Yeah, Iran was a more proimising country before cultists took over... and, um, so was the US.

OK, you may have found a point of commonality in our opinions. The US isn't yet as far down that road, but... yeah. It's catching up quickly.

But the present debate started with the false equivalence between science in "free countries" being influenced by various corporate and political interests, vs being influenced by theocratic dictatorship inclided towards torture and murder.

That the US is becoming increasingly more like Iran doesn't negate that, it just makes the US not the right example to demonstrate the point.