Standing Up for Scientocracy

Said the wise man to Ithiel,
the leech has two daughters:
“Give, give.”

 

Agur was telling his two friends, Ithiel and Ucal, about things that never say “Enough!” (Proverbs 30:15-17). The first example was the blood-sucking leech. He wasn’t delivering a science lecture on the biology of leeches, but wanted to use it as a metaphor for ungrateful children who mock their parents, presumably good parents who had provided for them from conception to adulthood. He could have been talking about scientists. They suck the blood of taxpayers and always demand more. “Give, give!” they scream.

Scientists rally in US cities to protest Trump cuts (Phys.org, 10 March 2025). Phys.org is on the side of the leeches. It couldn’t care less about the body politic trying to conserve its blood. But what if the blood runs dry?

Since Trump returned to the White House, his government has cut federal research funding, withdrawn from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, and sought to dismiss hundreds of federal workers working on health and climate research.

In response, researchers, doctors, students, engineers and elected officials took to the streets in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin to vent their fury at what they see as an unprecedented attack on science.

“I have never been so angry,” said Jesse Heitner, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who joined more than 1,000 people demonstrating in the US capital.

Attack on science? The Trump administration is on a campaign to fight waste, fraud, and abuse. The World Health Organization is a corrupt entity run by a communist that failed its major test to stop the Covid pandemic. The Paris Climate Agreement was punishing America but not China and India. Burdened by a $32 trillion budget debt, the US government is on a campaign to cut waste across the board and save itself. A government going bankrupt would take these angry scientists down with it.

But you can’t argue with leeches. They never have enough.

Thousands join ‘Stand Up for Science’ rallies across the US (New Scientist, 7 March 2025). Is anyone surprised that the only voices heard in Big Science and Big Science Media (the usual suspects in the Cartel) all have TDS? (Trump Derangement Syndrome). “Researchers and other advocates for science gathered at Stand Up for Science rallies around the US and the world to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to scientific research.” Don’t dare stop the flow of taxpayer blood. Give, give!

The protest was one of at least 30 “Stand Up for Science” rallies in cities across the US; more than 150 events were expected worldwide. Researchers also walked out of laboratories as part of the protest.

Well then, Trump could respond, “You’re fired.” They’re not doing their job if they’re protesting outside the lab. Taxpayers don’t owe scientists a salary; much less do they owe any worker walking off the job.

Scientists say Trump cuts threaten climate research, public safety (Phys.org, 10 March 2025). None of the doomsday scenarios that “climate research” has warned about for 60 years have come to pass. This makes them false prophets. Time to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse in all government agencies, isn’t it? True science makes predictions that come true. Taxpayers owe nothing to false prophets.

Science at a crossroads: Dispatches from Friday’s ‘Stand Up for Science’ rallies across the US (Live Science, 7 March 2025). Look at Colette Delawalla, one of the spokes-entities (we don’t know her preferred pronouns) at the “Stand Up for Science” rallies:

Delawalla is the lead organizer of Stand Up for Science, a grassroots movement with three main policy goals: to end political interference in science, to secure science funding, and to defend diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in science.

Haven’t we been warning readers that Big Science is a leftist cabal? (14 Oct 2010). Attention, Colette: if it’s DEI, it’s not science; if it’s science, it’s not DEI. One’s skin color has nothing to do with the search for the truth about nature and following the evidence where it leads.

‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts (Nature, 7 March 2025). The biggest foghorn for the Big Science Cartel, Nature, is naturally taking the side of the angry leeches.

The mood was defiant at many of the rallies, where chants of “Scientists will not be silenced”, “Facts over fear” and “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” were heard.

Peer review. Huh. That antiquated institution is in trouble (19 Oct 2022, 9 July 2016) and some scientists think it needs to be junked (27 June 2024). Nature‘s quintet of scientocratic reporters uses name-dropping in its campaign:

Quoting musician Bob Marley, Rush Holt Jr, former chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , told the crowd in Trenton, New Jersey, “get up, stand up”.

Update March 11: A newsletter from the AAAS, the American twin of Nature, urges action against the budget cuts. It’s all about funding. AAAS president Sudip S. Parikh explains his role preserving the right of leeches to suck American taxpayer blood whether or not it includes waste, fraud, or abuse.

