Unfortunately, as Professor Krugman points out, the Republican leadership won't put a stop to this destruction. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has extensively studied oligarchic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
And don't forget the role that Religious Fundamentalism plays in the GOP's anti-science crusade. The Religious Right comprises roughly 50% of the entire GOP voter base, and as such is arguably their most important constituency. And like the Fossil Fuel industry, they are intensely hostile to any form of science that contradicts their beliefs, or threatens their profits.
In the United States, organized Christian communities have moved dramatically in the last 60 years from non-political to highly politicized as the born-again evangelical churches have displaced Methodists, Congrationalists, etc. Southern Baptists initially broke away, and now by far the more popular part of that communion. Even the Catholic Church in the US has broken into factions with increasing right wing representation advocating for renunciation of Pope John's Vatican II reforms. The right wing of the Christian community rejects Science in its entirety as a heretical attempt to deny God's creation of the World, human's pre-eminence in that creation, and the power of prayer in appealing to an intercessionary power who can of course do whatever He wants. That paternalistic view of God, is mimiced in their view of how a home should be run, as well as a country. I highly recommend the book "Jesus and John Wayne" .
Yet the ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and others including Bishop Budde speak out and the press ignores the mainstream faith leaders. The reason Bishop Budde was covered recently is because they could not ignore her speaking in public directly to the President in the National Cathedral. But when she spoke out against his posing in front of St Johns with an upside down Bible, her statement was for the most part ignored. The "mainstream" secular media behaves as if the right wing evangelicals and others are the only so called Christians out there. Insulting and stupid.
We just had a President who is deeply religious, and as a Catholic was only the second President of his denomination, to which 1/3 of American Christians belong. (And, by all available evidence, he was immeasurably more pious than the first). His religiosity was every bit as pronounced as that of Jimmy Carter's or W's.
And nobody in the press ever felt like talking about it. Not even Ross f---ing Douthat, who is extremely Catholic himself and self-allegedly anti-Trump.
Curl up and suck their thumbs, probably; then blame it on DEI, Wokeness, The Democrats, and Joe Biden (It could be 50 years from now, and they’d still be blaming all their woes on Joe Biden!). Maybe even throw in Jewish Space Lasers, to spice it up some.
"Even the Catholic Church in the US has broken into factions with increasing right wing representation advocating for renunciation of Pope John's Vatican II reforms."
I haven't been Catholic for almost 30 years, but I still have enough respect for the religion to say that anybody who doesn't respect Papal infallibility can GTFO. Is the Pope actually infallible, in like, a metaphysical way? Of course not. But it's a core principle of the church, which in its roots is basically a political organization, and like our government should not have its institutions ripped away without good cause.
Now, whether Catholicism is actually useful as an institution, or whether it needs further reform, I'll leave to the reader, but if you're gonna play a game then follow the damn rules. The Church is a hierarchy. We established 500 years ago what you do if you don't like what the Pope says: you can go start your own churches, and we'll have wars about it for 100 years.
Considering that in the 21st century, the wars are long over and those other churches are already THERE, with exactly the reactionary politics right wing Catholics are looking for, with all their best political buddies going to them every Sunday, I'm left thinking the Santorum/Coney-Barrett right wing Catholic weirdos just like Latin a lot. Jesuits ftw.
Why is there no serious and concerted effort to address the moral issue? It is not moral to lie. It is immoral to dishonestly deny overwhelming evidence.
Well put, I believe that is exactly how they “think”. I think the worst liars and destructive force are their imbecilic fundamentalist preachers, who are trained to mislead their “flocks” into believing in perverted misinterpretations of the Bible. That’s one man’s opinion.
You underestimate the ability of the true believer to not recognize a lie that's obvious to someone relying on objective observation. They are raised to not believe anyone that their tribe does not recognize as an authority.
Yes, but this is exactly why I believe that the focus needs to be on the honesty issue, the morality issue, and not on the facts themselves. Facts don’t seem to matter much to a lot of people. But people don’t like to be lied to. And they don’t like to think of themselves as liars. Maybe we should not even provide the facts at all, just attack the professional liars,…attack the corrupt motivations of those who promulgate disinformation, and provide lists of credible sources of facts for when the recipient “is ready to stop being lied to or participate in misinformation.” We need to explicitly state how NORMAL and how difficult it can be for anyone to acknowledge an uncomfortable fact, but doing that difficult thing is what an honest person does. THIS is the issue, not the actual crime rate, or atmospheric CO2 level, or any number of other facts. The messaging focus has been all wrong and has squeamishly avoided discussing the immorality of “alternative facts.”
They're not "true believers" as much as "FOX News believers". FOX and RW media poisons their hearts with drivel like 'the war on Christmas'--a nonsensical lets-trigger-Christians-by-pretending-they're-being-persecuted meme 100% invented by FOX. It's like their "Dems want to take away your beef burgers" meme that they've also pushed for years.
Evangelicals have been brainwashed by RW media to believe Dems are evil baby-killing Satan worshippers; while Trump is an anointed-by-God savior. While the opposite is probably closer to the actual truth.
I am begging you to watch Fox, or Newsmax, etc for just 5 minutes a day. It is far far worse than "the war on Christmas". It is a constant firehose of lies and over half the country believes them and passes them on. If we don't know the lies we can't do anything about it.
"Intuitionist" = biblical truth...continual struggle between rationality and Scopes-trial anti-science, with "the truthers" gaining the upper hand under Project 2025.
i didn't state ANYTHING about what is to bee done ....obviously, there is MUCH TO BEE DONE, now, that the bud has bloomed; whereas, if U$ had nipped it in the bud, this horrid fascist movement would bee DONE.
I totally agree with Paul’s assessments. Especially as it applies to the internet and devices that give us and reinforces whatever we want to believe. But this extends also to those on the left. When I dare propose an alternative of some issue readily accepted by the generally speaking liberal side, there is no point trying to reach anyone. They are as locked into their worlds as the right side is. I’m a centrist and I’m for all intent, non partisan.
So agree that the problems raised in this superb article are unfortunately not the province only of the right. It is amazing to me how many on what is called the left are “intuitionists” rather than “rationalists,” and completely unwilling, just as one example, to entertain the information brought to us by evolutionary biology.
I believe that left and right labels are out of date and useless misdirections used by the aristocracy to divide and have us fight against each other. It has been an extremely useful tactic in the past two centuries. Horseshoe Theory or a continuum with democracy at one end and authoritarianism/autocracy is a much better model to use IMO.
Just curious. Are those descriptions of people who don’t or do believe in overwhelming evidence as “intuitionists” or “rationalists” nice ways of saying “dishonest” and “ honest”? Why are the innumerable “explanations” of why many people believe that which is provably false not just excuses for bad behavior?
These white supremacist nutjobs think they know everything. Being anti science is just another way of enforcing their will upon the rest of us. Scientists tend to be liberals because they arent idiots, so naturally all scientists are now enemies of the fascist state.
The very process of science - the enormously difficult effort to learn, accurately, new things about the physical world - is the opposite of people who think they know it all. It’s almost funny when scientists are accused of being “know it alls” because their world would end instantly if everything was known. The process of science is the daily, hourly, every instant expression that we don’t know everything.
I think I would argue that scientists will be swayed more and more by their funding sources and less likely to behave as nobly as you describe. When fact based science gives way to greed and avarice, as the venerable scientific sponsors of research like NIH or agencies like NOAA or NASA serving the public good are repressed and circumscribed by Trump's narcissism
and anti-science and Musk's willingness to rip us all off.
I disagree with what Daniel is claiming. Sure, some small fraction of scientists may be unethical and chasing the money but it’s usually the scientific community which uncovers the problems, such as fudged data, non-reproducibility of results, etc. To imply that faithlessness to provable fact is widespread in the scientific community is Fox “News” conspiracy theory batshit paranoid bullshit.
