Tuesday’s New York Times led with a 2,500-word screed by science reporter William Broad. “Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science” took off from that headline and became quickly even more laughable, taking us back 400 years to the Inquisition. The prominent story was even illustrated with a painting of astronomer Galileo’s 1633 church trial for heresy for insisting the Earth moves around the sun.
"The war on science began four centuries ago when the Roman Catholic Church outlawed books that reimagined the heavens. Subsequent regimes shot or jailed thousands of scientists," Broad boomed before continuing his screed:
Today, in such places as China and Hungary, a less fearsome type of strongman relies on budget cuts, intimidation and high-tech surveillance to cow scientists into submission.
Then there is President Trump, who voters last year decisively returned to the White House. His blitz on science stands out because America’s labs and their discoveries powered the nation’s rise in the last century and now foster its global influence.
Just last week, Mr. Trump fired the newly confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her lawyers said the move spoke to “the silencing of experts and the dangerous politicization of science.”
There was no admission that the CDC spent the COVID era politicizing science, that its own "experts" gave out flawed and confused advice, and that the Biden administration squelched dissent.
Broad compared Trump to Hitler and Stalin while denying he was making the parallel:
Few if any analysts see Mr. Trump as a Stalin, who crushed science, or even as a direct analog to this era’s strongmen leaders. But his assault on researchers and their institutions is so deep that historians and other experts see similarities to the playbook employed by autocratic regimes to curb science.
For instance, despots over the ages devised a lopsided way of funding science that punished blue-sky thinkers and promoted gadget makers. Mr. Trump’s science policies, experts say, follow that approach. He hails Silicon Valley’s wizards of tech but undermines the basic research that thrives on free thought and sows the seeds of not only Nobel Prizes but trillion-dollar industries.
“Despots want science that has practical results,” said Paul R. Josephson, an emeritus professor of history at Colby College and author of a book on totalitarian science. “They’re afraid that basic knowledge will expose their false claims.”
The quote in bold above sounded like a joke: Trump wants science with practical results. Do you know who else wanted science with practical results? Hitler!
After noting the religious persecution of early astronomers, Broad returned to Hitler comparisons:
Upon taking power in 1933, Hitler redefined German science to include the idea that Aryans represent the master race. “If science cannot do without Jews,” he quipped, “we will have to do without science.” Hundreds of Jewish scientists were dismissed, and many fled the country.
Under the subhead “The New Authoritarians,” Broad suggested ending taxpayer funding for science projects was just a nicer version of a firing squad:
In this century, a new kind of ruler arose. Gone were the gulags and the firing squads. The new autocrats, forsaking military garb for designer suits, relied on subtle threats, budget cuts and high-tech surveillance to curb science.
After allowing a libertarian scholar to defend the cutbacks, Broad wondered how Trump’s supporters could be so blind to the “authoritarian parallels” -- one that only Broad and left-wing history professors seem to see:
Critics see Mr. Trump’s backers either as blind to the ubiquity of the authoritarian parallels and playbook or as trying to give the White House political cover.
In a recent essay, Dr. Josephson of Colby College cast Mr. Trump’s acts as brazenly totalitarian. He cited the firing of thousands of scientists, the support of anti-vaccine propaganda, and the elevation of unqualified officials to science management.
Among those fired scientists: Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, a hysterical critic of Trump who posed for public photos wearing a leather pentagram harness and downplayed the sexually transmitted disease Monkeypox for liberal (libertine?) reasons. Perhaps no great loss to public health?
