At the end of the day this is a war on the population. If you under educate people, they lack the tools to determine fake/sponsored science just as they can't d

At the end of the day this is a war on the population. If you under educate people, they lack the tools to determine fake/sponsored science just as they can't differentiate between "fake news" and "real news". In the end it allows the political body to limit the discourse in their (or their financial backer's) favor. Additionally, if people die younger they are less likely to diversify the topics important to voters. So control the populace through ignorance and through bad healthcare and poorly funded science, hope they die before they wise up. I don't see this as the aim of any single group, it's just the system we ended up with and unless there is an economic reason to change it, it won't. What's more scary is that economic gain can be had by going further in this direction. How rich could we get if we defunded all research and used the money to fund the military and just invade and plunder the rest of the world? It sounds unfathomable, but there are economic benefits, so the possibility that it could happen hinges directly on public opinion and the less you make self directed thought a priority, the more possible it is for those in power to do it. Knowledge is power, you take it away from people and they become your tools/votes/income source/cows. </rant>