I guess I never believed that herbicides and pesticides were safe and their safety was bought and paid for. I am not batshit crazy. I guess I have to say fuck off. There are plenty of scientists who can endorse nuclear power plants along active faults or near marine canyons susceptible to tsunami risks. There are failures of the scientific community like lead pipes carrying drinking water in Michigan. Ever hear of environmental racism? How long were scientists in the employ of big tobacco hiding its lethality? Sure RFK jr is bat shit crazy…and the assaults against Dr. Fauci are appalling. Go back to your debate society dick head.
You’re making the mistake of conflating policy and science. To address one of your specific examples: Scientists never suggested the chemical changes that resulted in the lead leeching in Flint! They recommended against it, and the local political leaders opted to use a cheaper approach that was specifically recommended against by scientists. And it was scientists that uncovered what was happening in Flint.
Regarding the safety of herbicides and pesticides, it is convenient to forget that those were originally being compared to science provides the data, the government sets the policy, deciding what counts as “safe levels.”
Think about it: if government scientists were generally that easy to sway with a payout, there wouldn’t be such a quick purge to fire them first.
Yes, another fine column but are there really no examples of modern nations turning their backs on science? Science, including medical and public health science, is used very selectively by governments. The UK, for example, did well with COVID vaccines, but did many other very stupid things, such as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which increased infection rates and therefore also deaths. When the adverse effects were identified (by an economist, by the way: see https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/132/643/1200/6382847) the UK Treasury trotted out all kinds of nonsense in an attempt to rubbish the findings.
Musk showed up at the CDC yesterday to start to purge and fire scientists. First they froze data in the middle of respiratory season and as bird flu increases now this illegal task force proceeds to decimate CDC, NOAA— dystopian insanity.
Dystopian indeed, Jan! And the GOP won't rein Musk in. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has studied oligarcic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
Your country is pretty comfy watching shootouts with kids ….where is all the courage when it comes to this?? All those congress persons could not just pick up that creep in the beige sweater at the Education department and move him away from the door??? Throw him aside and break down the doors if required!! For God’s sake!! Just do it! Move them aside!! Where are the security guards?? Thank goodness for the State Attorneys General!!
Heather Cox Richardson explains the link perfectly: The policies the GOP want to implement are wildly unpopular and will have catastrophic effects for ordinary people, so they are happy to have Musk do the work of destroying effective government for them. They keep their hands seemingly clean while Musk runs roughshod over the constitution and laws and human lives. Trump provides distraction. You can’t talk about the GOP today without talking about Musk. Whether they can rein him in if it seems necessary is uncertain.
I don't think there will be any GOP "plans" to rein Musk in. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has studies oligarcic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
What Congress is unwilling to do for Trump, Musk can accomplish on his own, the destruction of American society in every district, their districts. A 10x crisis looms. The pandemic, the opiod crisis, the credit/subprime/mortgage crisis, climate crisis, are nothing compared to what could happen, maybe all at once, or sequential. Chops theory is no way to govern America.
I agree but I also think it’s important to understand that a lot of “normal Republicans” started us on the science denialism path with the help of a media that wasn’t willing to hold their feet to the fire. The science denialism was abetted by some Republicans’ support for the religious right’s for creationism but far more damaging was the tobacco industry’s multi-million dollar assault on the scientific evidence for the dangers of smoking. I wasn’t surprised that fundamentalists rejected evolution but I was gobsmacked to see legitimate scientists prostitute themselves to the tobacco industry in exchange for money. (Boy was I naive in those days!)
The tobacco industry hired the powerful PR firm Hill & Knowlton to lead their propaganda campaign. The company came up with the idea of using “science” to make their argument.
Hill & Knowlton was also hired by the first Bush administration for $10 million to sell us on the First Gulf War. That is how we got the false testimony to Congress about Iraqi soldiers taking Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and leaving them to die. That testimony inflamed the public and increased support for the war but the young woman who testified as an eyewitness had not even been in Kuwait. She was living in DC with her family because her father was the Kuwait ambassador to the US. The media was too busy cheerleading the war to investigate her accusations.
Yes! These techniques have been used by corporations for decades, dating back at least to the DDT revelations. Paying scientists to "raise doubts" in order to give corporations, and their politicians, cover. See the book:
I remember Mobil's constant attacks on climate science in widely read magazines. This had nothing to do with science, and everything to do with their bottom line. They knew the truth, and spent money to promote their lies anyway. I wouldn't own a share of E. Mobil if you gave it to me free of charge. They were promoting the destruction of Planet Earth, and now we have a loud mouth climate denier endangering what is left of our ecosystem.
(Please don’t take the bait; some posters are here just to disrupt the flow of information. You will see how this is happening if you continue to read further down.)
As a kid I had chronic asthmatic bronchitis and one notable bout of pneumonia. In addition to consuming gallons of Isuprel I vividly recall when I was about 6 being taken to the ER by my dad in the middle of the night because he and my mom were that concerned about my breathing. I am firmly convinced that had I been born even in 1928 instead of 1958 I wouldn't have survived childhood. That Trump is putting my grandchildren at risk by nominating an anti-science nutcase like RFK Jr. infuriates me beyond measure. Who knew there was a constituency (other than the Kremlin) for make Americans sicken and die?
Oh, the GOP will never get rid of Medicare. They will just convert it to Medicare Disadvantage. Traditional Medicare cuts out the profitable benefits manager; everything in Medicare law is covered (where’s the profit in that?). Traditional Medicare allows patients to see any doctor that accepts Medicare (where’s the control and profit in that)? So, once all Medicare is reduced to Medicare Disadvantage, we will have fewer doctors, fewer clinics, fewer tests, fewer procedures/services. People like me, with complex, chronic diseases are not profitable and we will likely die. But think of the Medicare Oligarchs who will be created!
Funny that you mention the Kremlin, because I honestly believe Trump is an FSB (KGB) thrall. And has likely been one since the 1990's.
I wouldn't be surprised if his recent aggressive alienation of two of our staunchest allies wasn't Putin's idea. Ditto for his proposal to occupy Gaza and expel its 2m inhabitants, that has both Putin and Xi howling with glee at how it's horrifying the entire UN membership.
Hi, in the early 1960s I had experimental open heart surgery at Le Bonne Huere Hospital in Memphis. I went on to study biology and work underwater as a diver, and if I had been born after Reagan I would not have been able to get that surgery in spite of the fact it's no longer in patient surgery. The problem I had can be fixed by going through an artery under an arm.
Before the new procedure was tried I was proof of concept.
An uncle of mine had the same problems and it developed into multiple heart problems and he never was able to work, though that would have probably meant playing classical piano.
The Professor is right that this started with Reagan and it's just snowballed, I just don't understand groups that supported him before the election when even a smattering of knowledge about this guy in charge now reveals he's a lousy liar, extremely ignorant of facts, and he is a person who thinks hatred and killing are acceptable forms of government. Gaza is only one example of the ignorance displayed by the GOP and Trump.
Top scientists and researchers can and will leave for Europe and Asia if the playbook keeps heading down the road the GOP chose to drive.
If I had been born in 1928 and endured what I have, I would've lost my left hand at age 2 and probably have died of viral pneumonia at age 30. I owe the use of my left hand to the advances in burn care during WW II and my pneumonia survival to modern antibiotics and diagnostic techniques.
As usual, Dr. K, you're exactly right. I hope and pray we sane people can survive the next 4 years, but the anti science moves by the current administration and that weirdo muskrat are already causing needless suffering around the world.
The country’s that faired the best during the pandemic were also the ones that followed our CDC management plans. The CDC is /was a crown jewel of scientific achievement and demonstrates what is good about America, that economic achievement is about improving the lives of its citizens. The CDC represents our humanity. What would the world be like today if not for Director Foege and the eradication of small pox from the Earth?
