. . . but I’m just wondering if many are feeling as I am: That these are very unsettling times for those who care about scientific research and the advantages of knowledge over anti-knowledge. I will say it: I cannot remember a time in my life—even during the turbulent 1960’s of multiple assassinations and the Vietnam War—when I was so hesitant to read the daily news. Despite relatively good health and financial security which can weather some economic ups and down, these recent months have been depressing. I feel like I must keep myself informed and yet it is like being forced to take a bitter pill ever morning.
I will include this comment I posted on a not-so-busy thread:
I’m having flashbacks to what I studied long ago about the rise of the universities in Europe and how kings had to issue edicts exempting universities and their faculties from the laws of local jurisdictions because the rabble and their eager-to-please sheriffs would be frightened by the activities of “those wizards” in the universities who did “demonic” things like combine chemicals and produce fire and smoke. “Only the Devil can do that!” Knowledge that challenged popular thinking was so frightening to so many people.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services thinks that replacing seed oils with beef tallow in French fries will “make French fries a health food again” and that Vitamin A is the best treatment measles.
The fringe has come to the center. And is largely unchallenged in terms of powerful opposition. And will the science academy (and especially the medical academy) soon be starved into a weak shadow of its former self where it will barely be heard?
I would suspect that everyone here is. Just in my own area, I see Trump has proposed to cut the NSF budget by 2/3. I don’t see any area of science that isn’t being killed off.
Twice in the past week I’ve found myself in a casual setting hearing people speak as if the USA is being ushered into a new “golden age” of prosperity and “freedom.” In one of those settings several of the people were highly educated, retired professionals including a former bank president, a superior court judge, an insurance company executive, and some retail business owners. (I’m simply making the point that they weren’t high school dropouts drinking beer on a front porch while they lighted firecrackers and throwing them into a barrell.)
The gullibility amazes me. I feel like I’m living in a very frightening Twilight Zone episode.
I recall quite a few years ago reading an editorial in The Economist in which America’s collection of universities was spoken of as the envy of the world. Yes, said the editorialist, there are excellent universities all over the world; but nobody holds a candle to us in terms of the sheer number of high-quality institutions.
That’s something that took a long time to build. And if we tear it down, even temporarily, it will take a long time to build back.
I’ve had to explain to people again and again the economics of tariffs, and I’ve had the most astonishing nonsense shot back at me. I’ve tried to explain to people that the extreme free-trade scenario into which the world settled some years ago used to be the dream of people on the right much more than it was of people on the left. I’m not sure they believe me, any more than they believe me when I say Ronald Reagan was the author of our greatest efforts in immigration “amnesty.” And I’ve had to explain to them that, unlike them, I actually DO import/export work. I actually pay tariffs. I have bank accounts linked both to US and Canadian customs, from which those governments directly withdraw my duties and other taxes and fees. They tell me that the reason we need tariffs on Canadian goods is that Canadian tariffs on ours are so high. I point out to them that I actually pay those Canadian tariffs, as a nonresident importer of goods, and that I know that for most classes of goods the rate is – yes – zero.
But expertise, whether it’s in law or science or taxes, is not in fashion right now.
And I try to explain to people that one can find on Youtube videos of Reagan explaining why tariff wars are so ridiculously stupid and that anyone who knows anything about history should want to use them as carefully limited as possible.
I’m sick and tired of the ol’ “You watch too much CNN/MSNBC” if I try to explain tariffs or even “separation of powers.” But what is scaring me most is that in my area simply posing a question or a NEUTRAL type of comment about this administration doesn’t simply get disagreement in reply. It is angry pushback. It reminds me of what people described in Nazi Germany from around 1933 on. Frankly, I even had a total stranger angrily rebuke me as I left a restaurant during the first Trump administration because the couple had overheard our discussion. (And the wife was just as angry at me as the husband.) Of course, in this state, I know better than to reply, “That was a private conversation and is none of your business” because they were very possibly packing heat and would shoot over the perceived insult. (They had a gun rack in their truck.)
Here’s another example: A friend was saying how agriculture was destroyed by “liberals” because they forcing farmers to not grow crops. I tried to explain that BOTH parties were responsible for this and that Republican Dwight Eisenhower played a crucial role in pushing the Soil Bank program in 1956. But, as usual, he cut me off because I was “clearly wrong.”
By the way, I felt like I had a personal stake in the Soil Bank and “acreage set aside” programs because some of my earliest memories of long hours in the field was cooking in the hot sun as I wasted gasoline and polluted the air—and stirred up so much dust and caused a lot of soil erosion—by having to “disc up” fields every few weeks. That is, one was NOT allowed to plant a soil-building pasture crop on the government mandated acres. That was still considered “farming it”. And one couldn’t let it just grow weeds because there were laws against that. (I knew of farmers who tried to cheat by “accidentally” letting their fence fall into disrepair so their cattle were grazing those acres. But the USDA had inspectors and they checked for such illegal “productive set-aside acres” and fine the farmers heavily.)
