Academics at Northwestern University are accusing students of “fascism” after saying they identified them as “Apache attack helicopters” in an engineering culture poll

Some students wrote that they identified themselves as “Apache attack helicopters” in a gender poll on “engineering culture,” leading to accusations from academics that “fascism” was on the rise in the United States.

In the Summer 2023 issue of Northwestern University’s Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, researchers wrote an article describing their experiences working on a survey of LGBT STEM students.

They titled the paper, “Attack Helicopters and White Supremacy: Interesting Malicious Responses to an Online Questionnaire About Transgender Students’ Experiences in Engineering and Computer Science.”

The researchers wrote that the “backlash” to the project “reflects characteristics of contemporary far-right or fascist political movements in the US, such as the synthesis of anti-Semitism with anti-Black and anti-feminist rhetoric.”

According to a report in the college fixAbout a quarter of the so-called “malicious responses” to the survey included an answer to the gender question related to the plane, including a handful who specifically identified themselves as “Apache helicopters.”

Researchers became deeply concerned about fascism in the US after students wrote in a gender poll that they identified Apache attack helicopters

Identifying as “attack helicopter” is a meme dating back to at least 2014 and most commonly used to mock the trans community and those who identify outside of the gender binary

Identifying as “attack helicopter” is a meme dating back to at least 2014 and most commonly used to mock the trans community and those who identify outside of the gender binary.

Other answers the researchers received included: a “V-22 Osprey” and an “F-16 fighter jet.”

Others seemed to express a degree of frustration alongside mockery at the survey.

One respondent wrote that he considers himself a “homophobic fanatic, yes we exist.”

Another wrote, “Cis gender lizard king,” and another wrote, “Damn white man.”

Some wrote even more detailed answers such as “quasi-demi-poney; Bankai released state queercopter with a touch of lesbian and gay upside down frappuccino cake and a cis furry dragon on the cookie cutter. Do not judge.’

The researchers — all affiliated with Oregon State University — reported that they sent the questionnaire to more than 3,000 email addresses of “department heads, program administrators, and faculty at accredited bachelor’s degree engineering institutions,” who then were able to forward the survey to students.

In the end there were 723 responses, of which only 299 were normal. They reported that 374 were invalid or incomplete responses and 50 (about 15 percent) came from so-called “malicious” respondents.

“Importantly, the themes and repetition serve to mark common references and label an existing community with a shared political agenda and racist, transantagonistic, and political meme commentary online,” the researchers wrote.

One interviewee stated that her gender was “pansexual gunship” and also listed her race as “Kangz”.

Other “malicious reactions” included students stating their race was “Afro/Klingon Asian Galapogayation” and their gender was “Aerosol.”

One creative student identified his race as “Native American (Elizabeth Warren)” and apparently poked fun at Warren’s questionable history of identifying as part of Native Americans.

In the Summer 2023 issue of Northwestern University’s Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, researchers wrote an article describing their experiences working on a survey of LGBT STEM students

One creative student identified his race as “Native American (Elizabeth Warren)” and apparently poked fun at Warren’s questionable history of identifying as part of Native Americans

The researchers argued that “theories of fascism provide a framework for interpreting the ways in which dominant, oppressive, or reactionary ideologies related to race, personality, and gender are entrenched in community building, power, and the state.”

Several respondents also reported being transgender as a disability.

One response directly criticized the survey as “ruining science”.

“I really can’t take care of it right now.” “You’re ruining real scientific disciplines here,” the person wrote. “There are two genders, male and female. “If an engineer makes a nut and bolt and then labels them in a whimsical way, then he’s not a very good engineer.”

The researchers framed criticism of their survey as “fascist,” writing, “Theories of fascism provide a framework for interpreting the ways in which dominant, oppressive, or reactionary ideologies related to race, personality, and gender are involved in the construction of Solidify community principles and practices.’ Power and the State.’

They added that the responses they received “are just a small part of the broader grassroots fascist construction in the United States, often targeting transgender and student activists.”

They argued that for these reasons, modern academics “need to develop an informed analysis of how racist and fascist discourses are intrinsically linked to transphobic discourses, and malicious responses to research focused on marginalized people in engineering as central evidence in that research.” regard.”