With the cuts to budgets, and more looming, we are all at risk. There is currently an Ebola and a Mahlberg outbreak in Africa. Without CDC and the WHO, there is no contract tracing going on. We simply do not know if there is an Ebola infected person flying out of the Congo or Uganda to the US or intermediate country.
What Elon and doge is doing is essentially putting all of our health at risk and this has economic consequences as well as social. RFK Jr doesn’t have a clue about how to keep us in the world safe from infectious disease. It is a travesty. I guess we’ll have to learn the hard way.
Short: countries that followed what they were taught by our CDC fared much better during the pandemic in all aspects. Less spread, less disease, less crowding of hospitals, less deaths and better, economic outcomes, mask, and social distancing where a psychological reminder I wear a mask and I see your mask and I keep my distance such a simple thing and really helped the economies of these countries.
This is an example of two Econ 101 principles: "rational" self interest and "scarcity".
The way Trump and Musk and their ilk see it, the fewer people in the world using resources, the more resources are available to them - the presumed survivors.
No guarantee whatsoever. Recall King MAGA himself got COVID - and he was given all the best treatments available to anyone. I suspect they're counting on that working every time. They might not get so lucky next time around.
Thanks to Professor Krugman for sharing his views based on science and facts and reality.
It is not easy to find news which reports facts and reality. One has to make a conscious effort to find it.
Reality is going to win out but it might take a long time. When it does, somehow or other, Donald and MAGA will just blame Biden and the Democrats (liberals). FOX and the MAGA faithful will agree with him.
The US is a weak, failing state, though the fall, though precipitous is historical terms, will take some months to finally collapse on its own ineptitude. The president's pomposity doesn't make him appear strong, and his fighting on all fronts -even with allies like Canada, of all nations - will further diminish US power and influence. RFK, Bondi, Hesgeth, Patel, Gabbard, Noem - the lot of them -are historically, monumentally, cosmically unsuited to their jobs, unless their job might be dismantling the state. But the puzzle in all of this is, first, how easy it has been for a half-witted president to almost single-handedly turn the nation in (a very unfunny) farce, and second, how compliant and passive the citizenry has been with it. There does appear that, for Americans, there was no line in the sand. Democracy has two edges; those in power who push, and the citizenry who push back. There has been none of the latter, so I guess you guys are good with it.
He could never have accomplished all this single handedly. Supreme Court "justices", Republicans in Congress, in the courts, state and local governments, evangelical churches, greedy billionaires like Musk and groups like the Proud Boys made all the difference. Oh, and Fox News, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh etc. Trump has had a lot of help.
The GOP would be in the absolute minority if it weren't for the non-stop propaganda machine that is FOX News and RW media, pumping out a steady stream of mis-/dis-information. That conservative voters implicitly believe. And then vote on. We're talking tabloid drivel made out to be actual news: "Democrats abort (murder babies after birth." "The Haitians are eating the dogs and cats."
Do you know the history of why Fox (so-called) News was started? Because Roger Ailes was Nixon's media man. When Nixon got caught for Watergate, and had to step down, Ailes vowed to make a right-wing news channel, so no republican would ever have to resign again. Years later he got Rupert Murdoch to fund it with Reagan expediting Murdoch's citizenship so he could own the network.
And let's not forget the groundwork laid by the "Reagan Revolution". We still hadn't healed from that festering wound yet by the time His Orange MAGA Majesty was [strikeout] coronated [/strikeout] inaugurated the first time.
I entered government service the year Reagan was inaugurated and will never forget how quickly his anti-government rhetoric caught on. Upon meeting with people at parties or other events, they naturally asked what I did for a living. The sneers quickly taught me to say, “oh, I’m a statistician “ which abruptly ended the conversation, but on a more amicable note.
I was always proud of my government service. But I always hated Reagan and began avoiding people who denigrated those of us who worked to assist vulnerable populations. Maybe I became “woke” way back then?
I think some of the rationalists are tired of warning the intuitionists and maybe are collectively saying, "OK. fcuck around and find out." Maybe the path back to reality is a long path through misery.
There's already so much misery; it just isn't being covered because there's no one who cares to, or able to, do so. And it is far easier to get into this mess than to get out of it; it's the price of apathy. It could end up being Yugoslavia. Or it could end up in a world war. The US and Russia and a few rogue states like Hungary (it'll be gone in a minute) against the ROW.
I’m so tired of Trump apologists at the comment section of the WSJ saying Trump was justified with his 25% tariff because of fentanyl and migrants from Canada. There’s a small amount of both. But they don’t include fentanyl and migrants going from the US to Canada.
They won’t hear any criticism of Trump. It’s caused a lot of ill will in Canada. People are buying goods from elsewhere, ditto vacations.
There is no “citizenry”—society has long since been shattered into warring factions by the rise of ideological media (first talk radio, then social media). Half the people think the other half are all monsters. The American tendency toward individual isolation started long ago but has become supercharged by the advent of the smartphone, an incredibly powerful interactive computer that has created an epidemic of mental illness—paranoia is the new normal.
Please don’t discount the role of Thiel as well. He enabled the moral coreless, unqualified JD Vance to the edge of the presidency. Once Trump is no longer useful, who is waiting in the wings?
A lot of blame pointed towards the right and ‘rightly’ deserved. However, IMO, the cycle will not change direction until feckless Dems and cafe latte liberals admit their contribution to this national destabilization and change their ways.
What we did wrong is not have multiple full-time propaganda TV & Radio networks, that spew a daily torrent of mis- and dis-information. Led by FOX News, the GOP has an insurmountable lead in shaping public opinion. It's a major handicap.
Or it could partly be that Democrats participated for the past 4 decades with Republicans in hollowing out the working class from the middle class. And when they complained, we condescended to them. And when we did decide to try to help, it was with government give-aways instead of dignified jobs. And so, when a demagogue came along and harnessed that propaganda machine, he was able to con them into believing he could save them.
Democrats need to take a hard look at themselves. And THEN go back to blaming Republicans. We've been doing these things in the wrong order for a very long time and it isn't working. But, by all means keep on doing it if you think you're going to get a different result.
Also, I want to comment on the media, or more precisely our relationship to it. Most Democrat voters, like their Republican counterparts, relate to the media as if it is entertainment. Sure, Dems could be viewed as more "sophisticated" about their media consumption, but it is still just low brow entertainment vs higher brow entertainment. And sure, Dems are more 'serious' about their news to some degree, I will grant. But, really at the end of the day, Trump was able to harness even the liberal and centrist media. The way he drove our outrage, and still does, is a feature of these media outlets which he absolutely welcomes. And he can do it because of our relationship with media.
Which brings me to another problem with the Dems. We were so convinced he was a moron, we failed to appreciate how he was deftly manipulating our intelligent selves. He is academically an idiot, but he is a genius at manipulation. I still remember Bill Clinton warning us about his intelligence during the campaign of 2016, and I also remember finding his statements incomprehensible to me then. Now I understand.
So, no, we don't need further devolution into media as entertainment. I think simple ways of thinking will always be more entertaining, and liberal views require nuance. I don't believe they can be expressed as well in the ways that have worked for the right. Nope. I believe we ourselves, however, need to become better at understanding that politics isn't here for our entertainment, truly dig into the things that matter, truly understand the common ground we have with persuadable Trump voters about what motivates them, and use that as part of the plan to change our way of relating to them. We need to make it clear that we actually do care about people like them, and we'll hold our leadership accountable to care about them too. Everyone understands when someone genuinely cares - no propaganda necessary.
So far, we project the idea we think they are morons and couldn't give a flying fcuck about them because they deserve what they get due to being morons.
Totally agree. But, there is too much disagreement about what exactly contributed. As for me, I hold that the shift of the working class across all demographics to Trump holds the key to the answer, and this is despite my wish it was my own pet agendas. It seems to me many of my fellow liberals simply see their own pet agendas as the reason. A lot like the intuitionists, I'd have to say.
