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Every year Rand Paul does a "festivus report" on government waste, including scientific spending, that gets a ton of uncritical press by media who do not investigate the claims.
My request to media: this year, when basic science really came through for us, please don't share it.
My request to media: this year, when basic science really came through for us, please don't share it.
I understand the appeal of Rand Paul's Festivus report: the story is ready-made click-bait. Lizards on a treadmill! You can use a Seinfeld image! And its almost the holidays, so hard to reach the people the story is about. It is made for social media news sharing.
This sort of stuff is not new. What Paul is doing is just an update of William Proxmire's Golden Fleece Awards. All too often the studies being attacked sound ridiculous only b/c politicians or media don't bother to contact the scientists they criticize. https://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139852035/shrimp-on-a-treadmill-the-politics-of-silly-studies
Take the "shrimp on a treadmill" story from Paul's 2017 Festivus report that went viral. First of all, Tom Coburn pushed the same story in 2011. And scientists had explained the purpose of the study, which was pretty reasonable. But like a zombie, the story cannot be killed.
The festivus report is a cutesy way to get people to share a message they might otherwise not want to: that science spending is wasteful. Paul has also proposed bills to add political overseers to the peer review process. https://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139852035/shrimp-on-a-treadmill-the-politics-of-silly-studies
So please know:
a) there is probably a reasonable explanation for the "waste" that Rand Paul identifies
b) its part of a broader project to defund and politicize federal science spending https://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/senator-misleads-absurd-science/
a) there is probably a reasonable explanation for the "waste" that Rand Paul identifies
b) its part of a broader project to defund and politicize federal science spending https://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/senator-misleads-absurd-science/
If nothing else convinces you not to share Rand Paul's Festivus memes, please consider what the Seinfeld writer who created the holiday thinks of Paul: "He’s some form of lizard that’s crawled into a suit and somehow been allowed in the Senate." https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/264130-festivus-creator-on-rand-i-hate-the-guy
