re: #90 b_sharp

I hate to say it but it looks like anti-science is the default position for the US and was only temporarily disrupted when the Communists reached space and while the USSR was a threat. Since ‘89 it looks like the attitude is making a comeback.

The USA was really good at practical science: individuals or small comapnies finding applications for scientific principles and making money at it.

But as we found out after WWII (once we had milked everything we could from our expatriate and kidnapped German scientists) was that making progress in theoretical research is a joint, communal effort, one that cannot really be driven by short-term profit-seeking.

But “communal” sounds too much like, well, you-inow-what-ism…