I’m a liberal and will always be a liberal. However, I believe many liberals are blind to our own issues out of an arrogance of our superiority. Also, many have not kept being involved in the work of democracy, except voting and supporting their candidate. Democracy is work.
Ignorance is a many-partied thing where one cannot learn if they believe they already know. That applies to all of us no matter what our political views.
I live by the conclusion of Socrates that he knew nothing and I include what I’m saying here.
It's always worth remembering that Republicans believe the only problem with healthcare is the fact that YOU get too much of it. This has now been coupled with the fact that the conservative movement as a whole has turned into a death cult.
The "conservative" view is that if you're poor and get sick, you should just die. As a matter of fact, if you're poor you should just die whether you get sick or not. Again, it's all about "rational" self interest and "scarcity". The more of us die, the more resources available for the kleptocrats.
Not quite. They do indeed want the poor to die. And will help them to do so; like the Red states did with Covid, killing off indigent elderly nursing home populations. But not the 10% with good money. They need them to keep spending. Until or unless they become poor.
‘There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...[It is] nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge' (Isaac Asimov, 1980)
Thank you, Dr. Krugman, among all the horrible things Reagan did to science one that really infuriated me was to stop the United States from adopting the metric system, because he couldn't adjust his Alzheimer's riddled brain to understand a system based on ten. I was teaching science then to 8th graders - I simply told them 'you don't need equivalences' you just need to learn a newer easier way of measuring, The 13 to 15 year olds in my class had NO difficulty learning metric.
So here we are, us and Liberia (and I'm not sure about Liberia anymore) out of 195 distinct countries on Planet Earth to cling to an outdated inaccurate system of measurement. If and when we get out Country - or at least part of it back I hope we finally join the rest of the world.
This is such an excellent piece! Despite the current dire state of affairs, just reading your on-point intelligent analysis / perspective, and being in the company of educated, thoughtful people (my fellow readers) is oddly very comforting. Grateful.
The tragedy is that the US checks and balances have allowed a person who is neither elected nor a government employee to destroy American institutions. It looks as if the Congress and judiciary and thousands of civil servants are in a some kind of stupor. It is hard to find a similar example, except to call a spade a spade and say that Musk has done a coup d’etas. Looking from outside the US, it looks like a horror movie. What happened to the US?
They've been in that stupor since 1980. Hypnotized by a guy in a white cowboy hat riding into town on a white hobby horse proclaiming "Make America Great Again" and "it's morning in America".
Personally, I believe the US is in fact decadent in the sense that we came to believe that serious news was just another form of entertainment. For so long, we never felt the dire consequences that can come from being politically stupid, so it seemed all like a WWF match. We're just in the midst of learning that modern demagogues entertain the people to come to power (more than in earlier times).
Suggestion: rename your DEI program a Merit-Based Compliance program. Tell the Trump people it is there to insure no race or gender biases are present in your company.
Prof Krugman, this is you at your finest. This is the perfect polemic against stupidity.
Unfortunately, as Professor Krugman points out, the Republican leadership won't put a stop to this destruction. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has extensively studied oligarchic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-logic-of-destruction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
And don't forget the role that Religious Fundamentalism plays in the GOP's anti-science crusade. The Religious Right comprises roughly 50% of the entire GOP voter base, and as such is arguably their most important constituency. And like the Fossil Fuel industry, they are intensely hostile to any form of science that contradicts their beliefs, or threatens their profits.
In the United States, organized Christian communities have moved dramatically in the last 60 years from non-political to highly politicized as the born-again evangelical churches have displaced Methodists, Congrationalists, etc. Southern Baptists initially broke away, and now by far the more popular part of that communion. Even the Catholic Church in the US has broken into factions with increasing right wing representation advocating for renunciation of Pope John's Vatican II reforms. The right wing of the Christian community rejects Science in its entirety as a heretical attempt to deny God's creation of the World, human's pre-eminence in that creation, and the power of prayer in appealing to an intercessionary power who can of course do whatever He wants. That paternalistic view of God, is mimiced in their view of how a home should be run, as well as a country. I highly recommend the book "Jesus and John Wayne" .
Yet the ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and others including Bishop Budde speak out and the press ignores the mainstream faith leaders. The reason Bishop Budde was covered recently is because they could not ignore her speaking in public directly to the President in the National Cathedral. But when she spoke out against his posing in front of St Johns with an upside down Bible, her statement was for the most part ignored. The "mainstream" secular media behaves as if the right wing evangelicals and others are the only so called Christians out there. Insulting and stupid.
We just had a President who is deeply religious, and as a Catholic was only the second President of his denomination, to which 1/3 of American Christians belong. (And, by all available evidence, he was immeasurably more pious than the first). His religiosity was every bit as pronounced as that of Jimmy Carter's or W's.
And nobody in the press ever felt like talking about it. Not even Ross f---ing Douthat, who is extremely Catholic himself and self-allegedly anti-Trump.
Douchehat is a performative christian, he has his priorities completely backwards.
What are they going to do/say if we are suddenly invaded by E.T.'s?
As the saying goes, the most convincing argument that there is intelligent life out there is than none of it has tried to contact us.
Curl up and suck their thumbs, probably; then blame it on DEI, Wokeness, The Democrats, and Joe Biden (It could be 50 years from now, and they’d still be blaming all their woes on Joe Biden!). Maybe even throw in Jewish Space Lasers, to spice it up some.
Did you see their badge? Jeff Tiedrich posts it sometimes, they're "Mazel-Tough".
That it's a 'necessary weevil'?
LOL. Save our bolls!
Correction please. If God, as you say, can do whatever he wants, why does he choose to let SATAN run rampant.
I’m going to guess, because God wanted to, and he can do whatever he wants? You’re welcome.
"Even the Catholic Church in the US has broken into factions with increasing right wing representation advocating for renunciation of Pope John's Vatican II reforms."
I haven't been Catholic for almost 30 years, but I still have enough respect for the religion to say that anybody who doesn't respect Papal infallibility can GTFO. Is the Pope actually infallible, in like, a metaphysical way? Of course not. But it's a core principle of the church, which in its roots is basically a political organization, and like our government should not have its institutions ripped away without good cause.
Now, whether Catholicism is actually useful as an institution, or whether it needs further reform, I'll leave to the reader, but if you're gonna play a game then follow the damn rules. The Church is a hierarchy. We established 500 years ago what you do if you don't like what the Pope says: you can go start your own churches, and we'll have wars about it for 100 years.
Considering that in the 21st century, the wars are long over and those other churches are already THERE, with exactly the reactionary politics right wing Catholics are looking for, with all their best political buddies going to them every Sunday, I'm left thinking the Santorum/Coney-Barrett right wing Catholic weirdos just like Latin a lot. Jesuits ftw.
Why is there no serious and concerted effort to address the moral issue? It is not moral to lie. It is immoral to dishonestly deny overwhelming evidence.
Religious cranks consider morality relative. If you're a member of the tribe, you're moral. If you're not a member, you're immoral.
If you're one of them, you can be a pedophile and you're A Ok.
If you're not, you're a devil worshiper just for breathing.
Even if you're an atheist and worship nothing. No, especially if you're an atheist and worship nothing.
Well put, I believe that is exactly how they “think”. I think the worst liars and destructive force are their imbecilic fundamentalist preachers, who are trained to mislead their “flocks” into believing in perverted misinterpretations of the Bible. That’s one man’s opinion.
I would add that for these preachers have no interest in salvation. It's all about the almighty dollar.
Ken Wilbur has written rather brilliantly about the differences between "Churchianity" and "Christianity". The former is...well, you get it already.
I concur. I've actually read their book.
You underestimate the ability of the true believer to not recognize a lie that's obvious to someone relying on objective observation. They are raised to not believe anyone that their tribe does not recognize as an authority.
