One of the more interesting characters of the late 15th century was the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. Under the misguided protection of the powerful Florentine leader Lorenzo ("The Magnificent") Medici, Savonarola worked to undermine nearly everything the Renaissance had achieved. He fulminated from the pulpits of Florence against the creeping scientific secularism and human achievements of the times, inspiring his growing number of followers to help him destroy not only the "vain" ideas and institutions of learning but also their physical manifestations. His first "bonfire of the vanities" on February 7, 1497, destroyed art, books, clothing, early scientific instruments, etc.: basically, any human-made object that Savonarola and his rabid followers believed undercut their beliefs about how things should be.
The current U.S. president has unleashed a modern bonfire of the vanities at a scale that might even give Savonarola pause. Like Lorenzo Medici, the president supports whoever does contemptible things that make his most ardent supporters happy and keeps him in power, with no thought for potential consequences. Every day, it seems, brings a new outrageous story of abuse of office, lack of decency, or even wanton cruelty, all justified under the cultic mantra of making America great again.
The scientific enterprise has been a particular target of this president and the highly unqualified people he has appointed to oversee U.S. science institutions, each of them bearing a uniquely obnoxious resemblance to Savonarola. They use their protected positions to reduce hard-won science knowledge to ashes, from which a fantastical phoenix-like creature has risen that bears nothing but destructive ignorance. It doesn't matter whether the topic is vaccines, infectious disease, common and rare human diseases, basic chemistry and biochemistry, climate and earth, even fundamental physics: If they don't understand it or if it offends their belief systems, it must be destroyed.
These modern arsonists are trying to incinerate the very basis for much of the scientific knowledge we have gained: The vast reserves of fundamental data from which all science proceeds and upon which it is validated. Basically, any unbiased observation or measurement that leads to reasoned conclusions incompatible with their own understanding of the world is a threat that must be obliterated.
There are many examples of their efforts (NIH, CDC, NSF, FDA, etc.), but the most recent and deeply alarming is the threatened dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), based here in Boulder. Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and fanatical MAGA zealot Russell "Savonarola" Vought stated that NCAR is "one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country" and that the administration would be "breaking up" (burning down) the institution, moving "any vital activities" elsewhere. Vought's brazenly willful ignorance of what NCAR is and does is breathtaking. It also confirms that these people want to cremate the very foundation of scientific learnings.
My discussions with several smart NCAR scientists helped me realize that their primary and irreplaceable function is the gathering, organizing and curation of massive amounts of earth sciences data, which is shared openly with over 3,000 scientists and scientific institutions around the world. It is from those data that new hypotheses are born, tested and applied to virtually every facet of life: national defense, climate and weather, aeronautics and astronomy, oceanography, public health, conservation, and all the associated businesses that make it all work for human benefit. NCAR is also a leader in building the supercomputer infrastructure that makes all this accessible and understandable. "We don't judge the science," one NCAR scientist told me. "We make it possible."
One very superficial explanation for why the administration is attacking NCAR is as vengeance for Colorado's principled refusal to pardon and/or release former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from her imprisonment for breaking election laws. That may well be the current president's motivation, driven by the usual deep-seated self-centered neediness he displays in virtually every public moment (when awake). But his close circle of cynical Savonarolas sees Peters' plight as an excuse to pursue the further destruction of data-based realities.
They should note that only a year after he instigated the first bonfire of the vanities, Savonarola's previously zealous followers turned on him for worsening rather than improving their lives and reduced both his person and his efforts to ashes.