DOGE Culture Fiasco, a Court Decision, and Rule by ChatGPT

It’s still chilly here in ye olde Vermont and weeks from our “Brigadoon” spurts in late July into August and leaf-peeping week in October. So it’s very quiet, which gives me time to read things such as the 143-page American Council of Learned Societies v. National Endowment for the Humanities, the decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued on May 6, that invalidates the cancellation of around 1,400 NEH grants on orders from the Elon Musk DOGE team. The decision — what Judge Colleen McMahon wrote — is horrifying on so many counts. Everyone seems to have gone heavy-metal whackadoodle.

DOGE, which probably works well in cases of mass fraud, jumped into the doings of NEH in early 2025. It applied ChatGPT to a long list of NEH grants that had been made, but not yet paid, during the idiocracy, kleptocracy, and witch’s coven of the Biden years. Using one-paragraph grant descriptions, DOGE asked the AI bloodhound, “Does the following relate at all to DEI?” Many hundreds of grants were identified. Two DOGE staffers in their twenties, with no humanities experience aside from college courses, then looked in the short grant descriptions for words such as “indigenous,” “tribal,” “gay,” “native,” “melting pot,” “marginalized,” “equality,” “citizenship,” and “immigrants.” “Latinx,” a word nearly everyone with Spanish-acculturated heritage hates, “equity,” “BIPOC,” and “climate,” to me, are poison pills, and they were on the list as well. All seem to have been axed, around 1,400 grants worth more than $322 million. Gradually, the Feds have been reversing DOGE’s decision and restoring the grants. Now, a federal court has gone steps further.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

It’s still chilly here in ye olde Vermont and weeks from our “Brigadoon” spurts in late July into August and leaf-peeping week in October. So it’s very quiet, which gives me time to read things such as the 143-page American Council of Learned Societies v. National Endowment for the Humanities, the decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued on May 6, that invalidates the cancellation of around 1,400 NEH grants on orders from the Elon Musk DOGE team. The decision — what Judge Colleen McMahon wrote — is horrifying on so many counts. Everyone seems to have gone heavy-metal whackadoodle.

DOGE, which probably works well in cases of mass fraud, jumped into the doings of NEH in early 2025. It applied ChatGPT to a long list of NEH grants that had been made, but not yet paid, during the idiocracy, kleptocracy, and witch’s coven of the Biden years. Using one-paragraph grant descriptions, DOGE asked the AI bloodhound, “Does the following relate at all to DEI?” Many hundreds of grants were identified. Two DOGE staffers in their twenties, with no humanities experience aside from college courses, then looked in the short grant descriptions for words such as “indigenous,” “tribal,” “gay,” “native,” “melting pot,” “marginalized,” “equality,” “citizenship,” and “immigrants.” “Latinx,” a word nearly everyone with Spanish-acculturated heritage hates, “equity,” “BIPOC,” and “climate,” to me, are poison pills, and they were on the list as well. All seem to have been axed, around 1,400 grants worth more than $322 million. Gradually, the Feds have been reversing DOGE’s decision and restoring the grants. Now, a federal court has gone steps further.