Of course, it's a joke about the importance of defining the right scope and evaluating data accordingly, a problem that also frequently comes up with statistics about lets say... pandemics etc.
I'm not sure if the discussion about the viability of science discovery, space exploration etc etc. can ever be a-political. You always have a motive for doing things and there will always be politics involved, be it the most noble or most greedy.
In general I believe there are enough tangible problems in our world and society that could use ressource applied to it with the pure motive of making things more equal and enjoyable for everyone, and any vague exploration of space, possivle existence inside a simulation, dark matter, relocating to another planet etc is a giant waste and only supposed to be explored when everything else is A++++.