Yes, but this is exactly why I believe that the focus needs to be on the honesty issue, the morality issue, and not on the facts themselves. Facts don’t seem to matter much to a lot of people. But people don’t like to be lied to. And they don’t like to think of themselves as liars. Maybe we should not even provide the facts at all, just attack the professional liars,…attack the corrupt motivations of those who promulgate disinformation, and provide lists of credible sources of facts for when the recipient “is ready to stop being lied to or participate in misinformation.” We need to explicitly state how NORMAL and how difficult it can be for anyone to acknowledge an uncomfortable fact, but doing that difficult thing is what an honest person does. THIS is the issue, not the actual crime rate, or atmospheric CO2 level, or any number of other facts. The messaging focus has been all wrong and has squeamishly avoided discussing the immorality of “alternative facts.”
They're not "true believers" as much as "FOX News believers". FOX and RW media poisons their hearts with drivel like 'the war on Christmas'--a nonsensical lets-trigger-Christians-by-pretending-they're-being-persecuted meme 100% invented by FOX. It's like their "Dems want to take away your beef burgers" meme that they've also pushed for years.
Evangelicals have been brainwashed by RW media to believe Dems are evil baby-killing Satan worshippers; while Trump is an anointed-by-God savior. While the opposite is probably closer to the actual truth.
I am begging you to watch Fox, or Newsmax, etc for just 5 minutes a day. It is far far worse than "the war on Christmas". It is a constant firehose of lies and over half the country believes them and passes them on. If we don't know the lies we can't do anything about it.
"Intuitionist" = biblical truth...continual struggle between rationality and Scopes-trial anti-science, with "the truthers" gaining the upper hand under Project 2025.
Ways to resist.. *Place homemade "Stop Trump" stickers every where.
*Invert postage stamps
*Write on Canadian, Mexican social media pages messages of supporting them regarding trump's tariffs,
*Call FCC and complain about maga media,
*Remove maga media from supermarket newsstands,
*Get involved in fox maga media surveys, distorts the numbers,
*Order free items from mags, i.e., The Heritage Society - then return to sender. Cross out you return address.
*Read about the White Rose
*Shopping is voting, shop morally.
* Call maga advertisers
PLEASE add to the list
ACT
Timothy Snyder should be president and Anne Applebaum Vice President (or vice versa.)
the bud has bloomed, buddy
I disagree. There's much that can still be done. As Professor Snyder points out in the above article. Also, Professor Robert Reich agrees that is much still to be done: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/more-on-what-you-can-do?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
It took Hitler "one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes. The minutes, as we will see, mattered."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/hitler-germany-constitution-authoritarianism/681233/
i didn't state ANYTHING about what is to bee done ....obviously, there is MUCH TO BEE DONE, now, that the bud has bloomed; whereas, if U$ had nipped it in the bud, this horrid fascist movement would bee DONE.
Agree. I've seen profound stupidity on the left.
Ways to resist.. *Place homemade "Stop Trump" stickers every where.
*Invert postage stamps
*Write on Canadian, Mexican social media pages messages of supporting them regarding trump's tariffs,
*Call FCC and complain about maga media,
*Remove maga media from supermarket newsstands,
*Get involved in fox maga media surveys, distorts the numbers,
*Order free items from mags, i.e., The Heritage Society - then return to sender. Cross out you return address.
*Read about the White Rose
*Shopping is voting, shop morally.
* Call maga advertisers
PLEASE add to the list
ACT
The buds are either withered or past bloom now. There is no nipping that will happen.
I disagree. There's much that can still be done. As Professor Snyder points out in the above article. Also, Professor Robert Reich agrees that is much still to be done: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/more-on-what-you-can-do?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
It took Hitler "one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes. The minutes, as we will see, mattered."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/hitler-germany-constitution-authoritarianism/681233/
I totally agree with Paul’s assessments. Especially as it applies to the internet and devices that give us and reinforces whatever we want to believe. But this extends also to those on the left. When I dare propose an alternative of some issue readily accepted by the generally speaking liberal side, there is no point trying to reach anyone. They are as locked into their worlds as the right side is. I’m a centrist and I’m for all intent, non partisan.
So agree that the problems raised in this superb article are unfortunately not the province only of the right. It is amazing to me how many on what is called the left are “intuitionists” rather than “rationalists,” and completely unwilling, just as one example, to entertain the information brought to us by evolutionary biology.
I believe that left and right labels are out of date and useless misdirections used by the aristocracy to divide and have us fight against each other. It has been an extremely useful tactic in the past two centuries. Horseshoe Theory or a continuum with democracy at one end and authoritarianism/autocracy is a much better model to use IMO.
Very well said, and I agree with your alternative ways of viewing this.
Just curious. Are those descriptions of people who don’t or do believe in overwhelming evidence as “intuitionists” or “rationalists” nice ways of saying “dishonest” and “ honest”? Why are the innumerable “explanations” of why many people believe that which is provably false not just excuses for bad behavior?
Ways to resist.. *Place homemade "Stop Trump" stickers every where.
*Invert postage stamps
*Write on Canadian, Mexican social media pages messages of supporting them regarding trump's tariffs,
*Call FCC and complain about maga media,
*Remove maga media from supermarket newsstands,
*Get involved in fox maga media surveys, distorts the numbers,
*Order free items from mags, i.e., The Heritage Society - then return to sender. Cross out you return address.
*Read about the White Rose
*Shopping is voting, shop morally.
* Call maga advertisers
PLEASE add to the list
ACT
These white supremacist nutjobs think they know everything. Being anti science is just another way of enforcing their will upon the rest of us. Scientists tend to be liberals because they arent idiots, so naturally all scientists are now enemies of the fascist state.
The very process of science - the enormously difficult effort to learn, accurately, new things about the physical world - is the opposite of people who think they know it all. It’s almost funny when scientists are accused of being “know it alls” because their world would end instantly if everything was known. The process of science is the daily, hourly, every instant expression that we don’t know everything.
Trump is the upper left peak on the Dunning-Kruger curve.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WtyJ5KDXMAGrm9ni6
I think I would argue that scientists will be swayed more and more by their funding sources and less likely to behave as nobly as you describe. When fact based science gives way to greed and avarice, as the venerable scientific sponsors of research like NIH or agencies like NOAA or NASA serving the public good are repressed and circumscribed by Trump's narcissism
and anti-science and Musk's willingness to rip us all off.
I disagree with what Daniel is claiming. Sure, some small fraction of scientists may be unethical and chasing the money but it’s usually the scientific community which uncovers the problems, such as fudged data, non-reproducibility of results, etc. To imply that faithlessness to provable fact is widespread in the scientific community is Fox “News” conspiracy theory batshit paranoid bullshit.
I guess I never believed that herbicides and pesticides were safe and their safety was bought and paid for. I am not batshit crazy. I guess I have to say fuck off. There are plenty of scientists who can endorse nuclear power plants along active faults or near marine canyons susceptible to tsunami risks. There are failures of the scientific community like lead pipes carrying drinking water in Michigan. Ever hear of environmental racism? How long were scientists in the employ of big tobacco hiding its lethality? Sure RFK jr is bat shit crazy…and the assaults against Dr. Fauci are appalling. Go back to your debate society dick head.
You’re making the mistake of conflating policy and science. To address one of your specific examples: Scientists never suggested the chemical changes that resulted in the lead leeching in Flint! They recommended against it, and the local political leaders opted to use a cheaper approach that was specifically recommended against by scientists. And it was scientists that uncovered what was happening in Flint.
Regarding the safety of herbicides and pesticides, it is convenient to forget that those were originally being compared to science provides the data, the government sets the policy, deciding what counts as “safe levels.”
Think about it: if government scientists were generally that easy to sway with a payout, there wouldn’t be such a quick purge to fire them first.
I totally agree, David!
