QOTD: "Ignorance Is Strength"

 

Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman writes in his Substack column about the drastic cuts in the budgets for science programs by the moronic Malignant Fascist and his MAGA enablers. In a perceptive observation among many in his column, Dr. Krugman nails why Republicans have an issue with science. An excerpt from a good read:

"Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics.

So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power.

Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto."  (our emphasis)

The crazed anti-intellectualism of the likes of, for example, failed politician Sarah "Winky" Palin and her later counterpart the profoundly ignorant MF have led us to the point where we're losing the competition with countries that are investing strongly in science, medicine and engineering, and who will overtake us in the near future if this course is not reversed.