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posted by on Thursday December 08 2016, @10:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-like-a-massacre dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @03:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @03:43AM (#439001)

    The current attack on science could be a whole lot worse, or maybe there is worse to come in the USA? Remember that the last gasp of the Maoists was the Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four, when universities were destroyed and the college educated were sent to work in rice paddies.

    We don't have rice paddies, maybe the college educated will be sent to work in the tar sands...

  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @06:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @06:38AM (#439044)

    Naw,

    They said said the same things about Bush [technologyreview.com]. They were wrong [sciencemag.org].

    This is the left proving they are anti-history (gee, will we talk about The War on History next) and a not-so-obvious bias that justifies the right calling academia indoctrination centers. The same rhetoric shows up every time a Republican is elected, and somehow the US isn't reduced to scribbling on bark by candlelight.

    This is just dog-whistling for additional taxes under the guise of climate change. If you oppose it, you're anti-science. Who knew?

    If you want a different take on climate change, you can dare those robber-baron libertarians [youtube.com]. Not certain I agree with him fully, but it is at least a considered point of view, which is a hell of a lot more than you will get from the left.

    All these discussions are good for is identifying people under 30 and identifying people stuck in their echo chambers.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @05:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @05:30PM (#439257)

      Indoctrination centers. Haha right on buddy old pal! Did you forget they're called churches? Every large institution will have black sheep, but I'll take academic truths over religious / political / or propaganda garbage any day of the week. Keep pushing that tired rhetoric, we wouldn't feel normal without some loons to set the bar.