Having created a technological terror regime, those who present the greatest threat are the people who built it, understand it, and can dismantle or change it. For tyrants and terrorists, it's important to make sure there are very few capable counter-forces, and that they are fully under your control.

In 1976 Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime committed mass atrocities against the entire educated population, setting that country back by centuries. Similarly, Stalin's purges from about 1937 on focused on eliminating engineers, scientists, and doctors.

Science is a threat to weak minds because, when all said and done science is about truth. Those who are seizing power in the West now loathe and detest truth. Truth has the potential to empower people.

I do not expect Trump/Musk regime to stop at public science. All those private companies who thik they are going to be 'winners' have a very rude shock coming. Any capable, educated minds left will be pivotal to the survival of democracy in coming years.