Selective Memory?
2 Apr 2025 06:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerI don't know why Trump and the Muskrats are so intent on destroying US science. I don't understand, period. It makes no sense, not financially, not in the context of US dominance over science, not in any way. Yeah, scientists proved Trump was an idiot re Covid. And yes, vaccines work, and we have an anti-vaxxer or two at the top of the hierarchy and all that, but what really is the point of setting science in the US back at least a decade or two? I get that they want to destroy American universities, but the targeted cuts to science and scientists seem to be part of that plan but also seem to be much too high a price in collateral damage to pay to attain that goal. None of this makes sense.
But also.
They desperately want to go back to the 50s, that much is clear. To a time when men -white men- were the only game in town, where women stayed at home and "colored" were only visible in subservient positions. No birth control easily available and sex a risky choice for women. A time, obviously, of segregation and racism, and paternalism and patriarchy.
But also.
It was also a time of educational expansion, the GI Bill (for white men) allowed so many to get college degrees and move to comfortable lives. Of good solid public schools for (white) kids. A time of scientific and technological progress that was often funded by the government and allowed the US to dominate in science and tech for the last 80 years.
Are they forgetting or ignoring that part of the 50s?
We're more diverse now, and that's a good thing. I get that they hate it, but our success at a scientific and technical nation from back when until came despite our lack of diversity not because of it.
It never works to destroy the intellectuals. I know they think AI can replace all those scientists, that the private sector will pick up the baton, but neither of those things are going to happen. The scientific private sector is fueled by the discoveries enabled by NIH, they don't have the will or the money to do the basic research. So this makes no sense.
Do they really want to emulate the Soviets and Lysenkoism, Mao and the Greap Leap Forward, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? Or recreate the brain drain that happened in Germany as Hitler rose to power and after with our help via Operation Paperclip? I know they're idiots but it still seems to make no sense.
Note: some of their decisions do make sense, disgusting as they are: they despise poor and darker people and much of the cutting of programs is based on their core principle, the only one they truly follow, of "the cruelty is the point". They're cruel for the pure joy of it.
But also.
They desperately want to go back to the 50s, that much is clear. To a time when men -white men- were the only game in town, where women stayed at home and "colored" were only visible in subservient positions. No birth control easily available and sex a risky choice for women. A time, obviously, of segregation and racism, and paternalism and patriarchy.
But also.
It was also a time of educational expansion, the GI Bill (for white men) allowed so many to get college degrees and move to comfortable lives. Of good solid public schools for (white) kids. A time of scientific and technological progress that was often funded by the government and allowed the US to dominate in science and tech for the last 80 years.
Are they forgetting or ignoring that part of the 50s?
We're more diverse now, and that's a good thing. I get that they hate it, but our success at a scientific and technical nation from back when until came despite our lack of diversity not because of it.
It never works to destroy the intellectuals. I know they think AI can replace all those scientists, that the private sector will pick up the baton, but neither of those things are going to happen. The scientific private sector is fueled by the discoveries enabled by NIH, they don't have the will or the money to do the basic research. So this makes no sense.
Do they really want to emulate the Soviets and Lysenkoism, Mao and the Greap Leap Forward, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? Or recreate the brain drain that happened in Germany as Hitler rose to power and after with our help via Operation Paperclip? I know they're idiots but it still seems to make no sense.
Note: some of their decisions do make sense, disgusting as they are: they despise poor and darker people and much of the cutting of programs is based on their core principle, the only one they truly follow, of "the cruelty is the point". They're cruel for the pure joy of it.
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