Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

It’s pretty clear that the only numbers this administration are interested in are ones that support the narrative that the great leader is infallible.

They just fired the commissioner of Labour Statistics. The great thing about autocrats is that they neuter their own country pretty quickly. When you make it risky for people to give you bad news, you end up with missiles that don't work and capital ships that sink.

Yep. It’s odd to see classic third world dictator antics in the most powerful country in the world, but not at all unexpected given who’s running it.

> but not at all unexpected given who’s running it

To be fair, this has felt like the natural consequence of the "maximize capitalism without regarding the downsides" maxim the US seems to have been operated under for a long time. Corporations have been (indirectly) running the country for some decades at this point, it's just way more obvious and in the face now when a "businessman" sits as president.

Maximize crony capitalism and oligarchy, perhaps.

The US drifted far from any form of pure open market laissez-faire capitalism or balanced regulated capitalism some time past.

Yes, your "pure" capitalism tends to do that.

Kinda similar to the people who say of the SU "but it was not true communism".

The people that founded the SU openly declared that it wasn't communism, just a managed phase on the way to actual communism (that never happened).

Either way, we're talking here about small in groups treating a larger out group as sheep to be manipulated and harvested.