist, the less likely you will get a job because all the job openings require very specific and recent experience. Often newly graduated scientists are targeted who get paid less and who are more naïve because they have not yet experienced the full dose of corruption and therefore cannot recognize it. They still have a great attitude.

Even though molecular biology was the hottest field when I became a molecular biologist, there was already a lack of opportunity by the time I graduated in 1997. Biochemists had a similar experience before that, and bioinformatics after that. Whatever is hot now will not be soon. It is just like movies or music, except former music or movie stars will probably find a job somewhere or be able to live off of all the money they made when they were hot.

There has been such a surplus of scientists in the USA that we were led into alternative careers, such as working for lawyers and businessmen, which I did. Do you really want these people in charge of science? If you said yes, then you should have nothing to complain about how the current pandemic has been handled and is being handled, including all the preventable deaths and economic destruction. Furthermore, if you continue to go along with all the lies and half-truths and omissions, then you can expect more of the same or worse to come.

And you should know that the businessman mentality about science can be summarized like this: if it takes one woman 9 months to have a baby, then 9 women should be able to have a baby in one month. The next step then will be even less time and fewer women and so on. Now think about this in terms of the vaccine.

Why lie about STEM opportunities?

So that you will not listen to me. So that you will blame me. So that the truth remains hidden. So that children can get cancer and brain damage from pesticides in their food (see the Environmental Working Group), so that 80% of the “diseases” we spend all our money on cannot be prevented, so that two thirds of the world’s topsoil can be gone, so that more species can be lost to extinction every year, so that most all of the water can be polluted (e.g., with PFAS; see Erin Brockovich on Facebook), so that climate change can be denied and more. Meanwhile the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

That is why.

If you don’t believe me, then ask “where?” the next time you hear that there is a need for STEM. When you find out where, call up human resources and tell them that you know a perfect job candidate. You will probably not find any contact information besides a web-based application that is strictly one-way communication where you will not even get acknowledged as an applicant after applying, but see for yourself. If you do get ahold of someone, see how they feel about a scientist who would only tell the truth, even if that means being critical or negative or pointing out any problems that could impact the bottom line (money, that is) or damage reputations. If they say yes, they are still interested, then please let me know. Even if the job is not right for me, I know there are thousands of other honest scientists looking for a place to work that tolerates honesty and truth.

How can a scientist be too honest? Is that really a problem of the scientist?

Love, Marie