Yes, another fine column but are there really no examples of modern nations turning their backs on science? Science, including medical and public health science, is used very selectively by governments. The UK, for example, did well with COVID vaccines, but did many other very stupid things, such as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which increased infection rates and therefore also deaths. When the adverse effects were identified (by an economist, by the way: see https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/132/643/1200/6382847) the UK Treasury trotted out all kinds of nonsense in an attempt to rubbish the findings.
I wholeheartedly agree, David. And once again, the musical coda is absolute perfection.
Musk showed up at the CDC yesterday to start to purge and fire scientists. First they froze data in the middle of respiratory season and as bird flu increases now this illegal task force proceeds to decimate CDC, NOAA— dystopian insanity.
Purge. Privatize. Pardon. (Rinse and repeat)
Dystopian indeed, Jan! And the GOP won't rein Musk in. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has studied oligarcic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-logic-of-destruction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
oligarchic *
Of course, the first thing to be purged was rule of law. This is now the land of the lawless.
the rule of law for them, but not for their perceived enemies.
Horrifying
Yup.
Your country is pretty comfy watching shootouts with kids ….where is all the courage when it comes to this?? All those congress persons could not just pick up that creep in the beige sweater at the Education department and move him away from the door??? Throw him aside and break down the doors if required!! For God’s sake!! Just do it! Move them aside!! Where are the security guards?? Thank goodness for the State Attorneys General!!
Heather Cox Richardson explains the link perfectly: The policies the GOP want to implement are wildly unpopular and will have catastrophic effects for ordinary people, so they are happy to have Musk do the work of destroying effective government for them. They keep their hands seemingly clean while Musk runs roughshod over the constitution and laws and human lives. Trump provides distraction. You can’t talk about the GOP today without talking about Musk. Whether they can rein him in if it seems necessary is uncertain.
I don't think there will be any GOP "plans" to rein Musk in. Professor Timothy Snyder (Yale) has studies oligarcic authoritarian regimes and makes the compelling observation that destruction IS the point. We're seeing a Kleptocracy in the making, unless we nip it in the bud...
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-logic-of-destruction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
Snyder is spot on sadly
oligarchic*
What Congress is unwilling to do for Trump, Musk can accomplish on his own, the destruction of American society in every district, their districts. A 10x crisis looms. The pandemic, the opiod crisis, the credit/subprime/mortgage crisis, climate crisis, are nothing compared to what could happen, maybe all at once, or sequential. Chops theory is no way to govern America.
I assume autocorrect gave you “chops” theory when you meant chaos.
Ways to resist.. *Place homemade "Stop Trump" stickers every where.
*Invert postage stamps
*Write on Canadian, Mexican social media pages messages of supporting them regarding trump's tariffs,
*Call FCC and complain about maga media,
*Remove maga media from supermarket newsstands,
*Get involved in fox maga media surveys, distorts the numbers,
*Order free items from mags, i.e., The Heritage Society - then return to sender. Cross out you return address.
*Read about the White Rose
*Shopping is voting, shop morally.
* Call maga advertisers
PLEASE add to the list
ACT
Rose: not uncertain. Unlikely.
Good points.
Truth to that, Musk is a clear and present, and future threat to our National Security right now.
And other countries!
No but he’s been the person actively trashing the government right now.
I agree but I also think it’s important to understand that a lot of “normal Republicans” started us on the science denialism path with the help of a media that wasn’t willing to hold their feet to the fire. The science denialism was abetted by some Republicans’ support for the religious right’s for creationism but far more damaging was the tobacco industry’s multi-million dollar assault on the scientific evidence for the dangers of smoking. I wasn’t surprised that fundamentalists rejected evolution but I was gobsmacked to see legitimate scientists prostitute themselves to the tobacco industry in exchange for money. (Boy was I naive in those days!)
The tobacco industry hired the powerful PR firm Hill & Knowlton to lead their propaganda campaign. The company came up with the idea of using “science” to make their argument.
https://www.tobaccotactics.org/article/hill-knowlton/
Fossil fuel companies then hired Hill & Knowlton to promote climate change denialism using the same “science” tactics to make the case.
https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/scientists-call-cop27-pr-firm-hillknowlton-drop-fossil-fuel-clients
Hill & Knowlton was also hired by the first Bush administration for $10 million to sell us on the First Gulf War. That is how we got the false testimony to Congress about Iraqi soldiers taking Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and leaving them to die. That testimony inflamed the public and increased support for the war but the young woman who testified as an eyewitness had not even been in Kuwait. She was living in DC with her family because her father was the Kuwait ambassador to the US. The media was too busy cheerleading the war to investigate her accusations.
https://merip.org/1992/07/the-news-industry/
Yes! These techniques have been used by corporations for decades, dating back at least to the DDT revelations. Paying scientists to "raise doubts" in order to give corporations, and their politicians, cover. See the book:
Merchants of Doubt - Wikipedia https://search.app/rr8YHSu6Qz1aqiyXA
I remember Mobil's constant attacks on climate science in widely read magazines. This had nothing to do with science, and everything to do with their bottom line. They knew the truth, and spent money to promote their lies anyway. I wouldn't own a share of E. Mobil if you gave it to me free of charge. They were promoting the destruction of Planet Earth, and now we have a loud mouth climate denier endangering what is left of our ecosystem.
Theodora: excellent post! This reminder of past events really adds to the discussion - and to our current crisis!
They are two cheeks of the same arse.
(Please don’t take the bait; some posters are here just to disrupt the flow of information. You will see how this is happening if you continue to read further down.)
Don't worry, I am well versed in dealing with these silly chaps.
He's a pretty clear and present danger.
they are two cheeks of the same arse.
That's me being polite by the way. There are other words I could use to describe him. With any luck he will meet the end deserving of all fascists.
The man did nazi salutes behind the presidential seal. If you’re defending him then it makes it clear to the rest of us what you are.
but true!
Because he's the perfect henchman.
Nor did the racism begin with Musk. He just jacked it up exponentially with the help of the Vice President and other rich influential Afrikaners.
As a kid I had chronic asthmatic bronchitis and one notable bout of pneumonia. In addition to consuming gallons of Isuprel I vividly recall when I was about 6 being taken to the ER by my dad in the middle of the night because he and my mom were that concerned about my breathing. I am firmly convinced that had I been born even in 1928 instead of 1958 I wouldn't have survived childhood. That Trump is putting my grandchildren at risk by nominating an anti-science nutcase like RFK Jr. infuriates me beyond measure. Who knew there was a constituency (other than the Kremlin) for make Americans sicken and die?
Not just children...
If Musk guts Medicare, the US healthcare system will implode.
Most hospitals have zero chance of survival without Medicare income.
Oh, the GOP will never get rid of Medicare. They will just convert it to Medicare Disadvantage. Traditional Medicare cuts out the profitable benefits manager; everything in Medicare law is covered (where’s the profit in that?). Traditional Medicare allows patients to see any doctor that accepts Medicare (where’s the control and profit in that)? So, once all Medicare is reduced to Medicare Disadvantage, we will have fewer doctors, fewer clinics, fewer tests, fewer procedures/services. People like me, with complex, chronic diseases are not profitable and we will likely die. But think of the Medicare Oligarchs who will be created!
Makes sense. Medicare will be privatized.
And I will die.
Me too, and some whom I love will die. Many I love have died already because due to medical costs, poor insurance coverage, long wait times ….
Doctors will be reduced to trading medical care for chickens... Most people don't realize how close to the edge many retirees live.
Funny that you mention the Kremlin, because I honestly believe Trump is an FSB (KGB) thrall. And has likely been one since the 1990's.
I wouldn't be surprised if his recent aggressive alienation of two of our staunchest allies wasn't Putin's idea. Ditto for his proposal to occupy Gaza and expel its 2m inhabitants, that has both Putin and Xi howling with glee at how it's horrifying the entire UN membership.
We've known for a long time that he's a Russian "asset".
Eric just blurted out all their golf-course money comes from the Russian oligarchs.
