The antiscience movement is only in existence because too many people have instead used science as an appeal to authority rather than bothering to explain things or admit any ignorance.
This has been heightened with the cult of science gaining ground where instead of fostering an environment of questions and seeking truth it's instead been viewed as the mark of a heretic to question any official source or "scientific study".
Finally the reproducibility crises has now shown the gaps and issues in much of what we've been told is "science" and thus disenchanted many people from an uncritical faith in science and then been driven off because of the above mentioned cult of science.
Note I am pro science I am pro discovering truth and I am pro vaccine, however I am anti-anything that tells people to just shut up and do what you're told because some expert knows best.
I've noticed that people arguing online resort to quoting / citing scientific studies without ever actually reading them or making an effort to understand what the paper was about. If the title or abstract appears to support their assertion they post it and act like it is irrefutable.
Science has been used to justify bad policy and advice for decades, generally through corruption. How many people died younger because the sugar industry successfully convinced everyone that fat was the cause of obesity? Then after decades of being told to avoid fat, it came out that the trans fats we created to replace them were even worse. This is just one example, but shows that the cult of science is not immune to awful results.
People who don’t want the covid vaccine aren’t just Republicans. Yes, they are a higher percentage (40% vs 15% Dems) in the studies I’ve seen. There are also large numbers of African American and Hispanics who have thus far told the pollsters they aren’t interested. As you point out, this is more about experts and how they interface with the public than probably anything else.
I recently read Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri and I’d say this whole situation aligns with his theory. People in general don’t trust the technocratic elite any longer.
I’ll add the same stipulation you did, which I am pro science and truth. I have already received my first vaccine shot.
I wonder if his last book "Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science" is more persuasive than this political editorial.
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[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 23.1 ms ] threadThis has been heightened with the cult of science gaining ground where instead of fostering an environment of questions and seeking truth it's instead been viewed as the mark of a heretic to question any official source or "scientific study".
Finally the reproducibility crises has now shown the gaps and issues in much of what we've been told is "science" and thus disenchanted many people from an uncritical faith in science and then been driven off because of the above mentioned cult of science.
Note I am pro science I am pro discovering truth and I am pro vaccine, however I am anti-anything that tells people to just shut up and do what you're told because some expert knows best.
There's a word for this that describes an increasing brand of thought on the left: authoritarianism.
The boot's on the other foot!
People who don’t want the covid vaccine aren’t just Republicans. Yes, they are a higher percentage (40% vs 15% Dems) in the studies I’ve seen. There are also large numbers of African American and Hispanics who have thus far told the pollsters they aren’t interested. As you point out, this is more about experts and how they interface with the public than probably anything else.
I recently read Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri and I’d say this whole situation aligns with his theory. People in general don’t trust the technocratic elite any longer.
I’ll add the same stipulation you did, which I am pro science and truth. I have already received my first vaccine shot.