As kids, we were usually told to leave the “important stuff” to the adults and the experts. We listened to Bill Nye, trusted our teachers who simply “knew better” and were taught that the adults typically knew best. We were told that with age came wisdom, and we were just “too young to get it.”
But now as college students, we’re certainly not kids anymore. And we have people who are objectively not experts in certain fields — say, an actor and so-called politician pretending to be a climate scientist — claiming to be the experts and thus, the ones that we must listen to. But can we trust them?
Not at all.
We’ve seen a storm of troubling policies coming out of the White House in the past few weeks: withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, lifting restrictions on oil, gas and energy companies and active attacks on efforts at fighting climate change — and that’s barely even skimming the surface of the list of executive orders and policies that have been issued, many targeting academic research.
It all seems so senseless. The most powerful people in the country are denying decades of dedicated scientific research, opting to promote conspiracy theories as the truth instead. But what is there to gain from denying these scientific discoveries? It’s a waste of time and energy that could be spent fixing actual issues.
The answer is simple: money and power.
Shutting down environmental protections allows oil, gas and other big polluter companies to produce more products and place more money in the pockets of shareholders and investors.
Scientists are begging our government to listen to and believe in their work. It doesn’t take an expert to see that the climate is changing fast. Summers are hotter than ever, wildfires are miserably fierce and there are blizzards in places there shouldn’t be. The only way to ignore the obvious problems in our changing world and the clear evidence that supports them is to choose to do so. The people in power right now are picking willful ignorance to fill their pockets instead of taking care of the public and the planet.
It’s not just climate change, either. There’s a lot of disinformation surrounding vaccinations as well, including the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism — which they do not.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of the leading voices on this conspiracy theory as well as more disinformation around health, including rejecting research proving HIV infections cause AIDS and said COVID-19 “targeted and spared certain ethnic groups.”
Why are we about to let someone who clearly doesn’t know the basics of science lead the Department of Health and Human Services?
Historians have also joined scientists in warning us. Right now, what we’re seeing in government is beginning to parallel the start of Nazi Germany. These parallels could not be any clearer — President Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler, saying “I need the kind of the generals that Hitler had” and even going further to say Hitler “did some good things.” Additionally, Elon Musk, Trump’s right-hand man (who, mind you, we did not elect) performed the Nazi salute two times in a row at a Trump rally.
Why are people turning a blind eye to what’s going on?
People get lost in the blizzard of information on the internet. It’s a struggle to decipher, filter out and figure out what’s true and false and if your resource is qualified enough to speak on certain topics, especially if one doesn’t opt to do their own research.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in conspiracy theories, and it can be hard to untangle yourself from those beliefs, especially with social media and the internet. It’s even more confusing when the people leading the country are the ones spearheading said confusion. However, this in no way excuses ignorance. There are so many opportunities to learn what is right and get yourself out of these harmful beliefs, but Trump’s fearmongering has been so consistent and widespread that it just gets worse and worse by the day.
And the thing is — Trump knows what he’s doing is wrong.
Trump hasn’t been shy to admit to abuses of power. When asked during a December 2024 town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity if he wouldn’t abuse his powers as president, Trump replied “Except for day one.” He didn’t even bother to try and hide his intentions. Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric has been out in the open for years, but this outright admission is nothing less than terrifying.
He knows that science is correct. Why else would he be shutting down further research? He knows that the more evidence that counters the rhetoric he’s spitting out is found, the more likely it is that his followers will be able to break out of what is, essentially, a cult. He is ruling entirely through fear. He is no president. He is a dictator. Everything that is going on is fully intentional to give himself and his friends more power.
All of this isn’t for the “good of the people,” and it never was. It was never about doing what was right for everyone. It’s an abuse of power, lies and mistreatment, playing pretend as “experts” so we don’t question the things they say. Just because someone sits in a seat of power doesn’t mean they’re an expert — education and research does.
We never questioned Nye’s authority because he showed us, with evidence, what he knows and how he knows it. Even since we were kids.
Trump and his cabinet have yet to show us they have that.
Antaine Anhalt is a first-year communication studies major and columnist for The News. He can be reached at [email protected].
