America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain

Harvard, Trump, and Signals to Global Talent

• Banning or constraining Harvard’s ability to enroll international students is seen as a strong signal that the US is less welcoming to elite intellectual capital.
• Some argue Harvard is being singled out for politically resisting the administration and should refuse illegal demands and fight in court; others worry the government can cripple universities via visas faster than courts can respond.

Does Reducing “Aggregate Brainpower” Help?

• Several commenters challenge the premise that less brainpower could ever be beneficial, except to avoid criticism of bad policy.
• Others distinguish between “smart” vs “educated,” or “productive” vs “scamming” intellect, suggesting much current talent is diverted into rent-seeking and fraud.
• A minority claim hyper-intellectualization can paralyze action; Trump is cited as “action-oriented,” though others counter with examples like China acting decisively with plenty of technocrats.

US Politics, Red/Blue States, and Anti-Intellectualism

• Debate over whether “voting Republican → red-state outcomes” is what Americans actually want or a result of poor alternatives, strategic voting, and disappointment with Democrats.
• Long argument about whether America is “doing this to itself” versus being a victim of a radical minority empowered by turnout patterns and the electoral system.
• Deep side-thread re-litigates the Civil War, with most insisting slavery was the core cause and “states’ rights” is revisionism.

Red vs Blue States: Economics and Policy

• Some note stronger recent GDP growth in red states; others point out blue states still have higher incomes and red states receive disproportional federal transfers.
• Battery factories and similar investments going to red states are framed either as deliberate Democratic pork or as a rational response to faster permitting and pro-growth policy.
• California’s Prop 47 and felony-theft thresholds become a proxy fight over whether blue states are “soft on crime”; rebuttals note many red states have higher thresholds.

Where Would Academics and Students Go?

• Mixed expectations: Europe offers lower or comparable pay for early-career researchers, more stability, and cheap/“free” education, but less grant money and more bureaucracy.
• Vigorous, conflicting claims about German postdoc salaries and tax burdens; no consensus.
• Some European researchers report more, and higher-prestige, US applicants recently.

Expat vs Real Brain Drain

• Commenters distinguish lifestyle expats (e.g., artists, service workers in Berlin/Spain) from top scientists and engineers; only the latter materially change national innovation capacity.
• Some Americans in Europe say they left primarily for lower tuition and better life experience, not politics; critics reply they’ll “pay” later via higher taxes and weaker growth.

Is Academic Brain Drain Inevitable?

• One view: trends predate Trump—China and others are rapidly ramping STEM PhD production and the US was always going to lose relative dominance.
• Others argue US anti-intellectual moves accelerate and worsen what might otherwise have been a slower, more balanced shift.