Date: 2025-07-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028500
COMMENTARY
PAUL KRUGMAN
MAGA’s War on Science ... Why do these people
believe that ignorance is strength?
PAUL KRUGMAN
MAGA’s War on Science ... Why do these people
believe that ignorance is strength?
Original article: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/magas-war-on-science
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Ignorance is bliss ... 'tis folly to be wise
This was the tag line to a radio program that my father and an uncle listened to when I was about 6 years old! For its time it was fairly bawdy, but in the process said a lot that needed saying!
Almost 80 years later I am living in the United States of America where the President and his followers have embraced ignorance like never before!
The economic and social damage that Donald Trump is doing to the country is difficult to appreciate. Sadly, when the damage becomes visible, it will be very difficult, if not impossible to fix.
A really sad state of affairs ... with no easy solution!
Another month has passed ... it is now May 19th 2025 ... and the Trump saga continues.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Donald Trump and his MAGA enablers are a clear and present danger to the United States and what the USA has stood for since its independence.
This past week Donald Trump made official visits to three countries in the Middle East ... Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Donald Trump also had a meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria, in Riyadh.
Almost everything that Trump and his fellow travellers did on this trip was self serving and likely illegal under conventional American law. The talk during this Trump trip highlighted the huge amounts of money involved, the value of all of this to Trump and the Trump family and the blatant defiance of conventional interpretations of American and International Law.
The gift of a Boeing 747 aircraft to Trump to replace the existing AirForceOne got a lot of press coverage including the fact that it is likely such a 'gift' is illegal under normally accepted American law! But since when did that stop Trump doing anything!
Just before Trump made his trip to the Middle East, he had a meeting with the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada. The part of the meeting that was televised live was amusing in that Trump dominated the conversation saying a lot about absolutely nothing. Meanwhile the few words that Prime Minister Mark Carney got to say were to the point and very powerful.
I knew a lot more about Canada than the United States when I was in my 20s and I am now getting a refressher course as Trump sets himself and the United States up for an epic failure. Canada is way stronger relative to the United States now in 2025 than in the early 1960s. Trump's view that countries like Canada have been taking advantage of the United States is pure BS. It is the other way round! As soon as Canada reorients its economy to optimise for Canada, the USA will find itself with very difficult situations that will not fix easily ... and maybe not at all!
Four months into the 2nd Trump Administration and the Trump family has increased their wealth substantially. Meanwhile nothing good of significance has happened for the American populace in general. For the people hoping to gain entry and achieve legal status in the United States, Trump and his enablers have created a living hell!
Well done, America!
Peter Burgess
Written by Paul Krugman
May 02, 2025
Why do these people believe that ignorance is strength?
Hey, no more of that!
A late, brief post today. I just gave my presentation at a conference in Rotterdam, Robin is up soon, so just two notes.
First, about the employment report. I’ve seen some descriptions of this as a post-tariff report. C’mon, people. Job numbers for a given month are actually for the pay period including the 12th of the month. So these numbers are for early April, reflecting the number of jobs at most a few days after Trump’s Liberation Day (ugh) announcement of massive tariffs. They tell us nothing — positive or negative — about the tariffs’ impact.
A larger point. Many of us have long noted the growing hostility of the G.O.P. to science. But my experience was that many people viewed those raising the alarm — like Chris Mooney, who wrote a 2005 book titled The Republican War on Science — as over the top scaremongers.
But at this point, can we acknowledge that MAGA is indeed waging war on science? Not just “woke” stuff, but science in general.
Nature tells us that National Science Foundation funds have been frozen, and that even if some money eventually flows again, funding will be heavily politicized:
- Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature.
- The policy prevents the NSF, one of the world’s biggest supporters of basic research, from awarding new research grants and from supplying allotted funds for existing grants, such as those that receive yearly increments of money. The email does not provide a reason for the freeze and says that it will last “until further notice”.
- Earlier this week, NSF leadership also introduced a new policy directing staff members to screen grant proposals for “topics or activities that may not be in alignment with agency priorities”. Proposals judged not “in alignment” must be returned to the applicants by NSF employees. The policy has not been made public but was described in documents seen by Nature.
Why should those who aren’t scientists care? In the 21st century, science isn’t some esoteric intellectual affair. It’s the foundation of social and economic progress. And no, we can’t expect the private sector to fill the gap left by loss of government support. Basic research is a public good: it generates real benefits, but those benefits can’t be monetized because everyone can make use of the knowledge gained. So government support is the only way to sustain science. And that support is being rapidly ended.
But why do our new rulers want to destroy science in America? Sadly, the answer is obvious: Science has a tendency to tell you things you may not want to hear. Medical research may tell you that vaccines work and don’t cause autism. Energy research may tell wind power works and doesn’t massacre birds.
And one thing we know about MAGA types is that they are determined to hold on to their prejudices. If science conflicts with those prejudices, they don’t want to know, and they don’t want anyone else to know either. So they really want to destroy science.
Again, this isn’t hyperbole, and it’s not about the long run. American science is being gutted as you read this.
Ignorance is your new best friend