We Are Scientists Against A Fascist Government

A view from the scientific community in the USA

As we face threats to humanity ranging from continued violations of Native American sovereignty and anti-Black violence, to anti-refugee policies and the denial of global warming — a phenomenon that promises to displace more and more people — now is the time for scientists to ask: What is our moral duty as scientists?

We are writing as scientists who are concerned about the rise of an authoritarian, Trump-led, and GOP-dominated government. While new administrations always mean change — for federal agencies, for funding priorities, and for the direction of our nation — perhaps not since Andrew Jackson has an American President been so outwardly threatening to so many groups of people that reside within the borders of the United States; as climate change accelerates, so too should our response to it.

Rather than taking up the task of providing necessary leadership to protect our global ecosystem, Trump and the GOP are instead planning devastating rollbacks of environmental protections. We believe the gutting of these programs represent a profound danger to all life on earth; indeed, we are at a precarious point in our human history.

What is our moral duty as scientists?

As scientists, our funding swells on the fortunes of commercial, governmental, and military spending. It can shrink just as easily. Many scientists view their work as objective, operating outside of the realm of the political; ostensibly, facts are facts and shouldn’t be subjected to opinions. History has shown us again and again, however, that science does not exist in a vacuum, but will be exactly used — as a constructive tool or a weapon — to impact ideological, political, and socioeconomic goals. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see that politics, ethics, and science have always been inextricably entwined.

Our lengthy human legacy traces a long and fraught entanglement between scientists and fascist administrations; we’ve borne witness to the havoc it wreaks not only on scientific research, but on society’s most vulnerable communities. There is no clearer example than the swift and radical changes that the Nazi Party introduced in Germany after they came to power in 1933 — much like Trump — without a majority mandate, but via legal methods.

History has shown us again and again that science will be used to impact ideological, political, and socioeconomic goals.

Donald Trump — with the apparent support of the Republican Party — opposes the open and free exchange of information, including scientific research. More worrisome, his administration has taken steps to further institutionalize and enshrine racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia in U.S. law and government operations.

Science, even just within the United States, is an international enterprise; it’s an intricate multinational dialogue and financial ecosystem. The scientific community in America contains — indeed relies on — immigrants from countries around the world. We recognize that there are hierarchies of power — as with every other facet of society — within the scientific community. We must stand with those at the greatest risk, including people of colour, women/gender minorities, immigrants, and those at the intersections of these identities. Attacks on those at the margins — both within and without the scientific community — are attacks on human knowledge, on the very advancement of our society.

They are attacks on all of us.

We used the words “fascist” and “establishment” in our title very purposefully. The Trump administration is characterized by blatant lies, lies that are repeated even after being proved demonstrably false. The administration uses scapegoats — like immigrants and Muslims — to drive nationalist sentiment. The administration speaks of returning to our nation’s lost greatness, “a greatness” predicated on the oppression of the same scapegoats he seeks to ruin. The administration openly attacks journalists and voting rights.

These are all hallmarks of fascism. And because this fascism now carries the weight of the executive branch of government, it has become an entrenched, establishment fascism, emboldened by the mechanisms of life and death — from drones to nuclear bombs, from family planning grants to decisions about which diseases receive research funding — that the American government provides.

The full article can be read here.