this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
1526 points (99.2% liked)

Science Memes

11426 readers
2156 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Ethalis@jlai.lu 310 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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 83 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Musk fans don't want humanity to advance. They hate technological progress.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 44 points 1 month ago

For OTHERS, yes. But many want the cutting edge for themselves, at no cost to themselves.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] GreatTitEnthusiast@mander.xyz 139 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

[–] TheDoctor@hexbear.net 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now if he could start making cuts to the military…

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 45 points 1 month ago (17 children)

How dare you threaten the poor defense contractors.

[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

also, entire military is just under 1tn - all of it, including completely nonmovable things like nuclear silos and submarines. ripping enough copper from the walls to get 2tn would involve massive cuts to social security and healthcare, and maybe education. but nooo heavens forbid that progressive tax on income be introduced

[–] frezik@midwest.social 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The DoD itself spent $820B in 2023. To get over $1T, you also have to include veterans benefits, like the VA hospital system.

The full bill for Vietnam started coming 20 years after the fact as all those veterans got older and started heavily using the benefits they were promised. From the start of the War on Terror, we're about at that same point right now. So unless the plan is to rug pull those benefits from people who really need them, then there's going to be a huge bill coming that no amount of efficiency trimming can ignore.

If Democrats did the rug pull, Republicans would cry bloody murder. If Trump did it, they will cheer him on while veterans suffer.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Regardless, he'll claim he cut 500 bajillion dollars no matter what he ends up doing

[–] BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 month ago (3 children)

My bet is that if he expects to cut 2 trillion, he will end up increasing the budget by 4 trillion.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He actually claimed 2 trillion.

[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I knew Elongated Muskrat was a dumbass but I didn't know he also can't do math.

[–] MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I don't think he even attempted to do math. Someone asked him about it and said what the current budget was, and he just rectally sourced 2 trillion. I assume he said that because it's big enough to sound huge, but less than half of spending so people don't panic that everything will be cut.

It's meaningless bullshit until he actually says specifically what will be cut. Republicans have been claiming they can cut huge chunks of spending for years, but it never materializes. They only know how cut government income without paying for it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 134 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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:

  1. "Insurrection Barbie"
  2. Celebrating the defunding of useful scientific research by a new government efficiency agency
  3. This new agency is named after a cryptocurrency
  4. The cryptocurrency in question was created as a joke to satirize cryptocurrencies, but became a top prominent cryptocurrency itself.
  5. The "Department of Government Efficiency Agency" has 2 heads, both of whom have other primary jobs and were chosen in return for political support.
  6. 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.
  7. 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 18 points 1 month ago (6 children)

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 51 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 18 points 1 month 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 14 points 1 month 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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 115 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought we were done with the "medieval dark age" myth.

[–] Sammy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 52 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How’s Neo-Feudal Gilded Age strike you?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 25 points 1 month ago

One giant leap forward, one roundhouse kick back.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 113 points 1 month ago (16 children)

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

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago

Republicans want drones and cannon fodder, not scientists and intellectuals.

load more comments (14 replies)
[–] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 104 points 1 month ago (3 children)

"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 34 points 1 month ago

The Onion buying Infowars is the only good news I've heard this week.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 41 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

China is going to devour the scientific world if we keep it like this

[–] djsoren19@yiffit.net 13 points 1 month 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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Like the dead don't realize they're dead, they don't realize they're stupid. They're just everyone else's problem.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Neolib idiots don't see the (immense) value of fundamental research because it doesn't directly generate profits, more at 11

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 29 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Welcome to the new Dark Ages, brought to you by religious fascists.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] mac@lemm.ee 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] mayhair@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 1 month 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. 🙄

[–] Darth_Reagan@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

the 2010s science bazinga man being the reason all the cool science gets cut is darkly funny.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Welcome to a new era of weaponized ignorance

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] wax_worm_futures@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes! I was just reading a few scientific articles about the mating patterns of darkling beetles. (not a gov't employee tho)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago

Roasts are equally lost on them, these people only understand bullyinghow-compelling

load more comments
view more: next ›