Nature Editorial for Scientists: Beware the rise of the radical right

[NNadir]

The following editorial appears in the journal Nature, one of the world's premier scientific journals:

Beware the rise of the radical right

Academic freedom is on the hit list when radical politicians gain office — as they have done in Europe.

Some excerpts:

Hidden inside a 1970s office block close to London’s Waterloo station is a tiny organization that has helped tens of thousands of academics find sanctuary from conflict. Co-founded 85 years ago by the economist William Beveridge and physicist Ernest Rutherford, the organization, now called the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), enabled many notable twentieth-century scientists — including biochemist Hans Krebs and philosopher Karl Popper — escape the Nazis and settle at British universities. In recent years it has reached out to the Middle East and receives the largest volume of applications from Yemen and Iraq.

CARA and its counterparts in other countries exist because governments in the host nations value three of the pillars on which democracy rests: the rule of law, a free press and, as we explore in a Comment article, freedom of academic enquiry. If the British government were to decide not to support even one of these, CARA would struggle to carry on...

...Europe’s heads of government are biting their lips, and their reasons for doing so are understandable, even if European agreements or conventions are being violated. There is, of course, the principle of non-interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. But, in addition, the EU works through the collective solidarity of its member states. This is what has enabled the organization to enact progressive policies in climate change, anti-discrimination legislation and employee rights.

But collective progressivism breaks down when one-third of EU governments include political parties with scant commitment to protecting democratic institutions. Now that EU governments include parties who do not believe in the rights of people from minority groups, the consensus on climate change, or, indeed, academic freedom, it will become more difficult for the EU as a whole to either advance, advocate or protect policies in these fields...

I don't know why the editorial singles out Europe.

The United States - and now Brazil - are ruled by some of the worst examples of human beings the world has ever seen.

We will see if "the rule of law" can survive in the US. How history will regard it will depend entirely on whether the orange nightmare and his enablers see prison time or, better yet, die in prison.

The implications extend well beyond science, but at as we are realizing the climate catastrophe predicted years ago by scientists, more than science is at risk. It is the very future of humanity that is on the line.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Thanks for sharing, and you're right ... it's not just Europe, in fact I suspect the US is actually

the epicenter of this recent rise of fascism, and the closely-related problem of science-denial.

We rational people may soon find we have no choice but to take some drastic actions against the fascist infestation going on in the US, and many European countries.

[NNadir]

2. Well the question is what "drastic action..."

...might be.

History has a way with dealing with people who record contempt for reality, but often they get away with it while the live.

I'm hoping that Trump and the members of his crime family die in prison, but what I can do to advance this outcome is not entirely clear to me.