In addition, government research in the sciences is miniscule. You could cut ALL of science funding and be no where close to the 1 trillion that Musk claims he’ll be able to reduce the budget by
Habits of Insects
Submitted 5 weeks ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/245da02b-9f8d-476b-a010-eab528c34e30.jpeg
Comments
GreatTitEnthusiast@mander.xyz 5 weeks ago
TheDoctor@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
Now if he could start making cuts to the military…
fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 weeks ago
How dare you threaten the poor defense contractors.
BossDj@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Regardless, he’ll claim he cut 500 bajillion dollars no matter what he ends up doing
BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
My bet is that if he expects to cut 2 trillion, he will end up increasing the budget by 4 trillion.
callouscomic@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
He actually claimed 2 trillion.
Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I knew Elongated Muskrat was a dumbass but I didn’t know he also can’t do math.
21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
The goal’s more about cutting all the science funding than reducing spending. These are people who bitch about Ukraine when they don’t even plan on spending that money on something else they’re just guzzling Russian propaganda.
rational_lib@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
The world just keeps getting more and more efficient at being dumb. Let’s just count all the appallingly stupid things crammed into this small meme with 2 million views:
- "Insurrection Barbie"
- Celebrating the defunding of useful scientific research by a new government efficiency agency
- This new agency is named after a cryptocurrency
- The cryptocurrency in question was created as a joke to satirize cryptocurrencies, but became a top prominent cryptocurrency itself.
- The “Department of Government Efficiency Agency” has 2 heads, both of whom have other primary jobs and were chosen in return for political support.
- There is also already an existing government agency that does the exact same thing, called the “Government Accountability Office”. But most people seem to be unaware of it, likely because it’s not named after a cryptocurrency/dog meme.
- This whole scheme was the idea of the richest person in the world.
Idiocracy didn’t happen because of unnatural selection, it happened because social media unlocked a runaway chain reaction of stupidity.
RandomVideos@programming.dev 5 weeks ago
Why are people saying that it was named after a cryptocurrency?
Isnt the dog the first thing people think of when seeing “doge”?
zeca@lemmy.eco.br 5 weeks ago
Its reasonable to make the connection to the coin, as this particular cryptocurrency was propagandized and manipulated by musk, who will be running the agency.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
True! It was then technically named after a meme…which the coin named itself after, as it was supposed to be a “meme coin”.
Still stands though.
“Government agency named after meme. Such dumb. So chaos. Woooooow.” Lol
antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
Isnt the dog the first thing people think of when seeing “doge”?
It used to be so, but in recent several years Doge has lived and pretty much been defined in public consciousness by the cryptocurrency, which Musk has openly endorsed/memed.
TassieTosser@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
Is it better to be named after a stupid meme instead?
sleeperdouge@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
It was for me until a few years ago. I used doge as a base for most of my internet alias since I like the meme (as you can see from my username). One time inside a game, I was asked if I was a crypto bro because of my ign. At the time, i don’t like crypto but have no hard feelings against it. Ever since then I loath those crypto bros and their worship of crypto currencies for destroying the image of doge and with their stupid crypto currency nonsense.
9point6@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
And so the US lost decade becomes the medieval dark ages
It’d be fascinating as an outsider if the choices made by the US didn’t basically impact everything, everywhere.
Nariom@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I thought we were done with the “medieval dark age” myth.
Sammy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
How’s Neo-Feudal Gilded Age strike you?
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
Say it with me:
No. Research. Is. Useless.
If we say that research is useless because it doesn’t bring you mo ey we could stop teaching children math beyond the absolute basics because “it doesn’t brinf them anything”. This is stupid, because those are the fundamentals that tech children to thing logically and become useful member of society. Same with research. It teaches us the things necessary to maybe invent some of the most useful stuff ever seen
todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Republicans: “No. Research is useless.”
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
That’s a good one, but sadly true.
Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
Republicans want drones and cannon fodder, not scientists and intellectuals.
SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 weeks ago
You say that but I’ve heard concerningly many people say that there is no point in teaching everyone stuff like basic math because chances are they won’t use it
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
I also hear that argument often and I absolutely hate it. They always say “tech them things like insert manual labor work. Nobody needs Math.”
It always depends. A lot of people will likely never use a saw outside of school. Especially in a time where a lot of people go to university the skills that complex math teaches you are basically the bare necessitys. Also school usually is teaches you the basic broad knowledge and skills required to get more specific education on a specific topic. This includes studying all different subjects and also getting training as a woodworker. It is literally impossible to focus on everything and that also isn’t really the use of school. Its just the first and universal form of education.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
India just removed pythagorean theorem from their educational curriculum for the very reason you mentioned.
qyron@sopuli.xyz 5 weeks ago
I agree no research is useless but some just goes straight into the bonkers folder.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
Yeah, but just because a scientist calculated what would happen if we replaced the earth with blueberrys doesn’t mean we should defund him.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
“preventing next corn plague” with resources used being a box of soil and bunch of underpaid grads seems pretty efficient to me, but i guess that since the common clay of the new west already voted they can be safely disposed of
at USDA, they’re turning beetles kinky! 😡
- alex jones fuming aimlessly while being stored in some container
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
The Onion buying Infowars is the only good news I’ve heard this week.
BrazenSigilos@ttrpg.network 5 weeks ago
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Fun fact, Gene Wilder ad-libbed “you know, morons”, so Cleavon Little’s reaction to it is genuine. It’s such a delightful scene.
pH3ra@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
China is going to devour the scientific world of we keep it like this
djsoren19@yiffit.net 5 weeks ago
Won’t happen, or at least won’t be useful if it does. Lotta Chinese authors are faking data for the sake of the CCP and their studies don’t replicate. If that takes over, it’ll be like a global Dark Age.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 5 weeks ago
Going to continue devouring the scientific world with lots of smart Westerns leaving the new SlaveTastic^tm^ USA
Zementid@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
Republicans deserve no progress. Let them fall back into the ages they desire. No Smartphones. That’s which science.
ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
Hell yeah
pH3ra@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
A scientific monopoly is a bad thing regardless who you cheer for
psud@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
China has a problem. It isn’t good at finding the best people and putting them into science (or whatever else). Instead it gets the loyal people and gives them the best jobs, they then select people below them however they will
People then strive for recognition and advancement so scientific fraud is rife
Sylvartas@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Neolib idiots don’t see the (immense) value of fundamental research because it doesn’t directly generate profits, more at 11
ReCursing@lemmings.world 5 weeks ago
They’re not neolibs, they’re fascists. The Democrats are neolibs
Sylvartas@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
True, but I don’t think many of them would say that to your face (including musk who I assume would pretend to be neolib, who do kind of have a hate boner for basic research, at least in my country)
fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Which is stupid, because even video games make you research sticks before you can make nuclear reactors. Guess even entertainment can’t teach dumb shits anything. Just retaining nothing.
Famko@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
They’ve never seen a game complicated enough to have research tbf.
djsoren19@yiffit.net 5 weeks ago
It directly generates profits, they’re just too stupid to understand how.
Sylvartas@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Yeah but sometimes it might not because that is not the main goal ! Useless, I tell you !
Randelung@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Like the dead don’t realize they’re dead, they don’t realize they’re stupid. They’re just everyone else’s problem.
fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 weeks ago
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
We’ve built a society with full guard rails. There’s very little a stupid person can do to remove themselves from the gene pool before they procreate. Being stupid seems to actually increase the odds that they’ll procreate early, and often.
troglodytis@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
They were when they were alive, too
Facebones@reddthat.com 5 weeks ago
Welcome to the new Dark Ages, brought to you by religious fascists.
pufferfisherpowder@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Elon isn’t even religious. Like always religion is just a fucking disguise for enriching themselves, both with money and power.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Neither is trump, or any of these other people.
django@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
Stupidly funny, right? Like watching a movie, where something dumb is about to happen. You are watching and screaming in agony, pleading for the characters on the screen not to do the dumb thing. But you watch in horror, as all your words are without any effect, you can’t reach anyone.
