I've already outlined the dichotomy between educated old-school free trade fiscal conservatives (basically, me), a dying breed, which is a position informed by

I've already outlined the dichotomy between educated old-school free trade fiscal conservatives (basically, me), a dying breed, which is a position informed by an understanding of economics (comparative advantage and so on) and the modern reactionary conservatives who reject economics (along with all other liberal arts and sciences) in favor of their populist agenda. The emergence of the latter is all the more reason in support of a liberal arts education. The last 15 years has seen the polity fracture along educational lines, and the consequences that are on display. It used to be along wealth lines. The trans treatment issue and covid response issue is just like any other intersection of academic study and public policy. You balance the pros and cons based on the empirical evidence. Sometimes policy makers may get that balance wrong one way or the other. Treatment may lead to life-destroying outcomes X percent of the time, but lack of treatment can lead to life destroying outcomes (e.g empirically increased chance of suicide) Y percent of the time. Lockdowns are a trade off between your freedom of movement and the freedom of old people to not die. It's not an easy issue, because you've got the incomplete and evolving science on the one hand, and public morality on the other, combined with a dash of administrative incompetence. So you shouldn't presume that getting the balance wrong in one direction is criminality but getting it wrong in the other (thereby increasing suicides) isn't, or that there's any better alternative that involves uneducated people making such decisions. "So I should keep funding humanities, otherwise they’ll start murderous revolution?" We literally almost got that if Trump and his uneducated supporters succeeded in undermining democracy, and we may yet get that. Education is an antidote to populism, whether that's the Bolshevik left flavor or the fascist right flavor.