Posted: Jul 19, 2016 4:00 am
As far as information sharing goes there seems to be little difference if a regime is far right, far left or religiousy fundamental. they all try to suppress contrary information of all types, including scientific. Radical Islam believes the only true science is Islamic Science, the Soviets had their Lysenko "genetics", and fundamentalist Christians tout their "Intelligent Design" as truth.
That said, I think the paper is correct in essentials, at least in terms of what was reported about it in the media. Republicans in the USA love to read about science that will lead to big shiny new military hardware [remember Star wars], but are less keen on things like stem cell research, reproductive technologies, or HIV studies. They also like biotech that they cannot connect to anything religious in their POV, but may make an exception where huge profits are to be had. So there interest is very patchy, at best.
That said, I think the paper is correct in essentials, at least in terms of what was reported about it in the media. Republicans in the USA love to read about science that will lead to big shiny new military hardware [remember Star wars], but are less keen on things like stem cell research, reproductive technologies, or HIV studies. They also like biotech that they cannot connect to anything religious in their POV, but may make an exception where huge profits are to be had. So there interest is very patchy, at best.