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Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

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.

Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

science.orgThe Assault On Science Funding Continues

196 reposts437 likes

Paul Topping
@paultopping.bsky.social

I 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.

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

Except as practicing scientists know, a root cause is grant hypercompetition, which this administration is making worse. Are there ways to improve? Yes, and there were efforts to do so. Is this a bad faith justification for privatization? Yes deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/03/book...

deevybee.blogspot.comBook Review: Unreliable: Bias, Fraud, and the Reproducibility Crisis in Biomedical Researchby Csaba Szabo, Columbia University Press, 2025  This is a rollicking good read, written in an informal style, and enlivened by cartoons, wh...
Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

Buckle 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.

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

There are a few other related reasons: 1. They want to consolidate (presidential) power over all govt spending 2. They hate gov’t and want to destroy it (see @bartlettb.bsky.social ), and privatize 3. They think AI will replace science so who cares 4. Anyone w/ a PhD is their political opponent

Mark Histed
@markhisted.org

(See K Rove), and science runs on PhD level experts; they want to crush those careers 5. They want to destroy universities because they are always pro-democracy and oppose autocracy. Many of these overlap with Derek’s summary to one extent or another.

* There Are Bot
@diogeneslamp.bsky.social

Fascists always market themselves as being "cold men, the only ones brave enough to face the facts" (the facts are: they're superior to others) then they shift the arg to center on their feelings & aesthetics. Scientists who are good at proving them wrong with objective facts are their enemies.

Mr French Fries
@mrfrenchfries.bsky.social

The most frustrating part is there are examples of this in former empires across the globe. The cancer mindset of the ‘investor’ CAN not want water set aside for sweat, much blood for white blood cells.