I don't know of any Western states trying to use the bearded man for anything. If anything, they're saying the bearded man doesn't exist. It's only the science that exists, or something else equally pragmatic - and equally controllable by humans (the state).

In any case, for context (no pun intended), here's the longer thought this meme kind of arised from:

nostr:note1tfngh5sc3yvvayxd3etgw9xvcus90x7sllaflwl9j8ewzfgp8hnqpag679