🧵Censor, purge, defund - how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science & universities.
This isn't chaos - it's deliberate & well-established methods.
I've mapped 40 actions into 3 categories covering attacks on science, attacks on universities and international collaboration.
1/16
This isn't chaos - it's deliberate & well-established methods.
I've mapped 40 actions into 3 categories covering attacks on science, attacks on universities and international collaboration.
1/16
Comments
Both science and universities foster critical thinking and a pursuit of truth and evidence over ideology
The more academic freedom exists, the lower the chance of autocracy taking hold. 2/16
- capturing existing scientific institutions by appointing loyalists / purging existing staff;
- ignoring or undermining scientific results that do not match state narrative
- suppressing non-aligned research through censorship / loss of funding
3/16
Trump administration is doing all of these things. It is suppressing research on topics related to gender, minorities, equity, and climate change.
RFK is directing research & confidence away from vaccines...
4/16
1000s of workers have been fired, grants have been cancelled, key building leases ended.
Climate science is ignored to enable oil/gas/logging expansion. 5/16
- withdrawing funding;
- targeting specific universities, students and staff
- co-opting universities into a populist culture war, branding them the "woke elite"
6/16
Grants have been slashed, federal funding withdrawn from unis who don't conform (Columbia, Maine) + 60 others under investigation.
A prominent student protestor on a green card has been arrested by ICE.
7/16
saving this one!
What will this mean for academics & researchers? What will this mean for young people trying to get an education? Should they go outside the U.S.?
The battle has started.
“Other universities have an imperative to come to the defense of Columbia, because this is not just about Columbia. The Trump administration is trying to attack all of higher education, and Columbia cannot try to mount a defense on its own.” – @ryanenos.bsky.social, Harvard gov prof
Delay climate mitigation by any means necessary!
(Even if they cause a societal collapse and risk of extinction)
Sponsors == AI developers + Oil industry + Major energy consuming industrial segments + Weird fundamentalist death cults (pay less/vote more)
https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/censor-purge-defund-how-trump-following