this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 303 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Sure, that's great but it's not even the point. Fundamental research and other type of "useless" scientific endeavors help humanity as a whole to better understand our universe but would never be privately funded because they don't have any concrete and immediate financial benefits. This is precisely what a government should finance, because no one else would do it and yet it's small stuff like that that make us collectively move forward as a species

[–] [email protected] 81 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Musk fans don't want humanity to advance. They hate technological progress.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago

For OTHERS, yes. But many want the cutting edge for themselves, at no cost to themselves.

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[–] [email protected] 133 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The world just keeps getting more and more efficient at being dumb. Let's just count all the appallingly stupid things crammed into this small meme with 2 million views:

  1. "Insurrection Barbie"
  2. Celebrating the defunding of useful scientific research by a new government efficiency agency
  3. This new agency is named after a cryptocurrency
  4. The cryptocurrency in question was created as a joke to satirize cryptocurrencies, but became a top prominent cryptocurrency itself.
  5. The "Department of Government Efficiency Agency" has 2 heads, both of whom have other primary jobs and were chosen in return for political support.
  6. There is also already an existing government agency that does the exact same thing, called the "Government Accountability Office". But most people seem to be unaware of it, likely because it's not named after a cryptocurrency/dog meme.
  7. This whole scheme was the idea of the richest person in the world.

Idiocracy didn't happen because of unnatural selection, it happened because social media unlocked a runaway chain reaction of stupidity.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Why are people saying that it was named after a cryptocurrency?

Isnt the dog the first thing people think of when seeing "doge"?

[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Its reasonable to make the connection to the coin, as this particular cryptocurrency was propagandized and manipulated by musk, who will be running the agency.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

True! It was then technically named after a meme...which the coin named itself after, as it was supposed to be a "meme coin".

Still stands though.

"Government agency named after meme. Such dumb. So chaos. Woooooow." Lol

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Isnt the dog the first thing people think of when seeing “doge”?

It used to be so, but in recent several years Doge has lived and pretty much been defined in public consciousness by the cryptocurrency, which Musk has openly endorsed/memed.

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[–] [email protected] 129 points 3 months ago (4 children)

In addition, government research in the sciences is miniscule. You could cut ALL of science funding and be no where close to the 1 trillion that Musk claims he'll be able to reduce the budget by

[–] [email protected] 64 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Now if he could start making cuts to the military…

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How dare you threaten the poor defense contractors.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

also, entire military is just under 1tn - all of it, including completely nonmovable things like nuclear silos and submarines. ripping enough copper from the walls to get 2tn would involve massive cuts to social security and healthcare, and maybe education. but nooo heavens forbid that progressive tax on income be introduced

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The DoD itself spent $820B in 2023. To get over $1T, you also have to include veterans benefits, like the VA hospital system.

The full bill for Vietnam started coming 20 years after the fact as all those veterans got older and started heavily using the benefits they were promised. From the start of the War on Terror, we're about at that same point right now. So unless the plan is to rug pull those benefits from people who really need them, then there's going to be a huge bill coming that no amount of efficiency trimming can ignore.

If Democrats did the rug pull, Republicans would cry bloody murder. If Trump did it, they will cheer him on while veterans suffer.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

i, for one, would like to see more air defense assets going to Ukraine

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Regardless, he'll claim he cut 500 bajillion dollars no matter what he ends up doing

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (3 children)

My bet is that if he expects to cut 2 trillion, he will end up increasing the budget by 4 trillion.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He actually claimed 2 trillion.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I knew Elongated Muskrat was a dumbass but I didn't know he also can't do math.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I don't think he even attempted to do math. Someone asked him about it and said what the current budget was, and he just rectally sourced 2 trillion. I assume he said that because it's big enough to sound huge, but less than half of spending so people don't panic that everything will be cut.

It's meaningless bullshit until he actually says specifically what will be cut. Republicans have been claiming they can cut huge chunks of spending for years, but it never materializes. They only know how cut government income without paying for it.

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[–] [email protected] 115 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And so the US lost decade becomes the medieval dark ages

It'd be fascinating as an outsider if the choices made by the US didn't basically impact everything, everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I thought we were done with the "medieval dark age" myth.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How’s Neo-Feudal Gilded Age strike you?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago

One giant leap forward, one roundhouse kick back.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 3 months ago (16 children)

Say it with me:

No. Research. Is. Useless.

If we say that research is useless because it doesn't bring you mo ey we could stop teaching children math beyond the absolute basics because "it doesn't brinf them anything". This is stupid, because those are the fundamentals that tech children to thing logically and become useful member of society. Same with research. It teaches us the things necessary to maybe invent some of the most useful stuff ever seen

[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Republicans: "No. Research is useless."

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

Republicans want drones and cannon fodder, not scientists and intellectuals.

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 3 months ago (3 children)

"preventing next corn plague" with resources used being a box of soil and bunch of underpaid grads seems pretty efficient to me, but i guess that since the common clay of the new west already voted they can be safely disposed of

at USDA, they're turning beetles kinky! 😡

  • alex jones fuming aimlessly while being stored in some container
[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago

The Onion buying Infowars is the only good news I've heard this week.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

China is going to devour the scientific world if we keep it like this

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Won't happen, or at least won't be useful if it does. Lotta Chinese authors are faking data for the sake of the CCP and their studies don't replicate. If that takes over, it'll be like a global Dark Age.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Like the dead don't realize they're dead, they don't realize they're stupid. They're just everyone else's problem.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Neolib idiots don't see the (immense) value of fundamental research because it doesn't directly generate profits, more at 11

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Welcome to the new Dark Ages, brought to you by religious fascists.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago

Hell can we mention that the cold war era these fucks idolize was also the golden age of the government throwing money at side projects?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The appointment of Elon Musk to lead the proposed department of government efficiency raises concerns, given his track record of business management.

His handling of Twitter/X after its $44 billion acquisition has resulted in a significant decline in its value, with some sources putting the valuation around $9bn.

Doesn't seem very efficient to me.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

Yeah, we've been studying the sex lives of various different animals (including ourselves!) for centuries now, yet nobody bat an eye until now. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

the 2010s science bazinga man being the reason all the cool science gets cut is darkly funny.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's also helped develop advances in flight, metamaterials, physics.

But Barbie makes a good point with a meme about how she treats her cuck husband.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Welcome to a new era of weaponized ignorance

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes! I was just reading a few scientific articles about the mating patterns of darkling beetles. (not a gov't employee tho)

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Fuck dude, I’m about to get an awesome job with the usda after being unemployed for over 2 years, and time is literally running out for me to get my contract finalized before these ghouls fuck everything.

A kind fuck you to every hexbearite ironically cheering on the destruction of the civilian government workforce, although I’ve only seen this opinion from a few

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Goddamn, it really is impossible!
How the fuck am I gonna filter US politics out of my feed when it creeps in through Science Memes?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

There's only one way to filter politics out of your time online: don't go online.

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