Despots hate science because science has its own laws that are immutable and don’t bend to the will of tyrants.
The tobacco industry pioneered many of the persuasion techniques we now see deployed by the climate denial establishment.
Similarly, in Stalinist Russia, a particular strain of anti-science took root and caused widespread damage to agriculture.
(Trofim Lysenko) was a proponent of Lamarckism, and rejected Mendelian genetics in favour of his own idiosyncratic, pseudoscientific ideas later termed Lysenkoism.
In 1940, Lysenko became director of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and he used his political influence and power to suppress dissenting opinions and discredit, marginalize, and imprison his critics, elevating his anti-Mendelian theories to state-sanctioned doctrine.[7][8]
Soviet scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute. Hundreds if not thousands of others were imprisoned. Several were sentenced to death as enemies of the state, including the botanist Nikolai Vavilov, whose sentence was commuted to prison.[9] Lysenko’s ideas and practices contributed to the famines that killed millions of Soviet people;[9] the adoption of his methods from 1958 in the People’s Republic of China had similarly calamitous results, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959 to 1961.[9]
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Donald Trump can now do what Stalin, the Tobacco companies, and generations of Republicans only dreamed of.
Trump administration political appointees have taken steps in recent weeks to exert unprecedented influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s flagship medical research publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, multiple federal health officials tell CBS News. The interference included dictating what to cover and withholding studies on the growing bird flu outbreak.
The Trump administration’s moves to control the research published by the agency ends a decades-long streak of independence for the journal, known as the MMWR.
Health officials and experts have long considered the MMWR as the “voice of CDC” and a respected source where federal scientists release research of public health importance. It ranks as among the most-cited health journals in the world.
“The MMWR has lost its autonomy,” one health official told CBS News.
Efforts by Trump officials to control the publication have stalled the release of three studies about bird flu for weeks, as the virus continues spreading through wild birds, poultry farms and cows around the country.
Even before federal employees at the National Weather Service received so-called buyout offers this week, America’s public forecasting agency was suffering its lowest staffing in decades. Now, the NWS — whose mission is to protect lives and property, ensuring Americans have sufficient time to evacuate before a hurricane or tornado strikes — is staring down more cuts and the nomination of an agency leader they are deeply wary of.
Most employees at the Department of Commerce, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, received an email about the so-called federal employee buyout formally known as the “deferred resignation program” — essentially an exit package — on Monday afternoon, CNN previously reported.
And at least one representative from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gained access to NOAA’s IT systems this week, according to three people familiar with the situation, with the goal of sniffing out activity and employees connected to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“They’re searching high and low for DEI,” a source familiar with the situation said.
NOAA referred CNN to the Department of Commerce when asked for comment; Commerce has not yet responded.
Inside the NWS, there are grave fears of what a potential 5-10% cut of staff could mean for their ability to operate weather radar and provide timely and free forecasts for this year’s hurricane season, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.
“The people of the Weather Service are as fine as you’ll get in terms of getting the mission done, but it would be a pretty substantial cut,” the person said. “People are scared. They’ve never had this type of uncertainty really hang over them.”
There are 12 people who work in the National Hurricane Center’s specialist forecasting unit, where staffing levels have been steady over the past decade, according to James Franklin, who served as the hurricane unit’s branch chief and worked there for many years.
“By the end of a season, even with the (12) forecasters there, it’s pretty exhausting,” Franklin told CNN. “There are a lot more storms now than 20 to 30 years ago. Any strain on staff is going to have a negative impact on that product and maybe the forecast itself because you won’t have as much time to think about it as you otherwise would.”