AAAS is not standing idly by. Over the past several weeks, we have ramped up our efforts in Washington, DC, with direct engagement with policymakers and decision-makers, advocating for science in congressional testimonies, through increased public appearances, and in the media….

And we are doubling down at the state and local levels. We are urging our members and the AAAS community to reach out to their members of Congress in their districts and providing resources to help them tell their personal stories and to make their voices heard.

We have never worked harder, and we will not let up.

Big Science is going to get its taxpayer blood by any and all means necessary. Stand up for scientism. Stand up for scientocracy. Give, baby, give!

This is so unnecessary. Leeches don’t have to bleed taxpayers dry. They can suck blood from each other, or donate their own blood. There are plenty of rich leftists/globalists out there. Elon Musk, the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), currently busy at work to identify waste and fraud in government, built his cutting-edge companies by earning his way up to become the richest man in the world. He’s donating his time because he cares about the future of America if it doesn’t reduce its debt soon.

Historical advances in science and technology were funded by wealthy benefactors like the Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller. Many major universities have billions of dollars in endowments. Invest some of that in your preferred science projects! Why must scientists shove their greedy noses up to the government sow that is already running dry? On top of that, conservatives are pointing out that these same universities are getting federal funds each year! It’s the taxpayers who should be out on the streets with placards saying, “Stop the bloodsucking leeches in Big Science!”

Some science projects will help humanity (like Dr James Tour‘s) and some can be justified for the potential to increase national prestige. Some are costly, like fusion reactor research and space exploration. But many are not. How many millions of dollars does it take to observe crawfish on a treadmill? Go to PetSmart and buy a cheap treadmill, get a stopwatch, and hunt your own crawdads from the crick. Some of the greatest discoveries of all were made by citizen scientists like James Joule who funded his own experiments using simple homemade devices. How much money does it take for a geologist to buy a pick-hammer at a hardware store and drive to a site for field work?

I helped a couple of geologists a few years ago, paid for the gas to get us to the site, and flew my drone for them to collect data and used my own camera for photographs they needed. No taxpayer blood was taken.

The sense of entitlement shown in these news articles rankles taxpayers who are paying for the Cartel’s gimme list only to find out that much of it is spent on frivolous projects like “transgender mice” and wasteful bureaucratic overhead. Not a few projects, on top of that, are geared to promote leftist and globalist causes that middle Americans would object to, and would be outraged to learn about: DEI, LGBTQ, transgenderism, and abortion among them.

I don’t remember Nature or Science ever complaining about Democrat politicians, because Democrats tend to give Big Science everything it asks for without accountability. But Trump and Elon Musk come with a chainsaw to cut out the deadwood from the science tree, and they are up in arms. What happens when the proverbial goose dies, or the fat sow’s milk runs dry?

A word to the scientocrats screaming at Trump: instead of taking time off work to shout chants, hold placards and sing silly songs, how about these alternatives:

• • Take a pill for relief from TDS.
  • Show some gratitude for the public largess you have been getting.
  • Show some patriotism for the great country that has enabled you to choose science as a career.
  • Hold town halls with ordinary Americans and explain the value of your projects to them.
  • Make a case (if you can) for how observing a crawfish on a treadmill enhances American prestige.
  • Eliminate all bribery and corruption between lobbyists and politicians.
  • Explore possibilities for non-taxpayer funding.
  • Show how open you are to alternatives to Darwinism and materialism.
  • Find something nice to say about Trump’s actions or those of Republicans. Prove you are not all Democrats.
  • Be completely transparent with the taxpayers about how your money is spent.
  • Fess up to the alarming number of frauds, retractions, and non-reproducible results.
  • Support Open Science for all taxpayer-funded research.
  • Do your own DOGE work before Elon Musk comes for you.
  • If some staffers wasting tax money on DEI/LGBTQ/transgender projects have to be let go, bid them bon voyage and let them go find real work.
  • Distance yourselves from the antisemitic protests going on at some campuses like Columbia.
  • Report to the public on cuts you have made for efficiency and merit.
  • Report to the public regularly on science projects that are helping them.
  • …. more?

If you have more suggestions for healing the rift between scientocrats and taxpayers, add them in a comment.