[bell-cot]

> I think if you're against these cuts you also have to be open to ...

Philosophically, that assertion can be made.

Real-world, there are vastly more humans who are against these cuts for mundane reasons than there are devout philosophers.

And our current scientific research establishment is a bloated & self-serving bureaucracy. Which demands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_of_clergy while treating its actual production workers like crap.

And, given human nature, reforming a crappy "X-ology Research Establishment" is far more difficult that deciding on the in-theory relative merits of researching X-ology vs. Y-ology vs. Z-ology.