And the Saudi's. The "company" gets a pile from them too.
👆👆🎯
I was born about a decade later than you but have often had the same thought and for similar reasons.
Hi, in the early 1960s I had experimental open heart surgery at Le Bonne Huere Hospital in Memphis. I went on to study biology and work underwater as a diver, and if I had been born after Reagan I would not have been able to get that surgery in spite of the fact it's no longer in patient surgery. The problem I had can be fixed by going through an artery under an arm.
Before the new procedure was tried I was proof of concept.
An uncle of mine had the same problems and it developed into multiple heart problems and he never was able to work, though that would have probably meant playing classical piano.
The Professor is right that this started with Reagan and it's just snowballed, I just don't understand groups that supported him before the election when even a smattering of knowledge about this guy in charge now reveals he's a lousy liar, extremely ignorant of facts, and he is a person who thinks hatred and killing are acceptable forms of government. Gaza is only one example of the ignorance displayed by the GOP and Trump.
Top scientists and researchers can and will leave for Europe and Asia if the playbook keeps heading down the road the GOP chose to drive.
We will be left with faith healers and snake oil.
If I had been born in 1928 and endured what I have, I would've lost my left hand at age 2 and probably have died of viral pneumonia at age 30. I owe the use of my left hand to the advances in burn care during WW II and my pneumonia survival to modern antibiotics and diagnostic techniques.
As usual, Dr. K, you're exactly right. I hope and pray we sane people can survive the next 4 years, but the anti science moves by the current administration and that weirdo muskrat are already causing needless suffering around the world.
4 years?! I fear this cabal are planning way more than 4 years.
Your fears may be well-founded. I do not recall any Monarchies being voted out of office.
Would you believe it's actually happened?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Chilean_presidential_referendum
The country’s that faired the best during the pandemic were also the ones that followed our CDC management plans. The CDC is /was a crown jewel of scientific achievement and demonstrates what is good about America, that economic achievement is about improving the lives of its citizens. The CDC represents our humanity. What would the world be like today if not for Director Foege and the eradication of small pox from the Earth?
With the cuts to budgets, and more looming, we are all at risk. There is currently an Ebola and a Mahlberg outbreak in Africa. Without CDC and the WHO, there is no contract tracing going on. We simply do not know if there is an Ebola infected person flying out of the Congo or Uganda to the US or intermediate country.
What Elon and doge is doing is essentially putting all of our health at risk and this has economic consequences as well as social. RFK Jr doesn’t have a clue about how to keep us in the world safe from infectious disease. It is a travesty. I guess we’ll have to learn the hard way.
Short: countries that followed what they were taught by our CDC fared much better during the pandemic in all aspects. Less spread, less disease, less crowding of hospitals, less deaths and better, economic outcomes, mask, and social distancing where a psychological reminder I wear a mask and I see your mask and I keep my distance such a simple thing and really helped the economies of these countries.
Quid Sweden?
This is an example of two Econ 101 principles: "rational" self interest and "scarcity".
The way Trump and Musk and their ilk see it, the fewer people in the world using resources, the more resources are available to them - the presumed survivors.
Perfectly rational, right?
What's their guarantee that they will be immune to these diseases?
No guarantee whatsoever. Recall King MAGA himself got COVID - and he was given all the best treatments available to anyone. I suspect they're counting on that working every time. They might not get so lucky next time around.
Yeah, like China!
Thanks to Professor Krugman for sharing his views based on science and facts and reality.
It is not easy to find news which reports facts and reality. One has to make a conscious effort to find it.
Reality is going to win out but it might take a long time. When it does, somehow or other, Donald and MAGA will just blame Biden and the Democrats (liberals). FOX and the MAGA faithful will agree with him.
The ignorance and arrogance is just unbelievable.
Reality always wins but it may take a very long time. Very, very long time.
Reality will win alright - in the form of extinction.
The US is a weak, failing state, though the fall, though precipitous is historical terms, will take some months to finally collapse on its own ineptitude. The president's pomposity doesn't make him appear strong, and his fighting on all fronts -even with allies like Canada, of all nations - will further diminish US power and influence. RFK, Bondi, Hesgeth, Patel, Gabbard, Noem - the lot of them -are historically, monumentally, cosmically unsuited to their jobs, unless their job might be dismantling the state. But the puzzle in all of this is, first, how easy it has been for a half-witted president to almost single-handedly turn the nation in (a very unfunny) farce, and second, how compliant and passive the citizenry has been with it. There does appear that, for Americans, there was no line in the sand. Democracy has two edges; those in power who push, and the citizenry who push back. There has been none of the latter, so I guess you guys are good with it.
He could never have accomplished all this single handedly. Supreme Court "justices", Republicans in Congress, in the courts, state and local governments, evangelical churches, greedy billionaires like Musk and groups like the Proud Boys made all the difference. Oh, and Fox News, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh etc. Trump has had a lot of help.
The GOP would be in the absolute minority if it weren't for the non-stop propaganda machine that is FOX News and RW media, pumping out a steady stream of mis-/dis-information. That conservative voters implicitly believe. And then vote on. We're talking tabloid drivel made out to be actual news: "Democrats abort (murder babies after birth." "The Haitians are eating the dogs and cats."
Do you know the history of why Fox (so-called) News was started? Because Roger Ailes was Nixon's media man. When Nixon got caught for Watergate, and had to step down, Ailes vowed to make a right-wing news channel, so no republican would ever have to resign again. Years later he got Rupert Murdoch to fund it with Reagan expediting Murdoch's citizenship so he could own the network.
https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created
Wow! I didn't know Ailes was so pivotal in its creation. I'd thought Murdoch had brought Ailes in; not the other way around. Thank you!
And let's not forget the groundwork laid by the "Reagan Revolution". We still hadn't healed from that festering wound yet by the time His Orange MAGA Majesty was [strikeout] coronated [/strikeout] inaugurated the first time.
I entered government service the year Reagan was inaugurated and will never forget how quickly his anti-government rhetoric caught on. Upon meeting with people at parties or other events, they naturally asked what I did for a living. The sneers quickly taught me to say, “oh, I’m a statistician “ which abruptly ended the conversation, but on a more amicable note.
That had to be traumatizing.
The disturbing thing is that it only got worse from there.
I was always proud of my government service. But I always hated Reagan and began avoiding people who denigrated those of us who worked to assist vulnerable populations. Maybe I became “woke” way back then?
You were ahead of your time!
He didn't need a lot. All he needed was Mitch McConnell.
Yes, we can't forget or forgive the widespread damage he caused.
We might have a “half-witted president” but his puppeteers are some very smart, very evil people.
Or at least very evil. At the barest minimum.
"...unless their job might be dismantling the state."
Yes, that's their job.
I think some of the rationalists are tired of warning the intuitionists and maybe are collectively saying, "OK. fcuck around and find out." Maybe the path back to reality is a long path through misery.
There's already so much misery; it just isn't being covered because there's no one who cares to, or able to, do so. And it is far easier to get into this mess than to get out of it; it's the price of apathy. It could end up being Yugoslavia. Or it could end up in a world war. The US and Russia and a few rogue states like Hungary (it'll be gone in a minute) against the ROW.
Like I said, the path through misery is likely to be long.
But our (Canadian) border patrol caught a dozen people trying to enter Canada from the US
Freezing, freezing cold so probably saved their lives. So, that's a good thing from the trumpster fire
I’m so tired of Trump apologists at the comment section of the WSJ saying Trump was justified with his 25% tariff because of fentanyl and migrants from Canada. There’s a small amount of both. But they don’t include fentanyl and migrants going from the US to Canada.
They won’t hear any criticism of Trump. It’s caused a lot of ill will in Canada. People are buying goods from elsewhere, ditto vacations.
Have you seen the protests this week? Every state! Can they keep it up and could Muskrump care less?
