Scientists Take To Twitter In Trump Resistance
By Kristy Puchko | Politics | January 26, 2017 | Comments ()
By Kristy Puchko | Politics | January 26, 2017 |
Donald Trump doesn’t want you to know facts or understand the science of Climate Change. He’s demanded a media blackout of a number of government organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency. We’ve talked about how that sparked one national park Twitter handle to rebel, tweeting the truth of Climate Change until it was shut down and its tweets erased. @BadlandsNPS may have been silenced, but their act has sparked a growing rebellion on Twitter.
Rueters reports:
Employees from more than a dozen U.S. government agencies have established a network of unofficial “rogue” Twitter feeds in defiance of what they see as attempts by President Donald Trump to muzzle federal climate change research and other science.
The list is already impressive. Here’s a taste of their inconvenient truths:
BONUS: If government scientists are prevented from studying major issues, other gov officials can pretend their solutions are the only ones!
— U.S. Science Service (@NatlSciService) January 26, 2017
#censorship https://t.co/3MfaCM7YPm
— AltGlacierNPS (@AltGlacierNPS) January 25, 2017
Another page about air pollution has vanished, this pertaining to volcanic emissions and the environment: https://t.co/zYUAKWviyW
— Alt Hi Volcanoes NP (@AltVolcanoes_NP) January 26, 2017
The Environment and Climate affect peoples of all creeds, denominations, nationalities, races, sexes. We are one people on this earth.
— Resistance_NASA (@ResistanceNASA) January 25, 2017
Now is a great time to invest in inland North Carolina! Land is cheaper than the coast and in a few decades, BOOM!, coast. #resist pic.twitter.com/zq7OneBa6s
— ALT USBGN (@Rogue_USBGN) January 25, 2017
"Disappearing Yosemite glacier becomes symbol of climate change"#ClimateChangeIsReal #resist #NotAlternativeFacts https://t.co/t4JSptr9Ym pic.twitter.com/kgyHgx3JNU
— AltYosemiteNPS (@AltYosemiteNPS) January 25, 2017
2 days without a post on our main social accounts. We would like to bring you great news about food & drugs but…
— AltFDA (@alt_fda) January 25, 2017
The EPA's climate change web page shall remain in place for now. At least until it can go away more quietly.https://t.co/TAZKPTrSOs
— altEPA (@altUSEPA) January 26, 2017
2016 was the hottest year on record, worldwide. Also, @realDonaldTrump is a man-baby.
— AltBadlandsNatPark (@AltBadlandsPark) January 26, 2017
Rogue NOAA? But NOAA isn't currently being restricted.
— Rogue NOAA (@RogueNOAA) January 26, 2017
First, they came for EPA, and we did nothing. Next, they came for?
Act, not react.
There’s even an Alt Sean Spicer:
— Alt. Sean Spicer (@AltUSPressSec) January 26, 2017
But it’s not only unofficial or rogue accounts that are striking back at Trump tyranny. In response to Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts,” Merriam Webster Dictionary’s account threw shade:
*whispers into the void* In contemporary use, fact is understood to refer to something with actual existence. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 24, 2017
Then yesterday Trump announced he’d block Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, and word spread of an immigration reform that essentially boils down to banning Muslims. The Department of Defense tweeted this:
From refugee to #Marine. @USMC Cpl Ali J. Mohammed takes the fight to the doorstep of those who cast his family out.https://t.co/oSXWGrzsL7 pic.twitter.com/UVlWsaESic
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) January 25, 2017
And Death Valley National Park answered Trump’s latest bigotry with some harrowing history of the Japanese internment.
During WWII Death Valley hosted 65 endangered internees after the #Manzanar Riot. #JapaneseAmericanInternment
— Death Valley NP (@DeathValleyNPS) January 25, 2017
"We want the opportunity they have to prove their loyalty. We are asked to accept a denial of that privilege in the name of patriotism." pic.twitter.com/4JedTyfX57
— Death Valley NP (@DeathValleyNPS) January 25, 2017
Togo Tanaka: interned at Manzanar and Cow Creek (Death Valley) during WWII #JapaneseAmericanInternment pic.twitter.com/hvqtv6rynV
— Death Valley NP (@DeathValleyNPS) January 25, 2017
These posts remain.
Maybe because there are too many Twitter fires for Trump cronies to address. Maybe because the White House fears deleting these tweets will make them a bigger story. Either way, science won’t be silenced. History will not be ignored. Compassion and community still thrives. To take a cue from a rallying cry at last night’s New York City protest against the Muslim ban, “This is what America looks like.”
Kristy Puchko is the managing editor of Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter, and hear her sound off about movies and feminism on the Slashfilmcast.
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