I appreciate this point (& @JuniperLSimonis as an amazing human) but I think picking on big price tags that are actually small fry in government spending is a mistake. The defense budget is nearly $700 billion— tap the war machine and pay people reparations, income, etc https://twitter.com/juniperlsimonis/status/1362444692781027329

I believe in an abundance mindset: we are absolutely right to question spending priorities, but we all deserve to not only have our needs met but to be able to pursue a deeper understanding of our world and universe

Snarking at NASA’s spending helps take attention off the military industrial complex (MIC) and billionaires who don’t pay taxes but fancy themselves space entrepreneurs. And while we’re at it: let’s push for a people’s space program that doesn’t cooperate with or fatten the MIC

There’s historical analogies here, too: one reason SETI has been historically underfunded is that it was used as a tool by Congressmen who wanted to appear to be “cutting wasteful spending”— because it’s easy to cut something relatively small by mocking it and look heroic

Setting up the fight so we squabble over things we *already deserve to have ALL of* is how we lose, especially when collectively our reps in Congress could probably find $2 billion in their couch cushions

There are absolutely critiques to be made about our space program, and STEM as an industry— we think about them a lot @JustSpaceOrg!— but I refuse the idea that we can barely have survival. Fuck that! People deserve to thrive on Earth and to know this beautiful universe, too!