It’s weird to me how often JFK’s “let’s put a man on the Moon” idea is cited as a success story — it cost tons of money, was driven by Cold War hysteria, and turned out to be useless to the point that it’s been decades now since anyone’s bothered to go.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 8, 2019
This is utterly fucking moronic and so wrong it’s like this guy is evolving into a whole new type of moron. This is what I hate this dumb motherfucker so much that I sputter.
I do love how the commenters utterly eviscerate this flaming dipshit in the tweets that follow.
To summarize some of my own objections as well as some of those found in the tweets:
1) Not everything worth doing is worth doing again.
2) Instrumentality is a poor guide to cultural and societal achievements. Was the Hagia Sophia or the Pyramids really needed? Practical?
3) Even ignoring all the direct R&D implications of the space program, much money was thus funneled into other programs related, creating even more spin-off tech than is recognized by direct accounting. This absolutely would not have occurred without a story to tell. No story == no money. Look at now for examples….
4) Going to the moon, no matter the reasons, is one of the most significant events in human history. It’s likely that after nearly everything is forgotten from our era, humanity will remember that we did that.
5) China is likely to send a crewed craft to the moon soon.
6) Going to the moon changed our whole sense of ourselves. Hell, one single photo from an early exploratory trip is likely more responsible for more environmental concern and action than anything except Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
7) Fuck Matt Yglesias. That he has a platform of any kind is a travesty because there are so many better people.
I think this dude’s schtick is the usual Ivy League doofus play, most of whom have no original ideas, and that is to do as contrarian a take as they can think of to generate noise and attention. It worked, I guess. What a cretin.