Smark: What Government Science Shares With Professional Wrestling

And there is the beauty and the ugliness of it. Politicians, especially the ones you vote for, don't need to give you more funding because you are not going anywhere. It's the same mentality the WWE uses about its fans. They know the die-hards are not going to walk and the die-hards are not going to walk away from academia either.

You're not even going to vote for anyone most likely to support increased funding, if they have the wrong letter after their name. 

'The smark is the one person the company knows will be watching the show every week, no matter what. They're buying the licensed merchandise to complain about it on podcasts and paying the extra $20 at TV tapings to stand in an autograph line and tell their favorite disrespected mid-carder just how he should be used in the main event. '
"smart marks"

In economics, that is what they call an assumed gain. Wrestling smarks and the science kind share the same trait; they will complain all over social media and blogs and websites about how bad the product is - then they will dutifully mobilize and support it the very next time someone criticizes.

If funding mattered, science academia would be a constituency in play every election. Instead, it is a multi-billion constituency that does not vote in its own interests. Police, teachers, you name it, not a single bloc has one-sided voting (1) but science academia does. 

It means Republicans aren't going to bother to try while Democrats can take science academia for granted. No matter what a Republican does, they will be considered more "anti-science" just because of their affiliation. And no matter how many Democrats try to get warning labels on GMOs or ignore energy science or berate the CDC about vaccines, no one in academia is going to mention the political affiliation of all the people who hold those beliefs.

(1) Education is the only one that is really out of touch with its membership and the members are okay with it. While just over 50 percent of teachers vote Democrat, their unions give 93% of their money to Democrats.

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