Almost all basic research--that is, research whose goal is to learn more about the world we live in, and is not focused on developing a commercial product--is funded by the government.
The problem is not the government funding. The problem is that some politicians have latched onto "anthropogenic global warming" (AGW) as a means to impose totalitarian socialism after every other attempt to create an all-powerful government has failed. That is, they think that people who won't accept dictatorship on its own merits will accept it if it means "saving the planet." And those politicians control the purse strings.
Scientists are not dumb, and many of them have made the calculation that tying their research to "AGW" will give them an edge when it comes to procuring funding. So, even scientists whose work has absolutely nothing to do with climate study throw in some stock statement that the phenomenon they observed could be a result of "AGW", right after they list the factors that they really do think are causative, whenever they write or talk about their work. This results in a situation where just about everything observable is attributed to "climate change," and there are thousands of papers that "prove" it--when, really, the actual evidence for human-caused climate change is as scant as it was fifty years ago.
As a scientist, I want to scream every time I see the phrase "because of climate change." It means that the problem under study is being dismissed before any real cause has been found, and thus no solution is forthcoming. I hope that under Trump's leadership, this intellectual laziness will stop.
Oh I never thought scientists were dumb. As someone who does quite a bit of research myself I know how easily “findings”can be skewed if the person conducting the investigations makes up their mind on what the solution or causation of a particular problem is and then begins assimilating evidence UNobjectively to “prove” their “theory”. It’s referred to as the Burchell Syndrome in the investigative industry and it has put a lot of innocent people in prison. I think people forget how falllible humans can be even when they wear the badge of expert which I consider to be a misnomer for experienced who can always be wrong still, of course.
Oh I never thought scientists were dumb. As someone who does quite a bit of research myself I know how easily “findings”can be skewed if the person conducting the investigations makes up their mind on what the solution or causation of a particular problem is and then begins assimilating evidence UNobjectively to “prove” their “theory”. It’s referred to as the Burchell Syndrome in the investigative industry and it has put a lot of innocent people in prison. I think people forget how falllible humans can be even when they wear the badge of expert which I consider to be a misnomer for experienced who can always be wrong still, of course.