113
Butthead, is that you?
What would one expect from this kind of politician. He has other priorities: After Israel's Knesset approved final voting for two bills aimed at blocking UNRWA in areas under Israeli control, Geert Wilders congratulated the Jewish state in a Tuesday post on X/Twitter: 'Well done Israel. Terrorists are terrorists, whatever their disguise.'
Conservatives just have no idea how research is done and think they can tell people what to research. The absurdity is that no scientific be can tell someone to research something that hasn’t been discovered yet!
That's not exactly how it works.
Most research is based around understanding the universe. Often called Blue Sky research (Why is the sky blue?).
Now that's a very broad category, so you break things down into something more manageable. Like the lifecycle of a specific insect, or the behavior of crowds in shopping centers during holidays.
The point being that you can absolutely tell someone what to research.
Now, you are correct in that you cannot dictate the results of research.
Except that you can, and it's the second type of research.
Goal oriented research, or maybe practical research? starts with a goal or a problem. Like a disease. The goal is a cure or prevention. How you get to that point doesn't matter as long as you do, but in practice the way to meeting that goal is going to be more research centered around understanding the goal or problem.
Now, all that said, pure Blue Sky research has a guaranteed return on investment. NASA estimates that their return is 3-1. 3 dollars back for every dollar of their budget.
All that said, there is no ethical reason to constrain research topics or even to reduce spending on science.
What you say is true though my point is that to many bean counters, research should only be done on something that addresses the current bottom line. It’s this type of view that conservatives take to heart and it’s why they tend to try to stifle higher education and research institutions.
The reason conservatives don't like research is that to truly take advantage of it, you need a strong university system, and a lot of students.
And universities are breeding grounds for leftist ideals.
Education in general moves people to the left, but universities take that to 11. And that's why conservatives hate it.
The far right are a bunch of crooks and Russian agents. It's not that they think we can progress as a society without spending money on research. It's that they're being paid to make sure western society collapses.
Wilders, Le Pen, Farage, whatever the knobheads in the AfD are called. They've all been found to receive funding from Russia. It's not that they're dumb enough to think this is a good idea, they're just evil enough to profit from it.
That's an important realisation. The people who fall for them and do their bidding might be dumb, but the people pulling the strings are anything but dumb. They are just plenty of evil and very skilled at manipulating dumb people. This is what makes the far right so dangerous.
They're not stupid, but they're not particularly clever either. They're just mediocre people pumped up by our adveseries to believe they can be something important and special.
Of course, Geert Wilders believes he's brilliant. Just like Trump. They are never going to accept to themselves that their reason for being there is that their grandiose thoughts about themselves are only matched by their mediocracy, which is the exact set of traits that makes them so easy to take advantage of.
I agree it's dangerous to dismiss them as stupid, but it would be a mistake to assume they're particularly clever. They're just dangerously mediocre.
The people behind those talking heads full of nonsense are the clever ones. Just look who is going to profit from one of those deranged fascists running amok. Follow the Money trail, who is bankrolling them? Big businesses don't give a shit about democracy, but they do love lack of regulation and government control, to maximally exploit their workforce.
Stupid people are easier to control.
What's up with this AI-lookin motherfucker?
There is a German word for people like that: Backpfeifengesicht. (meaning a face made for being slapped)
I'm wondering if there is a Dutch equivalent to this word.
Not that I know of
Feel free to steal ours then.
Knowing the Dutch, I would be incredibly surprised if they didn't have their fair share of appropriate words for this asshole.
Brought upon by idiotic voters (easily manipulated or egoistic or short-sighted) and non-voters who shirked their duty 👍 Even some researchers just voted for the conservatives.
Can't forget the self-serving politicians who contributed a lot to the problem by not caring for the people but their rich friends instead (and still getting re-elected by idiotic voters). It's a vicious cycle.
that will be a dumb fall for europe, but funny nonetheless
That looks like an AI rendition of a Trump wannabe.
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
113 points (100.0% liked)
Europe
1429 readers
423 users here now
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS