“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.” -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace turns into a circus.” -Old Turkish Proverb

In my last blog post Trump Supporters, Where is Your Red Line? I asked a pretty straightforward question of Trump supporters:  At what point would you be forced to say the president’s actions were so cruel, so wrong, so unamerican, that you could no longer support him?  I gave plenty of examples of actions to which decent folks should say “Enough!  No more.”

Since that time, many of those lines have already been crossed.

What have I heard from Trump supporters?  Nothing.

All I can conclude is that they condone the actions that are causing millions to suffer, or maybe, just maybe, their buyer’s remorse is so great that they find it easier to just avoid the truth.  If it’s the latter, here’s something else they should keep in mind. 

Things are about to get a lot worse.  Just follow the downward trajectory.

As we speak, billions of dollars in additional taxes are slamming America.  But most people won’t see them, because they’re hidden.  But believe me, you’ll pay.

Let’s say you went to a store and picked up an item priced at $50, took it to the counter, and the clerk rang it up.  “$100,” she says.

“What?”  You’re outraged.  “It’s supposed to only be 50!”

“Yes,” the clerk says patiently.  “But the tax is 100%.  That brings the total to 100.”

Admit it.  You’d be mad as hell.  You’d call the mayor, your city council, your congressman, and whoever else you could get hold of.

This is exactly what happens with tariffs.  But it’s all hidden.

Tariffs can lead to what’s commonly called a “trade war.”  What’s a trade war?  Imagine two people standing toe to toe, each holding a sledgehammer.  They take turns bashing each other over the head.

Sooner or later, someone quits.  The other guy proclaims, “I’ve won!”

Maybe he has.  But that’s beside the point.  He’ll also have suffered an incredible amount of permanent damage along the way.  That’s a trade war in a nutshell.

But enough about that stuff.  We saw it coming and did nothing.  Let’s get back to what this post is really about.

What do I mean by a return to the Dark Ages?

I was a child of the cold war.  I was ten months old when America tested its first hydrogen bomb, a weapon so powerful it made Hiroshima look like child’s play.  It was supposed to make us secure for the next century.

It didn’t.  Nine months later, the Soviets exploded their own.  The United States was stunned.  Suddenly American technology wasn’t invulnerable.  In response, we poured money into education and research.

Barely 5 years later, a rocket suddenly launched from deep inside Kazakhstan.  The satellite Sputnik I had entered orbit.  Americans stood in their backyards and watched in awe as it passed overhead.  Suddenly, the most powerful nation in the world was losing its scientific advantage.

The Soviet scientific effort, however, had a significant flaw.  Despite possessing some brilliant scientists and outstanding facilities, the country was an ironclad dictatorship that allowed no dissent.  No matter how talented you were, you had to toe the Communist Party line.  Otherwise, your career was over.

Often, top scientific positions were dished out to party loyalists over those who were better qualified.  This meant that some of the very talent the Russians needed most was sidelined for purely political reasons, not unlike the Soviet military purges that nearly brought down the country in World War II     

America, of course, wasn’t completely free of this sort of political correctness.  Watch the movie “Oppenheimer” and see how some of our best and brightest were marginalized during the Red Scare of the 1950’s.  In addition, gay scientists had to stay rigidly closeted or lose their security clearances.  But for the most part, compared to the Russians, our scientific programs were free of rigid political orthodoxy.

This is why we didn’t just win the space race, but just about any other scientific “competition” you can think of, as well.  US scientists have blown the world away when it comes to Nobel Prizes.  Our discoveries have saved millions of lives and bettered the lives of billions more.

It didn’t happen by magic.  It took a concerted effort, a partnership between government, universities, and industry.  Basic research at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was carried forth in universities and private companies.  New discoveries were made.  New treatments were developed.  Diseases that had plagued the world for centuries were all but eliminated. 

And yes, despite what junior tries to tell you, vaccines played a significant role.

But it wasn’t just about medicine.  It was also water purification, crop development (the “Green Revolution, it was called), environmental science, a fuller understanding of the weather and predicting storms, the development of safer air travel.  And this just scratches the surface.

We didn’t view it as nanny state government over-reach.  It was an investment that was saving lives and making the world a better place.

And now all of this is collapsing.  Not unlike the onset of the Dark Ages.

Most of us learned about the Dark Ages somewhere in school, but here’s a brief refresher. Around 400 AD, the research and progress that had been occurring in Europe since the time of the Greeks and Romans collapsed.  It’s been described as a period of economic, cultural, and educational decline, with a healthy dose of superstition, bigotry, and cruelty also mixed in.

It lasted for 900 years.  Nearly a millennium of society moving backward.  It wasn’t until a turn-around we call the Renaissance that things began to improve.

It didn’t have to be this way.  Elsewhere, progress continued.  While Europeans were focused on burning witches, torturing Jews, and keeping the general population illiterate, science was flourishing in China, India, and throughout the Islamic World.  But in what we now proudly proclaim “the Western World” things were a mess.  It was a miserable time to be alive.

How far are we from those days returning?  During the Dark Ages, no learning could take place that contradicted The Church.  Teach that the Earth wasn’t at the center of the universe, and you could land in the slammer.

Before anyone gets rattled, I’m not saying the Catholic Church suppressed science, as many have claimed.  Rather, Science was delegated to a secondary role behind official orthodoxy.

Aren’t we seeing the same thing today?  Religious orthodoxy has now been replaced by far-right political orthodoxy.  Want to kill science?  Easy.  Smear it as “woke,” “leftist,” or “DEI.”

Cut off funding for cancer research at one of the world’s leading cancer research centers.  Make outrageous claims about vaccines.  Spread deliberate lies about infectious diseases, at a time when a virus that can kill a child or render her brain damaged spreads throughout the country.

Tell parents, don’t worry, just give your kid cod liver oil until it poisons their liver (don’t believe me?  Google Texas Vitamin A hepatotoxicity).  Ignore decades of progress, then say “do your own research.”  AIDS is a hoax.  Covid is a hoax.  No Covid isn’t a hoax, because it was caused by the Chinese.  No, it came from us and went to China.  No, it was all a pharmaceutical conspiracy to sell vaccines.  Vaccines are great if Operation Warp Speed developed them.  But no, don’t take them now.  Covid won’t kill you, but the vaccines will.  No, the vaccines won’t kill you if you decide to take them on your own, but the same vaccines will magically kill you if the government mandates that you take them.

That’s right.  Just pick your lie and call it “doing your own research.”

Today, Trump pulled his nomination of a FOX commentator for Surgeon General because his conspiracy theory advisor recommended it, and replaced her instead with someone WHO HAS NEVER EVEN PRACTICED MEDICINE (see, Trump isn’t the only one who can type in all caps).

What’s the qualification for this new, improved selection?  She’s an “Influencer.” 

You just can’t make this stuff up. 

If you’re a woman or a black researcher, you must be a DEI hire and have to go.  Doing any sort of environmental or atmospheric research?  You’re woke, and you’ll be shut down.  Protecting the environment?  You’re a hoax.  Especially if you could bring up any concerns about the Ketamine Kid himself, Elon Musk.

While scientists from all fields are being fired in droves, one area is untouchable—anything to do with SpaceX, Starlink, Tesla, or any other Musk owned entity.  Those are sacred.

This isn’t much different from the Dark Ages, when a privileged few controlled the resources.  The rich got richer.  Many of the rest simply disappeared. 

Whether you receive warning of an impending tornado, whether your home will be flooded during an ever-increasing “100-year event,” whether your air and water will be clean, and whether your food will be safe, are now at significant risk.

And no, none of that can somehow be outweighed by the fact that junior wants to get rid of a few food dyes.

New cures will be delayed, or simply not found.  Treatments will be politicized and withheld if they are deemed “woke.”  Precious resources will be squandered trying to disprove evidence that we’ve known for decades, if not centuries.  Quack cures will become mainstream. 

The superstition of “MAHA,” “anti-DEI,” and “anti-woke” will now trump science.

I’ll go out on a limb here, and say this:  Donald Trump hates science.  Anyone who feels they are beyond questioning, beyond even possibly making a mistake, and beyond being held accountable for anything they do, hates science.  Under Trump’s reign, science education and discovery will wither.  Opportunities will be missed.  Just like during the Dark Ages and the orthodoxic repression of the Soviet era. 

As American scientists flee to other countries, important research will continue elsewhere.  But unlike the Dark Ages, when science flourished outside Europe, the world is a much more connected place now.  Stifle research and science in our country, and it will impact similar work elsewhere.

So if you want to do your own research, go ahead.  But please check your sources.  Are they consistent?  Are they reliable? Are they science based and not politically focused?  Do they sound too good to be true?

And most of all, do they denigrate the very people who’ve spent their lives in labs, clinics, and research facilities, seeking out the actual truth?

This is about all we can do as the Dark Ages begin to return.  Speak up for the truth.

And hope a Renaissance comes soon.