future of vert paleo (and science in general)

[Dawid Mazurek]

I'd like to hear your opinion on the future of vertebrate palaeontology, and science in general, in the coming years, since the US became a fascist state.

Dawid

[Thomas Yazbek]

The USA is not a fascist state. What a stupid, hysterical thing to say. Find a more informative epithet to disparage Trump with. 

There's a lot of trash in American academia that we need to clear out. Doesn't seem like there's yet been any systematic effort at doing so, since anthropologists' jobs are still in peril if they publish photos of prehistoric Australian or Amerindian bones. Defunding academia will harm some good scientists, but in many fields (not necessarily paleo, but it still affects things tangentially), there is a massive replicability crisis that we need to take a seriously hard look at. 

Also, the USA isn't the only country that does science. China + Russia, currently geopolitical rivals, also publish a lot, often independently of foreign science. In many non-western countries, incl. China, there are huge problems with scientific fraud that dwarf anything in the US. This for sure can affect paleo, although I am not sure to what extent it does. China doesn't have "woke" ideology like we do, but they do have authoritarian communism, so Lysenkoism-esque pressures exist throughout science now, just in different flavors. Usually doesn't affect paleo as much but it's always there. 

I'm a grad school dropout, though, so maybe the many working academics on DML have a more detailed story to tell here.

Thomas

On Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 5:10 PM Dawid Mazurek <dawidma...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'd like to hear your opinion on the future of vertebrate palaeontology, and science in general, in the coming years, since the US became a fascist state.

Dawid

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[Heinrich Mallison]

Ahem, the US is run by a person who matches nearly all criteria of a fascist dictator.

Just sayin

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

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[Heinrich Mallison]

Thomas Yazbek sound like 1933 German Steigbügelhalter 

Google it if you don't know what it means.

Do not engage with Nazi trolls!

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

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On Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 23:27 Thomas Yazbek <yazbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Thomas Yazbek]

So is China. Are you in a concentration camp right now?

This is why I left academia. I do not respect the letters after people's names, only their ideas. I don't expect scientists to have well-developed political thoughts but I should expect you guys to notice how humane 2026 America is compared to the typical totalitarian 20th century regime.

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[Heinrich Mallison]

Oh look! Someone else is worse! So we're ok killing Darkies!!!1!1

Did I paraphrase your point correctly?

Fucking Nazi!

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

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[Thomas Yazbek]

I don't appreciate this juvenile slander, especially from a person with a doctorate. I am proud of my country, the USA, for defeating Nazism. But this might be the quickest reductio ad hitlerum turnaround I've ever seen. 

Thomas

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[Franco Sancarlo]

We need to analyze this situation very carefully. I'd like to say that the USA is not fascist at the moment. Could it become so? Absolutely, but just 20 minutes of reading about the history of fascism is enough to understand that it will take a few more years (if it ever happens) for it to become fascist. Mussolini had many more powers than Trump does, and much greater popular influence (look at people's reaction to his speech: https://youtu.be/UmnxcjRk37Q?si=J4snH4fB4OODr3D7), and he had the king on his side. Trump has almost the power of a king, but not completely, and popular support is much lower. That's not to say we should take the situation lightly; on the contrary, we need to go against him to prevent him from reaching the same positions as M.

To add a little note, in the fascist era the liberty was lower and they did a lot of things that Trump (at the moment) has not done. 

Il Lun 19 Gen 2026, 23:10 Dawid Mazurek <dawidma...@gmail.com> ha scritto:

I'd like to hear your opinion on the future of vertebrate palaeontology, and science in general, in the coming years, since the US became a fascist state.

Dawid

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[Heinrich Mallison]

Yeah, "proud" - but you lack the knowledge, understanding and the character to understand what you're talking about.

Pride without a reason is a key feature of fascism.

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

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[Thomas Yazbek]

Why would you curse on the DML? Engage with my ideas or be quiet. 

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[Heinrich Mallison]

🤣

Typical fascist: all debate destroying tactics well employed!

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

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[Thomas Yazbek]

This is a fair & sober position. Agree with your analysis, disagree somewhat with your solution, but it's correct that Trump is no dictator. And he could never be that anyways since he won't have FDR's 4 terms. I don't wanna clog the list with current events talk though.

TY

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[Heinrich Mallison]

Franco,

care to elaborate the differences between SA/SS/Gestapo in 1933 and ICE? With specific examples?

Oh, you can't?

What a surprise......

And "years"? We're taking about the mid-terms being suppressed. That - let me check - 2026! Oh! 

_______________________________________________________
Dr. Heinrich Mallison

cell: +49 (0)179 5429922
email: heinrich...@gmail.com
blog: dinosaurpalaeo.wordpress.com

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[Thomas Yazbek]

Don't engage with this. 

TY

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[Tyrannosaur TJ]

Tell that the poor people in Minneapolis dealing with the ICE gestapo then bootlicker. 

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[Tim Williams]

Okay, I'm bringing this conversation to an end on the DMG.  

[Thomas Carr]

Hi,

My paleo program was negatively and decisively torpedoed by administrators who are not scientists, a process that started back in 2020. It is difficult to see the connection with the prevailing national political climate and the demise of my program, but I think it does reflect the shift across academe to run colleges and universities like businesses. Our paleo program was among the most affordable on campus, and it had been in the black/green since 2017 - there was no financial rationale to get rid of it.

Here's a link to a recent story on what has happened to the program: https://www.wpr.org/news/kenosha-fossils-public-museum-dinosaur-institute-carthage-college

During this entire process, none of the relevant decision-makers ever showed any interest in learning about the program, its goals, or about paleo - they just decided to destroy the program and stuck to it. So their decision was made in complete ignorance of what they were getting rid of; to quote from Apocalypse Now: Kurtz: "Are my methods unsound?" Willard: "I don't see any method at all, sir."

-t.

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