For two decades the Republicans have been making a war on…
Pick the odd one out:
drugs?
terrorists?
science?
The first two are well known. But the third is really their worst We already know the first two are ineffectual and have squandered trillions of dollars. The war on science is a war on knowledge and thinking, They do it because (like our own Tories) they don’t want an electorate that thinks.
But worse this war is likely to slow dramatically advances in science and medicine.
OK, so what is the evidence for this war on science? Please consider:
*Trump’s claims that anthropogenic climate change is “A Chinese Hoax”.
*Trump’s supporting the very, very thoroughly debunked medical fraud that vaccines cause autism.
*Trump withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord.
*Budget proposal to cut The National Institute of Mental Health budget by 30%.
NASA Earth-science missions scrapped — Trump doesn’t want us to even study climate change.
*The Trump administration banned the words “climate change” and “evidence-based” from Federally run websites.
*The CDC was forbidden from using words in their annual budge report: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based”. Changing the language… a cliched, Orwellian suppression of fact.
*Trump’s EPA has banned EPA-funded scientists from serving on advisory boards — but not industry representatives.
*National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was ordered to stop work on a useful and overdue study of the health risks of mountaintop-removal coal mining.
*The Budget proposal to cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the E.P.A. by eighteen per cent or more.
*Trump has yet to appoint a National Science Advisor. In absence of that post being filled, Michael Kratsios, a former political advisor to Peter Thiel, is running the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
*Existing climate data and other information has been removed from many agency websites, including EPA and the Department of Energy.
*The EPA and other science-related agencies have 20% or greater staff cuts under Trump.
The Trump administration has made it more difficult for government scientists to speak publicly about their work, as well as about misconduct within an agency. It has restricted communication with Congress, placed vague gag orders on agency staff, and failed to affirm the ability of scientists to share their expertise publicly.
*Trump and Congress have allowed politics to supersede science by signing an unprecedented 13 congressional resolutions rolling back science-based protections, including safe drinking water standards and safeguards to prevent worker exposure to harmful chemicals.
Not a single Trump appointee to a science-related agency has any scientific credentials. For example, the head of the Department of Energy is Rick Perry. He’s got a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science… maybe as close as Trump got in any of these agencies. Obama’s men had PhDs in Physics. And most of Trumps appointees charged with regulation are industry representatives, not scientists.
Source:
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-believe-the-surface-level-claim-that-Republicans-are-generally-anti-science/answer/Dave-Haynie
