Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 16
"Kaufmann’s report was wildly inaccurate, riddled with fallacies and errors. Perhaps most significantly, as data scientist Jacob Eliason wrote, Kaufmann appears to have used only the raw dataset from FIRE’s student surveys, rather than the weighted data, adjusted to represent a target population."

Right-Wingers Celebrate Flawed...
Right-Wingers Celebrate Flawed Study Claiming a "Decline" in Trans Identity

One data scientist called the report “dead on arrival” over its inaccuracies.

Them.
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 16
"Kaufmann claimed that nonbinary identification among students dropped to 4% in 2025 from a peak of 7% in 2023; after recalculating the numbers, Eliason found that the properly weighted data actually showed a net increase from 2% to 9% over the same period, starkly opposing Kaufmann’s conclusions."
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 16
"Kaufmann’s interest in Brown is peculiar and ignores political context. Per surveys of the student body, nonbinary & genderqueer ID has decreased from 4.8% in 2023/24 to 1.9% in 2025. In July, Brown signed an agreement with the Trump admin agreeing to the strictly binary view of 'biological sex.'"
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
"But Kaufmann elides this context entirely, writing only that because FIRE data indicated that 'political ideology [...] remained stable' among students themselves, 'the ‘vibe shift’ away from woke' was not a significant factor." That's an extremely ridiculous argument from Kaufmann.
Oct 16 at 10:38pmWeb
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 16
For those who missed it. Eric Kaufmann—widely known for propagating the concepts of "great replacement" and "great awokening" as well as for supporting various race science networks—recently spoke as a witness at this Canadian House of Commons committee. #cdnpse #cdnwrds bsky.app/profile/katj...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pis2dwki2yf5ieehrzwh3rke/post/3m2pz6byd5k2s
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 16
Kaufmann prolifically publishes think-tank reports with far-right funding and no peer review. His aim is to push various reactionary views into public policy. Like many others of his ilk, he has lighted onto anti-trans bigotry as his vehicle. Previously, academic freedom was his hot conduit.

Look over There! An Academic F...
Look over There! An Academic Freedom Crisis!

If you have followed think tank reports on academic freedom over the past number of years, you will have already noticed the pattern I…

Medium
Show threadDr. Katja Thieme (she/they)Oct 17
When researchers—especially those who research human topics—don’t state their positionality explicitly in their reports or articles, we have to go looking for it. Piece it together. Look at how they characterize themselves in more informal contexts. That is the service I’m providing re: Kaufmann.