I can't believe it's coincidence and accident that this Administration is assaulting medical research simultaneously on multiple fronts: here, with these attacks on universities, that seem to primarily target NIH research at America's most prestigious schools; the DOGE attacks, which are preferentially deleting medical workers, multiple entire offices at the FDA and the CDC; and that decision to elevate an HIV/AIDS denier to the office of HHS secretary.

I don't know what the intention is behind this systematic assault on medicine. It's incomprehensible.

The intention? A country that is broken and looking to the fascists in charge to keep them safe from the same mess they created.

people keep trying to attribute a rationality beyond a selfish power/money grab... they are racist bullies looking to be the boot stomping on humanity's face forever while also looting the place six ways from Sunday along the way (just like Putin and his circle in Russia)

> I don't know what the intention behind this mass assault on medicine is. It's utterly incomprehensible.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_w...

They view it as an assault on Universities, not "science". The thinking goes (you see this kind of rhetoric right here on HN) that The Radical Left has infested education in the United States and polluted the thinking of a generation of future leaders. "Woke Mind Virus", etc...

So to stamp that out, you need to get the kids to stop with the bad thinking. But you can't actually do that as the government because of the whole "shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech" thing.

So instead you hit their school instead. Make it so Columbia (in this case) knows that their funding depends on the grace of the government, and that if they want it back they need to start expelling or otherwise controlling the spreaders of the woke virus.

It baffles me because everyone wins when we fund research. And by and large, the biggest benefactors of public research are private companies that can develop and commercialize the research.

Not only will this cause brain drain, but in the long run it will surely make American industry less competitive across the board.

As is so much else going on, this is a failed marshmallow test meant only to satisfy short term emotion.

Is there a serious steelman argument for why it makes sense to reflexively call protests against Israel anti-Semitic? The Jews are a globally distributed (and somewhat loosely defined) cultural group, whereas Israel is a specific concrete geopolitical entity. They are just completely categorically different things. Even if you have insane pro-terrorist views and want to wipe Israel off the map (which, to be clear, I don’t support), it’s not necessarily the case that your reason for holding those beliefs is antipathy to the Jewish culture, religion or ethnicity. Indeed that might be why you hold those beliefs, but as far as I can tell it’s not logically required.

power creep? Anti-semitism has been a shutdown all discussion sacred cow since ww2, the palestine-israel juxtaposition creates an impossible to win scenario to comment on socially, bump the sacred cow up because of historical relevancy and you have a salient argument for shutting down further discussions

Israel's direct enemies make it very explicit that they are antisemitic. Consider Hamas' charter, for example.

Those enemies have long used European allies that descend from a long line of antisemitism, from both left and right wings. They often use "Israel" as a cover for their anti-Jewish beliefs. Several United Nations agencies seem to exist for the sole purpose of condemning Israel, while ignoring much worse issues elsewhere -- and that's not because Israel is uniquely bad.

Israel's right wing government has taken advantage of this. So much anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitic that they can lump in all of the many, many valid criticisms. They believe, with some justification, that they will never receive fair treatment so they might as well do what they are accused of.

I don't wish to "both sides" this. I'm just explaining that Jews have experienced so much bad faith argument that even Jews who are disgusted by the Israeli government expect outside criticism to come from a similar malfeasance. Maybe you specifically want to have a good faith discussion, but statistically the odds aren't great. So the arguments get shut down by the most expedient means, not the most correct ones.

I was asking if there is one, not asserting that there is. I don’t understand your question.

Like what?

Any idea why Columbia in particular? Dozens of universities had protests of varying kinds, and they fell over themselves trying to comply. Does something make Columbia stand out? Or was it an arbitrary pick to be an example?

Decades Ago, Columbia Refused to Pay Trump $400 Million

A quarter-century ago, the university was looking to expand. It considered, and rejected, property owned by Donald Trump. He did not forget it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/nyregion/trump-columbia-u...

A working theory is a grudge from a long time ago over not buying land from trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/nyregion/trump-columbia-u...

From the article:

> Brown University and Princeton University have also had their NIH grants frozen, and the agency is reviewing its funding to Harvard University as part of a broader Trump administration review of some $9 billion in federal funding to the Massachusetts school.

makes one wonder how many people currently in clinical trials will suffer because of this

From the story: "Last month, White House began to pressure Columbia over its handling of anti-Israel protests and other allegations of antisemitism at the university..." If anyone thinks this is about antisemitism please check out the links below.

John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, reiterated his assertion that Trump said, “Hitler did some good things, too,” in a story published Tuesday in The New York Times. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-said-hitler-did-...

Donald Trump dabbles in Nazi allusions too often for it to be a coincidence. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/politics/trump-nazi-allusions...

Trump's re-election campaign that featured a symbol used in Nazi Germany. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53098439

Trump’s latest flirtation with Nazi symbolism draws criticism https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4677700-trumps-latest-...

Trump campaign accused of T-shirt design with similarity to Nazi eagle https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/11/fac...

Donald Trump's 'Star of David' Tweet About Hillary Clinton Posted Weeks Earlier on Racist Feed https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-...

Our universities are the envy of the world for their academic freedoms.

Were. Were the envy of the world.

Some key text from the article:

At the behest of its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH will not only block new funding for the university, but also stop paying investigators working on all existing NIH projects. Although these researchers will not be ordered to stop work, they will need prior approval from NIH to draw from existing disbursements, according to an NIH source.

Wow. This is literally the definition of doublespeak.

> The administration also accuses the [60] universities of racism through their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs [...]

The "Not Invented Here" NIH, on the other hand, has extended me a virtually bottomless line of credit, with class LW repayment terms.