\u201cYet truth is dangerous, and science is a public threat. We must keep it carefully chained and muzzled.\u201d These are the words of Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxley\u2019s Brave New World, a fictional dictator who shackles knowledge to secure power. What was once conceived as dystopia has now found its echo in reality \u2013 in a government that has made the fight against science a central pillar of its grip on power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is currently unfolding under Donald Trump is not a savings program, nor an ideologically driven budget debate \u2013 it is a full-on assault on the foundations of scientific thinking in the United States. The proposed budget for 2026 includes cuts of nearly 40 percent to the National Institutes of Health, 56 percent to the National Science Foundation, and massive reductions to NASA, the CDC, NOAA, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the US Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency \u2013 and virtually every public institution dedicated to research, data analysis, or science-based policymaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a hostile foreign power wanted to sabotage America\u2019s innovative strength and global leadership, it would hardly act differently. But why does a government that sees itself as patriotic, business-friendly, and truth-seeking declare war on science of all things? The answer is complex \u2013 and disturbing. There is no master plan, no coherent strategy. Instead, three currents converge: religious anti-rationalism, authoritarian anti-intellectualism, and a technocratic cynicism that only acknowledges knowledge when it is profitable. First, there is the evangelical right, which has long seen science as a threat to faith. Movements like the \u201cCornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation\u201d condemn environmental research as a green heresy \u2013 a substitute religion that betrays the biblical mandate of dominion. Its founder, E. Calvin Beisner, calls for laws based on the Old Testament \u2013 including corporal punishment for children and the banning of so-called deviant lifestyles. What unites this movement is its will to interpret the world without empiricism \u2013 science is not seen as a tool for understanding, but as a secular instrument of subjugation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other side stand the New Right, shaped by think tanks such as the Claremont Institute. For them, science is part of a global woke administrative apparatus \u2013 a \u201cNGO complex,\u201d as Michael Anton, Trump\u2019s head of policy planning, puts it \u2013 a sort of worldwide cartel that uses facts and expertise to block the will of the people. What they want is a Red Caesar \u2013 a strongman who governs without being held back by arguments or evidence. In this worldview, science is not a corrective but a bastion of liberal modernity that must be destroyed. And finally, there are the libertarian tech billionaires who have allied themselves with authoritarian populism \u2013 not out of conviction, but out of opportunism. For them, science is just another field for private exploitation. Their logic: if artificial intelligence drives the market, public research is no longer needed. Truth, they suggest, lies in profitability. That fundamental research, vaccine development, climate modeling, and cancer studies fall by the wayside is an acceptable cost. Profit replaces method, and whoever pays decides what is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This dangerous mix \u2013 religious dogmatism, anti-democratic ideology, and techno-capitalist arrogance \u2013 now has the American university system in its sights. The conservative base has long viewed universities as liberal strongholds where conservative voices are suppressed. The Trump administration is targeting them where they are vulnerable: funding. A large portion of research \u2013 particularly in medicine \u2013 is funded by the federal government. And it is precisely this funding that is now on the chopping block. Put differently: this administration is willing to sacrifice progress in cancer research to send a political message. It allows talent to flee abroad, laboratories to shut down, careers to collapse, and discoveries to be delayed \u2013 all in the name of waging war on a supposedly woke elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another target is the so-called administrative state \u2013 a term that is hard to define but in right-wing discourse encompasses everything about governance that is invisible yet essential: air safety, food regulation, energy oversight. What cannot be easily cut \u2013 like the military or infrastructure \u2013 remains. What produces long-term benefit \u2013 like climate research, basic biology, or pandemic preparedness \u2013 is eliminated. The long-term stability of democracy is being sacrificed for the short-term triumph of authoritarianism. What we are seeing now are only the immediate consequences: canceled programs, dismissed researchers, dismantled institutions. The long-term effects \u2013 slower medical breakthroughs, poor preparation for environmental disasters, and the erosion of America\u2019s standing in global science \u2013 will not be fully felt for another ten or twenty years. And by then, it may be too late. Congress could act \u2013 but it won\u2019t, as long as Trump and his movement hold the Republican Party hostage. The courts can slow the assault \u2013 but they cannot reverse its course alone. Private foundations can fill some gaps \u2013 but they cannot replace systemic funding. What is needed now is a societal counterforce. Scientists must publicly explain the value of their work. Historians must show what power American universities and publicly funded research have brought to humanity. Civil society must rise \u2013 not only for science, but for a future grounded in truth. Because what today seems like an ideological attack may tomorrow cost lives we could have saved.<\/p>\n
\u201eDoch die Wahrheit ist gef\u00e4hrlich, und Wissenschaft ist eine \u00f6ffentliche Bedrohung. Wir m\u00fcssen sie angekettet und geknebelt halten.\u201c \u2013 So spricht Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxleys Sch\u00f6ne neue Welt, ein literarischer Diktator, der das Wissen fesselt, um die Macht zu sichern. Was einst als Dystopie gedacht war, hat heute ein Echo in der Realit\u00e4t gefunden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dark-america","category-trump-s-world"],"yoast_head":"\n