- Today’s deep thought about religion and conformity;
- How US scientists have withdrawn their names from a scientific paper about evolution, for fear of reprisal — one of them coincidentally mentioned in a piece posted yesterday;
- Short items about Trump’s lapel pins, how colleges are being forced to rewrite history, how sending education back to the states doesn’t include DEI options, how some Republicans think elections are so inconvenient, Trump’s misunderstanding of trade deficits, how Trump displaces more than he projects, Arthur C. Brooks about challenging DARVO; and Jonathan Chait on how MAGA supporters take Trump’s infallibility as a given.
Today’s deep thought: religion isn’t about faith; it’s about conformity.
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This piece is quite a coincidence, aside from it being politically pertinent.
Washington Post, Mark Johnson, 10 Apr 2025: Fearing paper on evolution might get them deported, scientists withdrew it, subtitled “President Donald Trump’s orders haven’t targeted research involving evolution, but the authors’ unease about publishing reflects uncertainty in the science world.”
The coincidence: this seems to be about the same Michael Wong as the one cited in the piece discussed yesterday, about the inevitable complexity of the universe. The paper referred to in this WaPo piece concerns that idea in the context of biological evolution.
A few days before they were to submit a scientific paper together, an evolutionary biologist in Europe received an unexpected request from two co-authors in the United States.
After much thought, the co-authors said they preferred not to risk publishing at this time. One had just lost a job because of a canceled government grant; the other feared a similar fate if they went ahead with the paper. Although both were legally in the U.S., they worried they might lose their residency if their names appeared on a potentially controversial article.
The subject: evolution.
The political pertinence:
Almost a century after a Tennessee schoolteacher named John Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution, the theory proposed by the British naturalist Charles Darwin has become one of the foundational principles of modern science. But the past few months have proved a difficult time for science. The National Institutes of Health has targeted research in many areas, terminating $2.4 billion in grants on projects examining HIV, covid-19, gender identity, racial health disparities and vaccine hesitancy, among other subjects, according to a lawsuit filed last week against the NIH by the American Civil Liberties Union. Layoffs across the nation’s health and science agencies have disrupted research. And universities have scaled back hiring graduate and doctoral students in response to massive cuts in federal funding to their campuses.
Although President Donald Trump’s executive orders have not targeted research involving evolution, the authors’ unease about publishing on the subject reflects the fear and uncertainty now rippling through the science world.
Because anti-intellectualism is in the air. No doubt there are lots of Michael Wongs in the world, but:
The withheld paper described ways in which evolution unfolds in both living and nonliving systems, a subject relevant to the search for life elsewhere in the universe. The authors included measurements and genomic data on different species. An example of evolution in the nonliving world would be the growth of the universe after the Big Bang, as new minerals and elements came into being, the European scientists said.
Which seems to establish the link to the Michael Wong in yesterday’s article.
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Short items.
Boing Boing, Jason Weisberger, 9 Apr 2025: Trump’s new loyalty test: “golden Trump bust lapel pins”
Another cult signifier.
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Texas Tribune, via JMG, 10 Apr 2025: Texas Bill Would Force Colleges To Rewrite History
Of course all cultures rewrite history to their own benefit. In this case, I’d guess it’s something like this: white=good, throughout history; everyone else=bad, and should be deported. Their xenophobia is obvious.
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Washington Post, Editorial Board, 10 Apr 2025: What happened to sending education ‘back to the states’?, subtitled “The Trump administration’s anti-DEI policies are an attempt to micromanage local schools.”
They’re happy to send education “back to the states” except where it comes to anti-DEI policies, which must be enforced from above.
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Media Matters, 9 Apr 2025: Newsmax host says US elections are “a huge liability. It weakens our country in a lot of ways because we’re always thinking about the next election”
Democracy is so inconvenient!
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Vox, Andrew Prokop, 9 Apr 2025: The misunderstanding breaking the global economy, subtitled “Trump believes that if the US has a trade deficit with a country, they’re ‘beating’ us. Huh?”
He’s a dolt. He doesn’t understand trade deficits. Many anecdotes on Fb today. (E.g., I buy pizzas from the place around the corner, and they buy nothing from me. Therefore, trade deficit! I should raise the prices on their pizza to encourage myself to make pizza at home?!)
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Timothy Snyder on Substack, 10 Apr 2025: Trump’s Psychological Vulnerability
Not projection. Displacement.
All his adult life, Trump has been ripping people off. That is his modus operandi. Rather than a conscience, he has the habit of displacement. It is not that he is ripping people off. Everyone else is ripping him off.
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Long piece worth reading in detail, for now noted briefly.
The Atlantic, Arthur C. Brooks, 10 Apr 2025: A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths, subtitled “If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.”
The signature move is DARVO, which I’ve posted about before. “Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender.”
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Last one for now.
The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait, 8 Apr 2025: Trump World Makes the Case Against Trump, subtitled “MAGA supporters are attempting to understand Trump’s catastrophic decision making, while accepting Trump’s infallibility as a given.”
The key here is that Trump’s infallibility is taken as a given, so that whatever crazy things he does *has* to make sense, right, right? This is the essence of cultism.
