President Donald Trump's administration is pushing a "deliberate destruction of education, science, and history," wrote Adam Serwer in a scathing analysis for The Atlantic published on Tuesday — and it recalls the "Dark Ages" that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.
"Every week brings fresh examples," wrote Serwer. For instance, Trump "is threatening colleges and universities with the loss of federal funding if they do not submit to its demands, or even if they do. The engines of American scientific inquiry and ingenuity, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, are under sustained attack. Historical institutions such as the Smithsonian and artistic ones like the Kennedy Center are being converted into homes for MAGA ideology rather than historical fact and free expression."
One of the most prominent of these attacks is on Harvard University, which the administration today announced will have all its remaining grants canceled, he said. That matter is currently the focus of legal action as Harvard fights back, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.
This purge is already snuffing out free thought across the country, wrote Serwer: "Libraries are losing funding, government-employed scientists are being dismissed from their jobs, educators are being cowed into silence, and researchers are being warned not to broach forbidden subjects. Entire databases of public-health information collected over decades are at risk of vanishing. Any facts that contradict the gospel of Trumpism are treated as heretical."
The result of all this will be to "undermine Americans’ ability to comprehend the world around us," he warned. "Like the inquisitors of old, who persecuted Galileo for daring to notice that the sun did not, in fact, revolve around the Earth, they believe that truth-seeking imperils their hold on power."
And the harm done to America's ability to conduct basic research to improve our lives and advance technology is hard for lay people to comprehend, he continued.
While private companies do a lot of innovation themselves, he continued, "the research that leads to that invention tends to be a costly gamble — for this reason, the government often takes on the initial risk that private firms cannot." For instance, "commercial flight, radar, microchips, spaceflight, advanced prosthetics, lactose-free milk, MRI machines — the list of government-supported research triumphs is practically endless." And even when private companies do their own research, it takes a back seat to profit — after all, "Exxon Mobil knew climate change was real decades ago, and nevertheless used its influence to raise doubt about findings it knew were accurate."
As the Trump administration burns down America's capabilities in the pursuit of destroying "forbidden ideas," Serwer concluded, history could be on track for a grim repeat: it "will dramatically impair the ability to solve problems, prevent disease, design policy, inform the public, and make technological advancements. Like the catastrophic loss of knowledge in Western Europe that followed the fall of Rome, it is a self-inflicted calamity. All that matters to Trumpists is that they can reign unchallenged over the ruins." 1.7K Comments / 1K
while it is important to stress how terrible trump is making these times, and how much a fascist he is, please know that the “dark ages” were not in fact “dark” at all. there was a whole swath of Asian, African, and Islamic technology, art, and culture that was blooming.
Even Europe had important discoveries and inventions through that time, like the windmill.
The whole Dark Ages schtick was made up by Enlightenment people to make them feel better about themselves.
It's much more than that.
Ehhh, it’s more about the number of surviving records.
It’s dark to us relative to how long ago it was. We still know much more about it than ancient history.
But one thing that definitely did happen during the dark ages and lasted until the renaissance is looking back at the past and feeling a fall from grace.
Shit we already feel than comparing today to 1999 (when civilization peaked according to The Matrix).
i tend to think it was made up to “label” or “blame” the times white people struggled, so as to not recognize the “struggle” was actually just bog standard racism, colonial collapse, and a transition away from feudalism.
You know …as we enter into the “dark ages” I am fascinated by what the outcome is for the rest of the countries within the progression and advancement of technology. I am curious to see the infrastructure, education, AI, ecosystem, biology under the medical aspect. I am sure all of the countries would bypass us with years in advancement regarding society. Because America is now entering a 4th world country dragged back into 1800 century fighting its way to the light through the dark ages. We would be too poor to even steal or try to infiltrate, (example Gaza, Palestine, Afghanistan, and several countries) that we have literally destroyed and put them back into 3rd world impoverished countries. So I am very curious to see how other countries progress when we have destroyed ourselves from within, like a cancer eating parasites that this country is. Just look at China, look at Japan, Saudi Arabia, SK, Asian countries, Africa, and several countries that has just sped through years in advancements of infrastructure, technology, cars, roads, education, Medicare/healthcare and practically everything.
I am well aware that countries has it’s faults as well, every country does…but if we compare countries to US…I think the writing on the wall is there, we are headed for some real bad times, and I am not the least bit surprised. We are spiraling into a 4th world country that is so impoverished, destitute, and appalling. Remember those commercials that used to show up of African babies, “You can save this child by donating so so a month to feed and clothe.” That’s gonna be us very soon with other countries advertisement on their tv, showing us Americans starving to death on the dilapidated roads and buildings looking like we just got out of World War One. But hey….that’s just my theory and speculations…take it with a grain of salt. We truly never know what the future holds..but I mean…I don’t know…it looks like we are though.
They were dark for Europe though, that is undeniable.
not really - a whole ton of german, austrian, “barbarian” art and science was, in fact, explored and created.
it was a period of growth. growth hurts but it was still there.
Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford University Press 2005), pp. 87, 183
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In other words, denying the Dark Ages is denying historical evidence, most of the times with a political or religious revisionist agenda behind.
again - considering other facets of humanity existing outside of rome and europe is important.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1eWIe5M4FA4
I'm talking about Europe though, again, re-read my comment.
Germany had tons of dark ages art and progress, no?