Comment by lanstin
2 days ago
Where truth is treated with scorn, scientists and other geeky professions have to scurry into the shadowy corners; where the wealthy rule over the rest due to the confusion of wealth with virtue and truth; where the best instincts of humanity, for curiosity, exploration, compassion, and rationality are mocked and cruelty, disdain for intelligence, disdain really for anyone not like the cookie cutter mainstream really, are lifted up at the cost of all groups that can't or won't fit in.
Very dramatic, but funding scientific studies is no antidote to groupthink, authoritarianism, and cruelty towards the non-conforming, in case you missed the last 5 years.
There's a pretty clear causal chain between the abuse of public trust and social influence from educational and scientific institutions in the last decade or so and the anti-intellectualism we're witnessing today, abuse which was and is driven by the same hubris you demonstrate by conflating intellectualism with All That Is Good. And needless to say since I am posting on HN, but I say that as an intellectualist.
You are blaming the cruelty of the homophobes and racists on the hubris of the smart people? Not blaming the victims exactly, but certainly not holding citizens responsible for their civic contributions.