"Homotopical macrocosms for higher category theory" identified as woke DEI grant

How the grant got labeled “woke”

• Several commenters think the classification was driven by crude keyword search (e.g., “homo” in “homotopical”, or “equity/diversity/inclusion” in the broader-impacts section).
• Others point to the explicit mention of service on an “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” advisory board as the more likely trigger.
• There is frustration that nobody involved in the purge appears to have read the actual mathematics, with some calling the process “unserious” and “spreadsheet-driven” or AI-like.

Is DEI work a legitimate research credential?

• One side argues DEI/outreach is a valid part of a PI’s record: expanding access, mentoring underrepresented students, and community-building are standard “broader impacts” for grants.
• The opposing side says this is unrelated to category theory, amounts to “arbitrary discrimination,” and should not affect funding; they invoke analogies like “rich white man” or “Aryan math society” to argue it’s political identity-marking.
• Counterarguments note that historically, rich white men were structurally advantaged in math, which motivates some DEI efforts.

How anti-DEI reviews are being conducted

• People who examined the Cruz-linked database highlight many obviously non-DEI awards (climate, geology, wearable rehab robots, power systems) branded as DEI because of brief outreach lines.
• A contrarian voice claims critics are cherry-picking a false positive to discredit a necessary rollback of “DEI extremism.”
• Others reply that the anti-DEI movement itself works by cherry-picking extreme DEI examples, and that canceling already-awarded basic-research grants for ideological reasons is unacceptable at any nontrivial false-positive rate.
• There is disagreement about whether DEI was mandated via executive orders vs statutory NSF missions, and how much it actually drove selection decisions.

Broader political and historical framing

• Multiple comments compare current U.S. politics to Weimar Germany and “Deutsche Physik,” seeing science/academic purges as a warning sign; others find the comparison clichéd or exaggerated.
• Gun rights and the Second Amendment are debated as a supposed check on tyranny, with several arguing in practice they serve white-supremacist power, not threatened minorities.

Effects on science and global talent

• Many predict U.S. federal research funding will shrink and/or be redirected to political loyalists, creating a chance for Europe and other countries to attract top U.S. scientists.
• Some worry the NSF’s earlier push to surface DEI/outreach in every proposal has now backfired, exposing researchers to political whiplash.