Implicit institutional preferences do not generate public argument — explicit ones do. UKRI's decision to end or cut investment in particle physics, astronomy, and nuclear physics while directing researchers toward AI and economically productive work was not a rupture from prior practice; it was a formalization of it. The UK research funder suspending grant-review processes across multiple scientific fields gave scientists the thing they had been lacking: a document they could point to. The Bluesky post that spread most widely on March 18 did not present the policy as a…