Holy Shit Science and My Hypocrisy
“MAHA is not about making America healthy again,” says John Oliver. “At best, it is about laundering the reputation of an administration that is doing the exact opposite."
HOBOKEN, AUGUST 26, 2025. My previous post frets over the demise of “Holy Shit Science,” which gives us insights into nature so thrilling that we blurt out, Holy shit! Or words to that effect. Readers have pushed back against my analysis, and I’ve had second thoughts too, which I herewith vent.
Some readers diagnose me with TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome. That’s stupid. History will judge TAKs, Trump-ass-kissers, to be far more deranged than Trump-bashers like me (unless historians all become TAKs and we descend into a new dark age).
I can more aptly be accused of hypocrisy. How can I bash Trump for bashing science when I’ve bashed science for decades? When I’ve harped on the unreliability of peer-reviewed science, which often can’t be replicated? When I’ve accused scientists of “decadence,” of being more obsessed with grants and glory than truth?
I wrote a whole damn book about how science’s quest to solve the riddle of reality is bumping into limits and hence becoming increasingly “ironic,” or bullshitty. I’ve derided string theory, the leading candidate for a theory of everything, as science fiction with equations. I’ve predicted that if physicists discover a theory of everything, it will make sense only to freaks who can untangle 10-dimensional knots.
My girlfriend, Vicki, implicitly raises another problem. She’s been reading The End of Science, and she recently asked me, Why do we need to know about quarks? What good does knowing about quarks do us?
Vicki digs science. She’s glad to know that we’re made of neutrons and protons, which in turn are made of quarks. She’s nonetheless alluding to a serious moral issue: Should the U.S. spend billions on science with no practical payoff--like research on quarks or gravitational waves--when millions of people lack decent health care, housing and education?
I call this the Whitey-on-the-Moon Problem in honor of rap pioneer Gil Scott-Heron. In his 1970 song “Whitey on the Moon” Scott-Heron growls:
A rat done bit my sister Nell
(with Whitey on the Moon)…
The man just upped my rent last night
('cause Whitey's on the moon).
No hot water, no toilets, no lights
(but Whitey's on the moon).
So again, where do I, Mr. End of Science, get off bashing Trump for slashing “basic” research? That’s as hypocritical as the U.S., the world’s biggest warmonger, criticizing Russia for invading other countries.
Okay, that’s the case against me, and here’s my response: I criticize science because I love it, and I want it to live up to its own ideals. Yeah, I’m giving science tough love. That’s my defense, and I’m sticking to it.
I’m a humble critic. I’ve always acknowledged that I could be wrong that science won’t deliver any more big revelations or revolutions. I certainly never wanted scientists to stop trying to solve big mysteries or the government to stop funding “pure” research. If we want to reduce federal spending, start with the trillion-dollar military budget!
Trump, on the other hand, isn’t giving science tough love. He’s not trying to make science great again by making it leaner, more efficient, less wasteful. He’s just a bully lashing out against real and perceived enemies.
Trump whacks science and academia because he wants to destroy our country’s intellectual infrastructure, which he sees, rightly, as inimical to his “values.” (See? I’m not deranged, I give Trump credit for getting certain things right.)
If anyone is guilty of hypocrisy, it’s Trump. Here’s an example: Trump has supposedly given Robert F. Kennedy Jr. free rein to “make America healthy again.” As part of his MAHA project, Kennedy has denounced processed foods and extolled the benefits of fresh produce, and that’s fine.
What’s not fine is that Trumpers are slashing programs that deliver healthier food to those who need it most. CBS News reports that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture is cutting two federal programs that provided about $1 billion in funding to schools and food banks to buy food directly from local farms, ranchers and producers.”
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” reduces the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income families buy food, by $186 billion over 10 years. One analyst tells NPR that under the bill "about 1 million children would see food assistance to their families cut substantially or terminated."
See this critique of MAHA by John Oliver, my favorite comedian/investigative journalist. “MAHA is not about making America healthy again,” Oliver says. “At best, it is about laundering the reputation of an administration that is doing the exact opposite."
Trump has also axed Medicaid and other programs that provide health care to low-income people. Meanwhile he’s curtailing environmental regulation of Elon Musk’s Space X and other space-launch companies.
Gil Scott-Heron should have the last word:
I can't pay no doctor bills
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still
while Whitey's on the moon.
Further Reading:
Being a Science Critic When Science Is Imperiled