But now with the added bonus, that the dumb thing might affect your life. Or that of your loved ones, neighbours, friends.
psud@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
Living in Australia, with China just to the north as our largest trade partner, I’m not looking forward to what is going to happen with America’s allies in relation to China
pyre@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
again
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I’m thinking this too… let’s hope Renaissance mk2 only takes a few years to blossom - but my confidence is not high.
mac@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
The appointment of Elon Musk to lead the proposed department of government efficiency raises concerns, given his track record of business management.
His handling of Twitter/X after its $44 billion acquisition has resulted in a significant decline in its value, with some sources putting the valuation around $9bn.
Doesn’t seem very efficient to me.
Dasus@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Not just significant, I’m pretty sure the loss in value is some sort of a record, for real.
psud@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
This idea has been around for a while. Make government more efficient by putting a private enterprise person in charge
It never worked because the private enterprise person got efficiency by having a cool project or forceful personality in the private enterprise which let them pay their employees poorly. Or maybe they paid their employees well and had excellent success. But then they have government employees who are hard to fire, have highly specialist knowledge, aren’t in it for profit and so the private enterprise maverick is usually [worse than] useless
I don’t expect it to work this time either, especially as Musk is more interested in Tesla, SpaceX, and his other companies
21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
Hell can we mention that the cold war era these fucks idolize was also the golden age of the government throwing money at side projects?
mayhair@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
Yeah, we’ve been studying the sex lives of various different animals (including ourselves!) for centuries now, yet nobody bat an eye until now. 🙄
PanArab@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Welcome to a new era of weaponized ignorance
Darth_Reagan@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
the 2010s science bazinga man being the reason all the cool science gets cut is darkly sad. hate this man.
masterofn001@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
It’s also helped develop advances in flight, metamaterials, physics.
But Barbie makes a good point with a meme about how she treats her cuck husband.
Lussy@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
Fuck dude, I’m about to get an awesome job with the usda after being unemployed for over 2 years, and time is literally running out for me to get my contract finalized before these ghouls fuck everything.
A kind fuck you to every hexbearite ironically cheering on the destruction of the civilian government workforce.
ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
Roasts are equally lost on them, these people only understand bullyinghow-compelling
wax_worm_futures@hexbear.net 5 weeks ago
Yes! I was just reading a few scientific articles about the mating patterns of darkling beetles. (not a gov’t employee tho)
TheWolfOfSouthEnd@lemmygrad.ml 5 weeks ago
Like they said after Brexit…”tired of experts”.
superkret@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
Goddamn, it really is impossible!
How the fuck am I gonna filter US politics out of my feed when it creeps in through Science Memes?JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 weeks ago
“Haha, I’m insurrection barbie, get it? Because the libs think when Donald Trump lets a massive mob of his supporters to the Capitol to disrupt the election certification process it was an insurrection!”
JoShmoe@ani.social 5 weeks ago
I’m too stupid to understand. How does this all connect?!
Ethalis@jlai.lu 5 weeks ago
Sure, that’s great but it’s not even the point. Fundamental research and other type of “useless” scientific endeavors help humanity as a whole to better understand our universe but would never be privately funded because they don’t have any concrete and immediate financial benefits. This is precisely what a government should finance, because no one else would do it and yet it’s small stuff like that that make us collectively move forward as a species
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 5 weeks ago
Musk fans don’t want humanity to advance. They hate technological progress.
SARGE@startrek.website 5 weeks ago
For OTHERS, yes. But many want the cutting edge for themselves, at no cost to themselves.
algorithmae@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
Where did Musk come from? I don’t see any mention of it here
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
And here you’ve identified why they hate it. They cannot stand the idea that resources might benefit other people, resources that they could hoard instead.
bronzle@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Oh, they’ll probably publicly fund it for private profit