Neil deGrasse Tyson launches Twitter rant claiming Trump budget will make Americans sick and stupid
Prominent astrophysicist and television host Neil deGrasse Tyson launched a rallying cry on Twitter Sunday, ultimately swapping President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan for "Make America Smart Again".
In the message chain that elicited tens of thousands of retweets, Tyson warned on the potential effects of a lack of investment into climate change, education, health and science, concluding with a twist on Trump's infamous slogan:
"We all want to Make America Great Again. But that won't happen until we first Make America Smart Again," said the tweet, sent instantly to Tyson's 7.01 million followers.
The sequence also contained a tweet harboring a thinly veiled warning on the dangers of groupthink:
"The very best way to support and feed your delusions: Surround yourself with people whose world views match yours exactly."
Although the messages did not explicitly mention Trump or the 2018 U.S. budget proposal unveiled by the president's office last Thursday, Tyson's tweets follow his pledge to refrain from making public criticisms of the administration until he had seen some policy proposals.
The areas highlighted by Tyson over the weekend were among those seeing the most severe proposed base discretionary funding cuts for 2018, including education with a proposed 13.5 percent drop, health and human services with a proposed 16.2 percent drop and the Environmental Protection Agency, staring down the barrel of a more than 31 percent tumble in proposed funding.
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