Why Do They Have It In For Biomedical Research?
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-d...
Why Do They Have It In For Biomedical Research?
Here is a brief follow-up on the question TPM Reader MA addresses...
I'd add to your list that since absolutely none of his supporters can even comprehend a simple news article about that research being cut, he will never have to worry about any backlash from the right, and less money for research means more money for himself
You missed out retribution for making tRump look bad on COVID response. He articulated his own lack of intellect and was made to look like the idiot he is by science and scientists. Unforgivable as far as he's concerned.
Because they think that scientists are anti-MAGA. That is the answer for everything they are against, no matter the substance.
They are trying to kill us. Not hyperbole.
One of my hawt taeks is that modern conservative Evangelical Christianity - the GOP base - is a sadistic murder-suicide death cult.
Apostates everywhere. Humanity is wicked and deserves punishment, hence "it's about the cruelty".
So medical research & advancement is anathema to their core beliefs.
A lot of the MAGA followers also don’t understand the difference between “Big Pharma”, which is driven by profit margins & government research, which is driven by the public interests.
Adding RFK Jr. to the mix with his anti-medicine/eugenics philosophy didn’t help things
That last factor — long (reaction to) COVID — must be pretty important. It may sound absurd, as most biomedical research doesn’t go anywhere near COVID or even COVID vaccines, the original bogeyman.
But reaction to COVID gave some people their cause, and every cause needs an enemy.
As a physicist, I'd tell a bus driver that my lab works on better batteries and lighter, stronger materials. I'd tell a nurse that we use cutting-edge tech to investigate drug proteins, that a colleague is building sensors for artificial retinas. Both that we are helping make fusion a reality.
Big Tech: “AI will cure all cancer”
AI: “I just put 7 fingers on the guy in that image I just generated”
I always assume that people opposed to medical research are below the age of sixty and have long lived ancestors.
Thank you from a medical professional who never made close to $400,000. BTW No regrets about my career choice.
I think eugenics plays a big role, as well. Not just the RFK Jr & manosphere crackpots, but also coming from the billionaire Silicon Valley neoreactionary set. Elon doesn't care if AI addresses disease research; he thinks his genes are superior, his many offspring will colonize space, & he'll burn
the planet or let a bunch of the serfs die or whatever so long as he obtains the unfettered power & resources to use AI to get his spawn to Mars. He's aligned with longtermism & other philosophies that don't care about the welfare of humans now. Thiel, Andreessen, etc probably think sick people
Science! Is! Bad! Amiright?
Any science, anywhere.
I agree, arrogant tech billionaires think they can replace all the scientists with AI so have no fear of losing any knowledge in these cuts. And They all want to destroy higher education that does not parrot their conspiracy theories.
I’ve been thinking about all this too. I think what you outlined gets to the heart of it given the players involved.
It’s insane, especially given the stakes, but then so are Elon Musk and Russ Vought.
"So even if you're not enchanted by the prospect of cosmic discovery, the prospect of dying poor may be what it takes to understand the role of this adventure in the future of the natural world in which we live." ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
Because Trumpers are clueless.
These people are so twisted, they are against ANY form of truth. Science is truth. And maga folk call it “woke”, they are degenerates.
I think 99% of this is option 1 - biomedical research $$ funds universities. I didn’t follow govt/university employee same as 500k/year tech bro logic. Black box nonsense correlation machines (some call this AI or LLMs) equivalent to research scientists is crazy talk.
"There is immense potential political power in the defense and expansion of biomedical research. But the stakeholders simply don’t have any experience using it:..."
If only there was an organized group whose profession is exerting political power when opportunities arise.
bsky.app/profile/stev...2/ Which gets to the Democrats. Yes cancer et al research polls 80/20, yet Dems to date have done nothing with this issue. While defending due process & rule of law is arguably more important, letting the GOP skate on the impossible to defend complete shutdown of med research is malpractice.
I think it's gatekeeping. The recent developments in biomedical research have the potential to open all sorts of new doors, but the change is happening too fast for them to manage it. Better to shut everything down and come back to specific areas when they have more control over what gets funded.
The right wing mind abhors solutions to problems. It views them as sabotaging the natural hierarchy of the world in which everyone must fight a never ending series of battles in which only the strong/deserving triumph. Or worse, replacing that hierarchy with one of solution providers and receivers.
I spent 30 years there. There was always one conservative crank on campus. Everybody knew who it was. Everyone else had a master's degree and voted Democrat, because they're smart.
And they will look at the data and make their decision. They're not going to listen to Squishy-fat tell them bullshit.
Neo-Social Darwinism
because they are planning on another plague
but a very specific type of plague
maybe they have a virus engineered to kill certain populations that billionaires decide are wasteful, unnecessary and /or hated.
Perhaps because they are a death cult? Unless it is a fetus of course.
Simple, we disprove 'god' daily..
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That hits close to home.
Because the Bible says we deserve suffering because some guy named Adam sinned against sky daddy 6,000 years ago.
Disease is cheaper than bullets.
Maybe they are concerned their under handed tricks may be uncovered - 🤮🤬😡
I'd have gone with "Jew doctors" first, AI and Covid distantly behind.
(This may be overly reductive but when Nazis are doing something to a field stereotyped as being Jewish-dominated, well, if the jackboots fit...)
As a physicist, I'd tell a bus driver that my lab works on better batteries and lighter, stronger materials. I'd tell a nurse that we use cutting-edge tech to investigate drug proteins, that a colleague is building sensors for artificial retinas. Both that we are helping make fusion a reality.
