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Argentina election: front runner vows to slash science funding (www.nature.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[-] [email protected] 133 points 9 months ago

"On environmental issues, he is equally provocative, calling climate change “a socialist hoax”, and saying that a company should be able to pollute a river as it sees fit."

It's amazing how much damage can be done in a short amount of time when people like this get in charge. This isn't even getting into the fact that he wants to end investments in research, when investments in US research generate 2.6x in economic output. I'm guessing it's not too different in Argentina, but guys like this have no interest in facts.

[+] [email protected] -71 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Here in Argentina, science funding is not working because the investments made in any research are too stupid: (some examples from CONICET)

"Los Cumpleaños en los Mc Donalds."
"El fútbol como espectáculo de masas."
"Jóvenes travestis en la escuela secundaria."
"Vidas Queer, nazismo y dictadura: sexualidad en textos alemanes y argentinos."

[-] [email protected] 101 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm sure that, being a good scientist, you made sure this is sample is representative of the entirety of Argentina's science research, right? You wouldn't cherry-pick your data, would you?

[-] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago

It is not. This is just repeating the same braindead take from tweets that want to ridicule the institution.

On the other hand, I know several engineers and physicists that work there and have to make do with very scarce resources. Not just that, many of them end up working abroad because our education system is actually pretty good.

[-] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

I know just enough Spanish to be throughly confused about how any of that is related to "science funding."

[-] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago

They're social sciences, anp OP is arguing in bad fate. I don't know of the titles he wrote arw real titles for paid research, or just cherry picked to justify the end of research. I knew a girl that was a researcher of the CONICET and studied potatoes and their diseases, pretty useful shit that any intelligent government invest in. They going to vote from their own Bolsonaro and fuck every miniority over there.

[-] [email protected] -5 points 9 months ago

They going to vote from their own Bolsonaro and fuck every miniority over there.

It's interesting how you are saying that minorities need "positive rights" (monopolical privileges from the State) to participate in society, violating the individual rights of the others.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Translated:

"Birthdays at McDonald's."
"Soccer as a mass spectacle."
"Young transvestites in high school."
"Queer Lives, Nazism, and Dictatorship: Sexuality in German and Argentine Texts."

[-] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Imagine having your "Birthdays at McDonalds" paper put through the ringer by social media because some knob tried to use it as an example of how science funding is misspent...

[-] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Mi papa se vino a los Estados Unidos con una beca del CONICET para hacer el post doctorado en productos naturales en los 1990s, y lo que logro contribuir mi padre no tiene semejanza. Visite unos cuantos institutos en Argentina en el 2018 y era una vergüenza el estado en cual estan nuestra ciencias.

[-] [email protected] 96 points 9 months ago

This world has a real right-wing moron-asshole problem.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Nothing some .45 ACP can't fix... just like granpappy used ta' fix fascism with. Brings a tear to your eye.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I prefer 5.56

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Fellas, they're all good calibers, what's important is practicing as part of a radical militia.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

914mm?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

914, 915, whatever it takes.

[-] [email protected] 66 points 9 months ago

It's funny how you can have 10 or more years of right wing government fuckin up the country, and next election people at best would elect some centrist, or if they feel very progressive someone center left.

But when you a have bad left wing government or even a mediocre one, people swing fuckin hard on the other direction and starts electing these turds.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Something else I've noticed in general around the world is: having a right-wing government gravely hurt them economically (while benefiting a chosen few) but only feeling the bulk of those effects during the term of the next government (be it center-left, left-wing, center-right or sometimes even another different right-wing gov) so they blame it on that government and go back to voting the original culprits during the third term.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Oh yeah, Macri was a neoliberal rat through and through.

[-] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago

What do we want?

Stupid!

When do we want it?

Yes!

[-] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago

Depressing.

[-] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

All you have to do is hear the things he says and you'll know how crazy he is. Not just about his future plans as possible president but this his personal life as well.

