DOGE Pulls Plug on Nevada Humanities

Tears Flow, But the Details Don’t

The Department of Governmental Entanglements (DOGE), known for sniffing out the places where money goes to nap, has reportedly withdrawn funding from Nevada Humanities, thereby setting off an operatic wail from its executive director, Ms. Christina Barr, and precisely zero clarifications about what the money was accomplishing.

Barr declared that the five-year operating support grant got axed without warning in a public lament suitable for an ancient Greek stage,

“Until yesterday,” she said, the NEH sent taxpayer dollars to Nevada Humanities “to support humanities programming that reaches every corner of the Silver State.”

Which sounds impressive—until you go looking for specifics.

For those unfamiliar with what “humanities programming” means in the wild, Barr’s announcement offered no list of fallen programs, shuttered projects, or canceled barn-raising book clubs. Not even a solitary puppet show or discussion circle mourned by name.

Instead, we are to believe the entire cultural scaffolding of Nevada collapsed in the time it takes to mail a letter.

Now, DOGE ain’t perfect. Lord knows any outfit with that many acronyms floating around is bound to gum up a gear now and then. But if they pulled the plug, and no one says what got plugged in, it raises the question: what were we paying for?

If Nevada Humanities reached “every corner” of the Silver State, one of those corners could produce a receipt, a testimonial, or at least a photograph of an inspired someone. Instead, they offer abstractions like “civic engagement” and “meaningful lives,” which are nice to have, sure—but so is an oil change, and even Jiffy Lube tells you what they did.

Until then, one must conclude the programs were too valuable to name or too embarrassing to mention. And if cutting the whole thing off “severely hinders” the organization, that suggests they had all their eggs in one invisible, taxpayer-funded basket.

DOGE may have just saved the public a handsome sum—and all it cost was a general sense of confusion, a vague cultural ache, and a few tears shed over unspecified greatness lost in the shadows.

In conclusion–if you must mourn, mourn with specifics. Otherwise, folks may begin to suspect there was nothing in the casket.