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Comment by jfengel | Hacker News Reader

It really did work like that. Government agencies in general are largely insulated from politics. You do your day to day work and wouldn't even notice a change of administration.

The political appointees set the overall direction, and so projects come and go -- more or less at the same rate as they do even under the same administration.

Having the President interfere so directly with ongoing operations is unprecedented. Maybe that's a good thing; people wanted a change and they got it. But it's not usual.

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"largely insulated from politics" note that claim they made is that in past there was no political interference at all, not that it was smaller or manageable

"largely" does not mean "completely".

yes, exactly. And article makes the "completely" claim

> The privilege that American scientists have taken for granted—one that is now being trampled—is the ability to go about their work free of political interference.

which is just wrong and further erodes trust.

You're adding words that aren't there.

If in the past they could do 98% of their job without political influence most people would describe that as being free to do their jobs without influence.

If there's now political hacks interfering in 50% or more of their job that's a big change.

If in the past the political hacks were never interfering with THEIR role, just affecting what projects get funded, and now the hacks are interfering directly with them and controlling what they can say or publish - that's obviously new and significantly worse influence.

> Government agencies in general are largely insulated from politics.

This was obviously false during the pandemic when these “health” agencies did what the White House wanted, from the actual “science” to the messaging.

Same president both times. Same bad idea.

You can both be right. Goverment agencies can do their own thing under normal circumstances and be politicized when their activity is the focus of a huge political event, like a pandemic.

Did the left secretly run the white house in 2020?

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