"Ugh, why did I even sign on for this evil postdoc position? I could be doing evil research in the private sector right now."
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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In the evil private sector.
That's redundant.
Good point, I can't believe I messed that up!
If you're a medical doctor, then it would be the Medieval private sector
And if you like to jump over things on motorcycles, it's the Evel private sector.
Evil grants don't apply for themselves. YET.
The IRB rejects your experiment for not being unethical enough.
The peer reviews are downright diabolical
"We enjoyed the discussion in which the author disseminated the fallout from vanquishing their foes, but we found their choice of method ('Block out the Sun') derivative of prior work ('Burns et al, 2005’) without citation."
Burns et al 😂
Holy shit, Janet, the fuck you think minions, underlings, and henchmen are for? What, did you just wake up this morning and decided on a fucking whim that “like, idunno, I’m thinking my mood’s giving… like… (toe twirl) idunno… evilly scientisty! Yeah! Let’s give that shot!”
Fucking get your shit together, Janet. FFS
You know how expensive minions, underlings, and henchmen are?! Why do you think their performance is scrutinized so heavily? MUH is the largest share of the evil budget! You need at least 3 evil breakthroughs before you can expand your MUH budget!
I don't know why Janet thought that the working conditions would be nice at the evil laboratory. It's not exactly evil to take good care of your employees now, is it?
Not everyone starts their evil business with a sizabke evil donation from their evil grandma.
being evil doesnt mean being luddite. get a computer
Simply build a Paperwork Organiz-inator
Legend has it that Janet activated her Super Saiyan that moment
He's left-handed like me
Funny meme, but I don't like how much popular media popularizes the archetype of the evil scientists so much. Scientists are like the least evil people
So, I think the whole "well intentioned but hubristic scientist goes too far, tramples on the feet of god!" trope is pretty stupid in a lot of stories (although I still love a story about a character playing with forces they don't understand if it's executed well). But I also think you really have to consider where the "mad scientist" archetype comes from before you write it off as purely anti-intellectual:
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To a large degree the mad scientist is an updated version of the evil wizard. Victor Frankenstein, the prototypical mad scientist, was trained in alchemy as well as chemistry and biology. Very often (such as in this very post) their laboratories are depicted as being in castles or even wizard towers.
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Frankenstein was partly based on the sort of people who robbed graveyards. The more modern 'howie lab coat, rubber gloves, and goggles' mad scientist exploded in popularity after WWII, probably because of people like mengele and the invention of the atomic bomb.
There's other themes present in the archetype of course (I already mentioned hubris and man's vs god"s domain above, but there's all the other stuff going on in Frankenstein too), but yeah. The 'mad scientist' archetype is a little bit like taking a normal scientist and removing their humanity and morals, leaving only their intellect and ambition/ego behind. A little bit like how a warewolf is a man stripped of all morals and self control, leaving only bestial impulses behind.
That's why they're evil/mad scientists, and not regular scientists.
Yes, they get confused with us evil engineers.