There is no “citizenry”—society has long since been shattered into warring factions by the rise of ideological media (first talk radio, then social media). Half the people think the other half are all monsters. The American tendency toward individual isolation started long ago but has become supercharged by the advent of the smartphone, an incredibly powerful interactive computer that has created an epidemic of mental illness—paranoia is the new normal.
Yes; it really is hopeless. I really am drowning, not waving.
You said it all, sadly.
Please don’t discount the role of Thiel as well. He enabled the moral coreless, unqualified JD Vance to the edge of the presidency. Once Trump is no longer useful, who is waiting in the wings?
And Miriam Adelson who donated $100m to T💩p.
A lot of blame pointed towards the right and ‘rightly’ deserved. However, IMO, the cycle will not change direction until feckless Dems and cafe latte liberals admit their contribution to this national destabilization and change their ways.
Kindly bite your tongue. The Dems are the only thing standing between us and fascism.
They won't be effective at that any more until we sort out what we did wrong. And we did do wrong.
What we did wrong is not have multiple full-time propaganda TV & Radio networks, that spew a daily torrent of mis- and dis-information. Led by FOX News, the GOP has an insurmountable lead in shaping public opinion. It's a major handicap.
Or it could partly be that Democrats participated for the past 4 decades with Republicans in hollowing out the working class from the middle class. And when they complained, we condescended to them. And when we did decide to try to help, it was with government give-aways instead of dignified jobs. And so, when a demagogue came along and harnessed that propaganda machine, he was able to con them into believing he could save them.
Democrats need to take a hard look at themselves. And THEN go back to blaming Republicans. We've been doing these things in the wrong order for a very long time and it isn't working. But, by all means keep on doing it if you think you're going to get a different result.
👆👆👆🎯
Also, I want to comment on the media, or more precisely our relationship to it. Most Democrat voters, like their Republican counterparts, relate to the media as if it is entertainment. Sure, Dems could be viewed as more "sophisticated" about their media consumption, but it is still just low brow entertainment vs higher brow entertainment. And sure, Dems are more 'serious' about their news to some degree, I will grant. But, really at the end of the day, Trump was able to harness even the liberal and centrist media. The way he drove our outrage, and still does, is a feature of these media outlets which he absolutely welcomes. And he can do it because of our relationship with media.
Which brings me to another problem with the Dems. We were so convinced he was a moron, we failed to appreciate how he was deftly manipulating our intelligent selves. He is academically an idiot, but he is a genius at manipulation. I still remember Bill Clinton warning us about his intelligence during the campaign of 2016, and I also remember finding his statements incomprehensible to me then. Now I understand.
So, no, we don't need further devolution into media as entertainment. I think simple ways of thinking will always be more entertaining, and liberal views require nuance. I don't believe they can be expressed as well in the ways that have worked for the right. Nope. I believe we ourselves, however, need to become better at understanding that politics isn't here for our entertainment, truly dig into the things that matter, truly understand the common ground we have with persuadable Trump voters about what motivates them, and use that as part of the plan to change our way of relating to them. We need to make it clear that we actually do care about people like them, and we'll hold our leadership accountable to care about them too. Everyone understands when someone genuinely cares - no propaganda necessary.
So far, we project the idea we think they are morons and couldn't give a flying fcuck about them because they deserve what they get due to being morons.
The Dem’s in office are not ‘standing’ except for a few. What are Dem voters doing besides complaining?
Thank you for your suggestion but I’ll choose to ignore it and keep my teeth from injuring my tongue.
I know, right?
Totally agree. But, there is too much disagreement about what exactly contributed. As for me, I hold that the shift of the working class across all demographics to Trump holds the key to the answer, and this is despite my wish it was my own pet agendas. It seems to me many of my fellow liberals simply see their own pet agendas as the reason. A lot like the intuitionists, I'd have to say.
I’m a liberal and will always be a liberal. However, I believe many liberals are blind to our own issues out of an arrogance of our superiority. Also, many have not kept being involved in the work of democracy, except voting and supporting their candidate. Democracy is work.
Ignorance is a many-partied thing where one cannot learn if they believe they already know. That applies to all of us no matter what our political views.
I live by the conclusion of Socrates that he knew nothing and I include what I’m saying here.
And that nutter Curtis Yarvin…
I hadn't heard of him until now. He's a real techno-punk.
For anyone else who might be interested, here's the Wikipedia page on him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin
The idiot god of the oligarchs.
And Andreeson. He too was pivotal. As well as all the other big financiers.
Who is a big backer of Substack, BTW…Let’s enjoy this island of civil discourse and rational thinkers while it lasts.
Thiel is the evil brains behind the oligarchs.
It's always worth remembering that Republicans believe the only problem with healthcare is the fact that YOU get too much of it. This has now been coupled with the fact that the conservative movement as a whole has turned into a death cult.
The "conservative" view is that if you're poor and get sick, you should just die. As a matter of fact, if you're poor you should just die whether you get sick or not. Again, it's all about "rational" self interest and "scarcity". The more of us die, the more resources available for the kleptocrats.
Not quite. They do indeed want the poor to die. And will help them to do so; like the Red states did with Covid, killing off indigent elderly nursing home populations. But not the 10% with good money. They need them to keep spending. Until or unless they become poor.
Well, if they have "good" money (is there such a thing as "bad" money?), then they're not poor, are they?
To an Oligarch there is only "my" money. That may be temporarily residing in other people's wallets.
‘There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...[It is] nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge' (Isaac Asimov, 1980)
Love this quote.
Thank you, Dr. Krugman, among all the horrible things Reagan did to science one that really infuriated me was to stop the United States from adopting the metric system, because he couldn't adjust his Alzheimer's riddled brain to understand a system based on ten. I was teaching science then to 8th graders - I simply told them 'you don't need equivalences' you just need to learn a newer easier way of measuring, The 13 to 15 year olds in my class had NO difficulty learning metric.
So here we are, us and Liberia (and I'm not sure about Liberia anymore) out of 195 distinct countries on Planet Earth to cling to an outdated inaccurate system of measurement. If and when we get out Country - or at least part of it back I hope we finally join the rest of the world.
Not quite: the UK still uses miles (and yards!) on its road signs in spite of being mostly metric otherwise.
Miles are still used although yards have largely fallen by the wayside.
This is such an excellent piece! Despite the current dire state of affairs, just reading your on-point intelligent analysis / perspective, and being in the company of educated, thoughtful people (my fellow readers) is oddly very comforting. Grateful.
A strong sense of community (and unity) is an important part of maintaining the resistance.
Cassidy (of Louisiana) especially has blood on his hands. He’s an MD and could have been the deciding vote on the confirmation committee.
The tragedy is that the US checks and balances have allowed a person who is neither elected nor a government employee to destroy American institutions. It looks as if the Congress and judiciary and thousands of civil servants are in a some kind of stupor. It is hard to find a similar example, except to call a spade a spade and say that Musk has done a coup d’etas. Looking from outside the US, it looks like a horror movie. What happened to the US?
They've been in that stupor since 1980. Hypnotized by a guy in a white cowboy hat riding into town on a white hobby horse proclaiming "Make America Great Again" and "it's morning in America".
Who was the Anointed One, foretold by RW Evangelism & FOX News. He who would save us all from anything not white-bread-cream-cheese.
It's ironic that Trump and nearly his entire cabinet are either Reality TV stars or Oligarchs.
Yeah, his fellow "very stable geniuses".
Personally, I believe the US is in fact decadent in the sense that we came to believe that serious news was just another form of entertainment. For so long, we never felt the dire consequences that can come from being politically stupid, so it seemed all like a WWF match. We're just in the midst of learning that modern demagogues entertain the people to come to power (more than in earlier times).
Suggestion: rename your DEI program a Merit-Based Compliance program. Tell the Trump people it is there to insure no race or gender biases are present in your company.
It’s great having the whole Paul Krugman back in business!