Things other people say.
A comment on Lawyers Guns & Money by a person known only as Warren Terra:
...the disrespect and even loathing this administration shows for all forms of intellectualism, in both science and the arts, is quietly stunning.
For the second year running, the Trump administration hasn't awarded the National Medal for the Arts. They also haven't awarded the National Medal for the Sciences. They discontinued the White House Science Fair (despite April 2017 articles saying they wouldn't). Trump was the first US President in memory not to invite the American Nobel Laureates to the Oval Office (George W Bush, who saw the 2008 and maybe 2004 Democratic nominee endorsed in an open letter signed by every living American Nobelist, never stopped this practice). I'm sure I could find other, similar examples of disrespect for science and the arts in the White House.
In one sense, this is really only about the seven-thousandth-worst thing about this administration. And yet, in another, you can't rank things like that, and it's highly indicative: previous administrations, even republicans, would at least pay lip service to these things because, whatever their flaws, they at least had the idea, however conscious, that America's cultural and intellectual heritage should be celebrated and respected. Not so with the current goons and their followers. The only thing they care about is their ideology of corporatism, authoritarianism, and white supremacy. They don't actually give a shit about the country, and it would never even occur to them that there would be any reason for them to pretend otherwise. It's why they don't give a shit about Russians undermining our democratic processes: our contemptible president is giving them what they want, so who cares? This does put them in an awkward position at times, since they can't exactly admit this (and, I'm quite sure, most of them won't even to themselves). Suffice to say, however, that my sympathy is limited.
...the disrespect and even loathing this administration shows for all forms of intellectualism, in both science and the arts, is quietly stunning.
For the second year running, the Trump administration hasn't awarded the National Medal for the Arts. They also haven't awarded the National Medal for the Sciences. They discontinued the White House Science Fair (despite April 2017 articles saying they wouldn't). Trump was the first US President in memory not to invite the American Nobel Laureates to the Oval Office (George W Bush, who saw the 2008 and maybe 2004 Democratic nominee endorsed in an open letter signed by every living American Nobelist, never stopped this practice). I'm sure I could find other, similar examples of disrespect for science and the arts in the White House.
In one sense, this is really only about the seven-thousandth-worst thing about this administration. And yet, in another, you can't rank things like that, and it's highly indicative: previous administrations, even republicans, would at least pay lip service to these things because, whatever their flaws, they at least had the idea, however conscious, that America's cultural and intellectual heritage should be celebrated and respected. Not so with the current goons and their followers. The only thing they care about is their ideology of corporatism, authoritarianism, and white supremacy. They don't actually give a shit about the country, and it would never even occur to them that there would be any reason for them to pretend otherwise. It's why they don't give a shit about Russians undermining our democratic processes: our contemptible president is giving them what they want, so who cares? This does put them in an awkward position at times, since they can't exactly admit this (and, I'm quite sure, most of them won't even to themselves). Suffice to say, however, that my sympathy is limited.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 3:32 PM
