January 6th trumpers came very close to success. In fact, I could argue that they are succeeding.
There’s a history there.
The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on public health, environmental science, and other issues affecting the quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.
In their new book, Merchants of Doubt, historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway explain how a loose–knit group of high-level scientists, with extensive political connections, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. In seven compelling chapters addressing tobacco, acid rain, the ozone hole, global warming, and DDT, Oreskes and Conway roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how the ideology of free market fundamentalism, aided by a too-compliant media, has skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.
By Chris Mooney - Reviewed by: Alan D Attie - National Library of Medicine
The Republican war on science. 2005. Basic Books.: New York, New York
“In his important and alarming indictment, The Republican war on science, Chris Mooney tells how, beginning in the 1970s, the consensus of the scientific community ran afoul of corporate interests.
To neutralize the influence of academic scientists, corporate-funded “think tanks” and “institutes” proliferated to produce “experts”
who would offer what later became labeled by their Congressional supporters as “sound science” to counter the “junk science” of university-based scientists and expert panels of scientific organizations.
The Office of Technology Assessment, a highly respected arm of Congress, issued more than 750 reports reflecting the consensus of the scientific community on a wide range of issues. Under pressure from corporate lobbyists, it was abolished by the Gingrich revolution of 1995. In its place, we now have a “science court” in which politicians listen to “experts” of opposing views and then draw their conclusions. …”
The Republican war on science takes a drastic turn for the worse
By Steve Benen - Feb. 10, 2025
Two decades after “The Republican War on Science” was published, the broader crisis has reached a level that hardly seemed possible in the recent past.
When University of Virginia professor Chris Mooney wrote “The Republican War on Science” 20 years ago, he had plenty of evidence to work with. The bestselling book, written partway through the Bush/Cheney era, documented a GOP that manipulated research findings, ignored scientific facts and evidence, and even embraced pseudoscience as part of a culture war crusade.
It was difficult to imagine, in 2005, how the party’s hostility toward science could get much worse.
Two decades later, the Bush/Cheney era is starting to look like the halcyon days compared with the Trump/Vance era. NBC News reported: …
The Triumph of Doubt (Dark Money and the Science of Deception, by David Michaels)
How Right-Wing Propaganda Works
- Kat Abughazaleh - Current Affairs - 27 July 2024
An expert in Fox News’ brainwashing techniques explains how the right-wing propaganda apparatus convinces viewers to believe lies and nonsense.
‘Fox News brain’: meet the families torn apart by toxic cable news
Luke O’Neil - The Guardian - April 12, 2019
Fox News built a wall between Luke O’Neil and his mother, and he’s just one of many families split by its viral ideology
The unique, damaging role Fox News plays in American media
Philip Bump, April 4, 2022, Washington Post
“… Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News, as “the most dangerous man in the world. …”
Fourteen Propaganda Techniques Fox “News” Uses to Brainwash Americans
By Dr. Cynthia Boaz , TRUTHOUT, July 2, 2011
The past dictators you named were in a very different situation from a president selecting administration officials.
Considering the recent onslaught on government services, are you still of that opinion?
You do know that all these “savings” will be translated into tax-cuts for the most wealthy. Mark my words, the worst is yet to come.
“Onslaught” is the wrong word.
Then you are not watching the news. Musk and his IT gang is busily breaking down the entire US government. The onslaught has just begun.
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Why is “Onslaught” a wrong word for what’s happening and the destruction of systems American’s depend on. For the enrich of the already too rich idiots at the top?
Where can this lead but to real life dystopia?
Someone explain the plan?
Because it’s a loaded term; not an accurate description of what is happening.
Seems like a good word to me, CC, and W4U.
“Even with an onslaught of policy developments and fears of sticky inflation…” (from the recent selections section of the provided definition.)
DOGE is using a classic “flood the zone” propaganda strategy.
I choose the word very carefully and it is an accurate description of what is happening today . It is a violent attack on critical government services, without a remedy for the “firing” of competent and needed oversight appointments.
It is an incompetent sledge-hammer approach, instead of a competent surgical approach to budget-cutting and fiscal waste managent. Why do you think the courts are being overwhelmed with valid litigation of unlawful job termination?
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Which critical government services?
The only EMT in Yosemite.
Firefighters.
IRS personnel in tax time.
The FDA.
People preventing famines.
Some people are being fired but not enough to shut down operations of agencies like the FDA.
Even if the service is not shut down, it is put in such a state it cannot work properly !!!
It is like insurance.
It is an unneeded costly expense, up to the time you need it.
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It’s the vandal’s approach - the one intended to inflict as much pain as possible.
It’s what MAGA is all about, burn baby burn.
The Germans didn’t take Meine Kampf seriously either.
American’s never took the GOP Brainwashing play book seriously either. Even when it was spelled out in Project 2025, we slept through it.
Live and learn.
Again, and again, and again until it’s all burned down.
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Not firefighters – forestry service employees who sometimes help firefighters.
Agencies that can afford to trim the fat.
And who are useful as such. They help because they are needed, because they are on the site when fire fighters are not.
And, beside, they are not useless in their main functions.
While we can disagree about that, it’s about more.
“Musk has been working on the launch of an online payment system known as X Money, expected to debut later this year, which could make CFPB one of X’s regulators.”
There are so many things wrong with this trump/musk presidency that republicans know are wrong and choose to ignore.
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