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Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

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280 points dargscisyhp | 4 comments | 02 Aug 25 06:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.825s | source
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mehulashah ◴[02 Aug 25 09:19 UTC] No.44765977[source]▶
This is a tragedy. Our pre-eminence as a scientific and industrial powerhouse that really began post WWII is now disintegrating because of the actions of a few. The funding being pulled from Terence Tao and his institute without due process is not the start, it's merely one casualty among many that began at the start of this administration. This is like cutting one's nose to spite one's face.
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1. watwut ◴[02 Aug 25 09:43 UTC] No.44766103[source]▶
It is not actions of the few. This is action of many. There is whole party apparatus behind this, public support among conservative voters, support of tech leaders etc.
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2. kergonath ◴[02 Aug 25 09:50 UTC] No.44766141[source]▶
This. It’s easy to rationalise what can be seen as completely counter-productive and irrational actions as random acts of deranged minds. But Trump and proto-fascist republicans have genuine popular support. For terrible reasons, but still. And we can argue about how the US political system plays in their favour by giving them more power than their raw numbers would suggest, but even then they are a significant part of the population. Even more so since they managed to capture the broligarchs.

To my worried eyes this looks too much like Russia circa 2000 for comfort. Or Turkey early in Erdogan’s reign. Whatever happens, it will be painful and damaging.

3. throw0101d ◴[02 Aug 25 11:25 UTC] No.44766697[source]▶
> It is not actions of the few. This is action of many.

The US House of Representatives has 219 GOPers that voted to pass certain legislation. The US Senate has 50 GOPers that voted to pass certain legislation and voted to confirm many appointments.

A large swath of the US public voted to put those 219+50 people into Congress and voted to put a convicted felon [1] and rapist [2] in the White House.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-te...

[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/30/appeals-court-upho...

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4. whoknowsidont ◴[02 Aug 25 18:29 UTC] No.44770062[source]▶
Not just a felon or rapist, but a pedophile as well.