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According to our dear friends over at Wired, we are losing the war on science. This interview with Shawn Otto, author of The War on Science [no-script hostile] ranges from the American presidential election to Albert Einstein:
His new book The War on Science explores ways that citizens can fight back against a creeping tide of anti-science nonsense promulgated by everyone from postmodern academics to greedy oil companies to nature-loving hippies. An important step is to make journalists understand that science and opinion should not be given equal weight.
"The purpose of a free press in a democracy is to hold the powerful accountable to the evidence," Otto says. "Journalists have really lost sight of that purpose, of their entire reason for being."
Fair enough. But things have gotten worse?
He fears that the war on science will only intensify once Donald Trump takes office in January. "I'm very concerned, as is the rest of the global scientific community," Otto says.
As a personal aside, I find it unlikely that the public, those who executed Socrates, burned the Library of Alexandria, and imprisoned Antoinio Gramsci, could fall for such a diaphanous fraud as the Republican attack on science! People back then were truly and profoundly stupid. But people today have the internet, and facebook, and a total misunderstanding of science, politics, ethics, and math. So, this will not end well? Help me, Soylentils, give me hope.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Thursday December 08 2016, @11:02PM
I am glad that someone is "Losing the war on science."
I would love for the war on science to be lost.
Science should win. The war on science should be lost. That is all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday December 09 2016, @03:20AM
The whole thing is as silly as the "war on Christmas". There is no damned war, on Christmas or on science. What there is and has always been is a disdain by normal people of people with high intelligence. That's why terms like nerd, geek, egghead (and in the UK, "boffin"), and so forth were coined or appropriated to be insults.
And since science reporting is so dismal, is it any wonder Joe Sixpack distrusts science?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday December 09 2016, @04:02AM
There is a "war" on science.
OK, "war" isn't exactly the right word. Neither is "science". There is, however, a concerted effort in the US to do away with the concept of objectively provable truth. And the reason for this is that the objectively provable truth is bad news for those with money and political power.
The Soviets had the same problem back in the day, where ideological correctness mattered more than reality correctness. And, surprise surprise, they ran into problems following that principle, because the universe doesn't adjust to what you wish might be true.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Unixnut on Friday December 09 2016, @11:48AM
sooo... a war on reality then? Sounds exactly right, actually.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday December 09 2016, @06:17PM
There's absolutely a war on Christmas. A defensive one. Christmas has already completely conquered everything after Thanksgiving, and is making inroads as far back as Halloween. Left unchecked, before long we'll be having to listen to Christmas carols and ramped-up consumerist advertising in July!
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Friday December 09 2016, @10:02PM
Interestingly, reading through the archives of my local paper, I find the same complaints and prediction about the commercial Christmas season in editorials as far back as the early 1910s.
Also, in reference to the general topic, the same papers also note the ignorance of "students today;" that they can't locate places in the news on a map, that they lack knowledge of science and math, that they don't understand history, and that they can't write using proper grammar and spelling. The main difference is that then, they reported it with head-shaking amusement, whereas now, we report it with shocked worry at best, and "END OF CIVILIZATION PANIC!" at worst.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday December 09 2016, @11:31PM
Interestingly, reading through the archives of my local paper, I find the same complaints and prediction about the commercial Christmas season in editorials as far back as the early 1910s.
Yes, but back then they were probably complaining about stores with Christmas decorations already up by the 20th of December or so. When I grew up, and I certainly do not think it was unusual, the only holiday being considered was the next one on the calendar. There were no Christmas decorations out by Halloween and no endless advertising for Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving (now even on Thanksgiving!). Christmas has been plagued by rampant commercialism, probably driven by the same forces that have damaged the stability of the economy, the insane idea that profits can continually grow, must continually grow, at the expense of everything else.
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Monday December 12 2016, @11:36PM
Nope! They were complaining about merchants putting Christmas decorations and advertising out before Thanksgiving, and that they seemed to be putting them out earlier every year. I don't remember them mentioning Halloween, but they certainly were predicting that in a few years, the decorations would come out in July!
On a side note, depending on the sects involved, Advent starts November 30 (or December 1); four (or six) Sundays before Christmas; forty days before Christmas; the first Sunday after St Martin's Day (Nov. 11); or the closest Sunday to St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30).
This means that it could be argued that the holiday season starts with Advent, BUT, considering that Advent is supposed to be a season of fasting, prayer and solemn contemplation, I'm not sure it lends itself to advertising...
(Score: 1) by charon on Saturday December 10 2016, @03:59AM