describing it as putting some stolen-anyway surplus to better use sounds great but when that better use is just first-world phds getting their field coupling research funded there isn’t exactly a compelling case to frame it that way. does the research benefit the people paying for it or not? if I were a hungry peasant farmer and louis xiv strolled out into the fields and tried to persuade us that master sculptors chiseling marble for the enjoyment of his court would be a better use for the money than more campaigns in spain or whatever because advancing the arts is fundamentally good for all of humanity, I’d be crouched behind an oxcart with my phone frantically searching youtube for pitchfork sharpening tutorials