This doesn’t appear a political issue. Seems like part fraud and part prank.
It is driven by the search for grant money too.
Not this particular report, but this only represents a very small area of scientific literature that has been examined.
It becomes very political when taxpayer money is granted to researchers who agree with the gibberish. It’s political robbery, plain and simple.
Perhaps, if you consider the huge increase in money for higher education, and the concomitant lowering of standards generally, to have no political motivation.