The Assault On Science Funding Continues
I co-sign this great summary from @dereklowe.bsky.social . The goal is to destroy academic science, and these are the reasons. And all the “gold standard” and “needs reform” and “not high risk” stuff is transparent bullshit to hide the ball on what they are doing.
Mark Histed20Buckle your chinstraps and join the fight. Standing up and speaking out is working. The more clear speaking we can do, the more effective we will be.
Paul Topping2I think there's more to it than just the money. Trump/MAGA know that academics mostly oppose them. They also don't like their ability to push back on their gut-driven policies. Finally, a lot of them are successful immigrants.
Eternal Cat War51Speaking in both my professional and personal capacity, Mark and Derek are dead on. This administration hates the American scientific ecosystem because it’s bound in truth and methodology, not cronyism and getting rich off the destruction of our collective health.
Kevin Bird19This is the energy and clarity we need from every scientist and scientific society. Moreover people should be organizing, planning, and working to consult policymakers for whenever we get power back
tmbhmltn.bsky.social5I think this is largely right (they just hate academics, there’s no point in taking their criticisms at face value) but it veers into kinda dumb conspiratism at the end. They think science is pointless, they wouldn’t think studying seahorse mating was useful if a corporation did it
randy r. potts2wildest thing about this very real revolution is how few people want to call it what it is, name its actions, or talk about the consequences
Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:
Alex Wild181This is a blunt assessment of what the Trump regime is proposing for US science: they plan to take all the funding, essentially collapsing university-based research, in order to give that money to themselves, and they are lying about it.
Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽24"Instead, it’s time for politics...This destruction will take place most easily in an atmosphere of worn-out apathy and helplessness, so give them the opposite. Make it hard for these people, because if they get their way it’s for sure that they want to make it very, very hard on you."
Chase Million22By training and culture, scientists tend to assume that others are acting generally in good faith, not willfully lying, and share an interest in pursuit of truth for the good of humanity. This is easily exploited by hostile and bad faith actors. Sometimes the correct response is "Fuck you, liar."
Alex Wild21Another way to think of Trump's proposal is: He is taking public money from people who don't pay bribes, or don't have enough money to pay bribes, being middle class scientists, and dangling it front of the techbro billionaires, because they *do* pay bribes.
Brandon Bishop18"administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands."
betsythemuffin.bsky.social16Another piece of the puzzle: These proposals are largely from people who couldn't hack lab sciences but could hack sophomoric Tumblr "rationalist" bullshit, and who need to convince themselves that they're "technical."
Philip Ball15What Derek says. All of it. Forget all the chin-scratching analyses of the Trump administrations "proposals" & plans - it comes down to this. It's time we simply said it.
Boston Tom Levenson13Read this. Lowe is exactly right. See below for the key fact to keep in mind whenever a member of the Trump administration opens his (almost always a his, not a hers) mouth about science funding. Federal spending on science is intolerable to them; in their minds, that cash belongs to them.
Brandon Bishop13If your professional society leaders aren't talking like this, it's time to get new leaders.
David John Gagne II8Russ Vought and crew are just like Hans Gruber: trying to act sophisticated when in reality they’re just a bunch of petty thieves stealing our future. Fighting back is working; let’s keep it up.