He hired a medium to talk to his dead dog and those alive as well...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2023/09/29/javier-milei-telepathic-conversations-with-dogs-and-god-a-troubled-youth-and-the-issue-of-mental-health/?sh=464cc9d076ab

[-] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

How to fail a nation: speed run edition

[-] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

He looks like a Madame Tussaud's wax sculpture that's come to life.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

!noahgetthebo ... mb

[-] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago

Unfortunately people here do not understand Argentinian reality.

This guy is the only candidate who actually has a very detailed plan on how he can end Argentina’s fiscal deficit, which has been prevalent for over 100 years and has caused 20 of our 22 economic crises.

While I do not agree with everything he says, it is fucking refreshing to have someone come and argue with facts and plans instead of “I’m gonna solve all these problems, I’m the best at this and that, vote for me” (like Mr. Orange if you know that I mean).

It really seems he will win. And I sincerely hope so, not because I hate science or people, but because dollarazing the economy might just be what can save Argentina once and for all. That’s actually his main proposal and not even mentioned in the article.

It may not work, but a Peronist government hasn’t work for almost a century.

[-] yata 53 points 9 months ago

This guy is the only candidate who actually has a very detailed plan on how he can end Argentina’s fiscal deficit, which has been prevalent for over 100 years and has caused 20 of our 22 economic crises.

It seems extremely naive and dangerous to trust that the crazy anti-science right wing populist actually having a working plan for anything, much less ending a national deficit.

[-] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago

You can have a very detailed, impractical plan.

For example, his plan for dollarization requires going into a lot of debt, when we're already drowning in it and no one wants to buy our bonds.

Of course, he says that he will regain investors's trust but that seems unlikely given our track record, how Milei is perceived internationally, and the fact that major investment banks have argued against dollarization.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

I don't understand why they think dollarization is the silver bullet to solve all argentinean economic problems, like what country om earth dollarized their economy and are doing right?

[-] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago

It's funny reading this and then the next comment is about him calling climate change a hoax

[-] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

Googles him and his plans. Looks like you're all set for another 100 years of fiscal deficit

[-] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Argentinians already do everything possible to get paid in dollars, so they might as well make it their official currency, assuming that doesn't have any negative consequences for the dollar overall. I know some people who live in Argentina and they said that if they got paid in pesos, their paycheck would be worthless within a few days. If they don't get paid in dollars then they have to pay fees to convert pesos to dollars for any money they're not going to immediately spend, and there's a very small limit on how much they can convert at a time. It sounds like a really fucked up financial situation over there. On top of all of that, they're facing a housing price crisis, just like the rest of the world.

[+] [email protected] -30 points 9 months ago

I mean, is Argentina really gonna advance science more than any of the richer Western nations. If I lived there, I would absolutely prefer that the government focus more in housing, agriculture, education, and infrastructure.

[-] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago

housing, agriculture, education, and infrastructure.

Those are not science-free topics.

If I lived there

Purely out of my own curiosity, have you been to or lived in Argentina or have relatives who live/lived there?

[-] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago

I would absolutely prefer that the government focus more in housing, agriculture, education, and infrastructure.

How do you think improvements in building materials and construction techniques are developed? Science!

How do you think we develop more hardy crops that can withstand diseases and produce higher yields? Science!

How do you think we improve infrastructure design to do things like improve traffic flow or get higher yield from water recycling plants? Science!

Saying that the government should focus on certain issues rather than science misses the point that science is a part of how you make improvements and change over time.

[+] [email protected] -18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I think you‘re not getting the point of their comment: argentina is not going to lead the world in science, let them focus on getting back up from the ground.

Edit: since the metaphor seems to be going over people‘s heads: I think the commenter meant to say science is important but a country that has many more pressing issues should be allowed to focus on using the knowledge it already has instead of being forced to contribute to advancing humanity by spending a lot on science for the moment. Obviously, I‘m not the commenter. I‘m just seeing something in the comment that the person answering didn’t comment on.

[-] yata 20 points 9 months ago

Who are claiming anything about "leading the world in science"? That is not why you fund science.

this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023

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