[657df026-caa]

It is a little buried in there, but it is worth noting that the cut in funding is going to have a major impact on some important climate change research groups and facilities.

It should not be a surprise that the governor who scrapped the funding is a Republican. This isn't just a part of an anti-government or even anti-education strategy, it is a part of the war on science (specifically regarding climate change).

[mattkrause]

The UA system does a lot of unique research.

Similar cuts hit (say) UNC or Berkely would be a tragedy too, but a lot of the people and projects could move to Duke or Stanford pretty easily.

Not many places have icebreaker research vessels like the RV Sikuliaq, herds of reindeer and muskoxen (UAF's large animal research station), or giant RF transmitters for studying the ionosphere (HAARP--and no, it doesn't control the weather).

[ksaj]

> (HAARP--and no, it doesn't control the weather)

Or your mind. The first time I ever heard of HAARP was a wonky conspiracy theory that it was being used for mind control, purposely dumbing down the masses, no less.

Once I discovered what it actually is, I found it quite interesting.

[kartan]

> This isn't just a part of an anti-government or even anti-education strategy

Big corporations should be paying way more taxes. It would be a good way to avoid creating such undemocratic centers of power. Education is a human right: Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

* https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

[mistermann]

Did the UN declare that we are obligated to provide free post-secondary education, or am I misreading that?

[atmosx]

Uneducated population doesn’t understand the repercussions of their choices and can be easily controlled through FUD. There have been regimes (e.g. Portugal’s military dictatorship) who made lack of education an official policy.

[molmalo]

Your post sparked curiosity in me, and I googled it... but according to Wikipedia, the Portuguese dictatorship expanded literacy to cover most of the population, and also made a:

> strong investment in secondary and university education, which experienced in this period one of the fastest growth rates of Portuguese education history to date. [1]

So, it seems like Wikipedia contradicts your statement...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_(Portugal)#Educati...

[atmosx]

The above claim comes from this article: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

More specifically (quoting relevant paragraph):

--

In truth, there was a lot of ignorance back then. Forty years of authoritarian rule under the regime established by António Salazar in 1933 had suppressed education, weakened institutions and lowered the school-leaving age, in a strategy intended to keep the population docile. The country was closed to the outside world; people missed out on the experimentation and mind-expanding culture of the 1960s. When the regime ended abruptly in a military coup in 1974, Portugal was suddenly opened to new markets and influences. Under the old regime, Coca-Cola was banned and owning a cigarette lighter required a licence. When marijuana and then heroin began flooding in, the country was utterly unprepared.

--

That said, you are correcting wikipedia says the exact opposite which is interesting.

[657df026-caa]

While that is true in this specific instance, history is pretty rife with dictators slaughtering entire classes of educated people. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are the first example I have off the top of my head.

[mistermann]

This implies educated people can't also be easily controlled. It may require different specific tactics, but I see little evidence that they can't also be controlled, generally speaking.

[aaronbrethorst]

I found this link via https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/carnage, which includes another link to a bomb-shell of a piece on the 'consultant' who's spearheading this effort: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-the-right-wing-consu...

[657df026-caa]

For those who did not click, this consultant is "the itinerant grim reaper of state budgets who has for more than twenty years been going from state to state when a new Republican governor comes into power cutting state spending down to the bone and making way for tax cuts for the wealthy."

For some of these people, I honestly have a hard time telling just how much they actually believe in these policies, and how much it happens to serve their other ideological interests by proxy even though they know full well that their economic policies of choice are a load of malarkey. I mean, history has shown a trail of bodies from these kinds of moves.