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John MacDougal, President of the NRC, literally said, “Scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value”. Gary Goodyear, the Canadian Minister of State for Science and Technology, also stated “There is [sic] only two reasons why we do science and technology. First is to create knowledge … second is to use that knowledge for social and economic benefit. Unfortunately, all too often the knowledge gained is opportunity lost.
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Canada and science: NRC will now only do science that promotes “economic gain”.
I will never understand this anti-intellectualism, anti-science strain that seems to plague conservatism. I suppose we’re on the heels of the States again, where they approved in March an amendment that “allows only political science research that promotes “national security or the economic interests of the United States.” So yeah, gearing up for lots of awful ideology-based policymaking all around.