Anyway, my experience was much like Puck’s my personal experiences in farming didn’t matter because the tribal narrative says that “liberals” caused these evils.
By the way, I never thought I would see the day when a room full of very patriotic, flag-waving veterans of military service would favor someone who (1) has disrespected Americans warriors at every opportunity, and even called the fallen “suckers” and “losers”, and (2) spoke favorably of a Russian leader with a KGB background, and (3) would blame a smaller nation invaded by Russia for the war. Even with my knowledge of the culture wars, I still can’t fully grasp it.
Speaking of expertise, just as Kim Jong-il had eleven holes in one, Trump keeps announcing his championship wins at various golf courses he owns. “It’s a great honor”, he says.
I have a thick skin—but I feel embarrassed and I wasn’t even there. (As one commentator wrote, “Trump won bigly.”)
Yes, the NSF/science stuff is bad, but the most terrifying thing of the recent days has been the deportation of immigrants to the forced labor camp in El Salvador. The Trump administration sent hundreds of alleged gang members there with zero due process, against the direct order of the courts. Whether or not they were actually gang members is beside the point; this sets a precedent that will allow the government to send quite literally anyone they want to a concentration camp.
Edit: Only time will show if the courts and/or the Democrats put up enough of a fight to reverse this terrifying precedent, but I have almost zero faith that they will, given their utter incompetence so far at stopping any of the Trump administration’s other power grabs.
Although I’d been following US internal politics for about 20 years, I stopped following it the day Trump won the election for his second term – I decided that I needed to disengage for my mental health.
However this has not totally shielded me, as I still follow international news.
On Puck’s topic of tariffs and taxes, I have two stories to relate.
The US government has signaled its intention to treat other countries’ Sales Tax/VAT/GST as a ‘tariff’ – in spite of the fact that such taxes apply equally to imported and locally-produced goods and services, and (ii) in spite of the fact that many US states charge similar sales taxes.
The US Pharmaceutical lobby is complaining to the US Trade Representative about the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, whereby the Australian government subsidises the cost of pharmaceuticals to the Australian public. Apparently their problem is (i) that the Australian government negotiates lower prices for pharmaceuticals covered under the scheme and (ii) that there is a delay in new pharmaceuticals getting scheduled for the scheme. As far as I can ascertain, there is no restriction on Big Pharma charging any price they wish, and/or offering their products immediately, if they don’t wish to participate in this scheme. What they are in effect complaining about is that an Australian government subsidy is administered to maximise benefit to the Australian public, rather than for the benefit of foreign businesses.
Given such ludicrously-distorted views of reality from the US government and Big Business, I don’t see it as particularly surprising that the American public has similarly distorted views.
But then, since Trump’s re-election, I think my expectations have been set so low that it is hard to see any stupid, delusional, or reality-denying behaviour surprising me any more.
Consider how thin-skinned Trump actually is for this to have become a policy. Someone is critical of his admínistration on social media and in their private messages, and this is enough to be denied entry to the country.
What happened to freedom of expression? Where are all the free speech advocates now? @Giltil ?
Meanwhile we have public sycophant-exhibitionist and pretend-psychologist “Dr. Phil” basically rim-jobbing Trump by declaring to his face how impressed he is with how thick-skinned Trump appears to him.
I hear ya. I’m torn. I want to be aware of what’s happening but each morning when I read the news is quite stressful. (However, the worst stress is watching friends go deeper down the rabbit hole of the MAGA crazy-cult. I recently learned that some friends who I thought were just hold-their-nose as they vote what they thought was the lesser of two evils are now “totally in” to the alternate reality universe which is the current White House.)
It would be interesting to know the precise content of this French researcher’s messages so as to be able to make an informed judgement. But on the face of it, this would be a serious attack on free speech which, if proven, I would absolutely condemn.
Note that when the CBP accused the French researcher of producing “hate and conspiracy messages,” it’s a clear sign that we’re indeed dealing with people who want to silence their opponents. Very sad.
In short, yes. I work for a public health software company. So I am most immediately concerned about the litany of public health consequences that are frankly too depressing to enumerate at this time, both here and abroad. One that particularly grieves me is the disruption to PEPFAR, which I had long considered to be a positive legacy of the kind of love and compassion for neighbors that I saw as stemming from George W. Bush’s evangelicalism. I think that is relevant, not because I think you have to be an evangelical or a Christian to have such compassion or be motivated to support such a public health effort, but because some of the support to curtail or shutdown USAID programs like this now comes from that same evangelical community.
In a similar vein, I was reflecting recently on the fact that The Hiding Place was required reading in my Christian school education. What I took away from the book is that someday I might need to be prepared to offer aid to those targeted by an authoritarian regime. So it is disappointing to the say the least to see that my teachers apparently came to a different conclusion.