The Research Superpower Is Being Dismantled

Purges, bans, marginalization: The most powerful research nation is sliding into a totalitarian abyss. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are cleaning out projects and institutions ideologically. But resistance is forming.

How much of democracy remains when scientists in the hundreds and thousands feel that they have been “censored” by the government is yet to be seen. It is an alarm bell for political culture, at any rate — one that also rings out far beyond the United States. It could be said that a nerve has been struck: the global resistance is forming. Concretely, it concerns a “Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship” that American scientists started online after the Donald Trump-Elon Musk administration extended its ideologically driven purges into the National Science Foundation.

Since then, research grants are being scanned through a list of terms that possibly involve activities that run contrary to the goals of Trump’s order. This primarily, but not only, affects gender projects. Diversity, equity, inclusion — everything and much more that make up the “wokeness” that Trump loathes. It’s about targeted marginalization, degradation and stigmatization.

This flagging of undesired terms and projects will massively affect the environment as well as climate research, health institutes and health information in general. Under the pretext of cleaning out redundancies and saving money, independent researchers and their institutions are experiencing a political totalitarianism that is threatening their existence and plunging them into deep uncertainty.

An unprecedented breach of trust is looming, the pressure to justify one’s position is growing, and this degrading treatment is causing trust in science itself to erode in the public eye. Who is next, researchers are asking, where does the arbitrariness end? On the ideological scale of value, scientists and physicians are finding themselves once again on the level of artists. Max Ernst, one of the greatest among them, was considered rebellious in the totalitarianism of the Third Reich, his art degenerate. Quo vadis*, America?

*Editor’s note: Quo vadis is a Latin phrase meaning “Where are you going?”