The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Don’t Question ‘The Science’?

Posted on | October 2, 2021 | Comments Off on Don’t Question ‘The Science’?

Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change called attention to these headlines:

It’s Time to Give Up on Facts
— Jess Zimmerman, Slate, Feb. 8, 2017

You Must Not ‘Do Your Own Research’
When It Comes To Science
— Ethan Siegel, Forbes, July 30, 2020

Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole
Critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t
helping in the fight against misinformation
— Charlie Warzel, New York Times, Feb. 18, 2021

Questioning authority has become
too much of a good thing,
and it’s killing people
— Al Cross, Northern Kentucky Tribune, Sept. 23, 2021

The general theme here is that skepticism is wrong — we must accept what we are told by those in authority. The “consensus,” as determined by university professors, mainstream journalists and government officials, should not be subject to criticism or debate. If you are not a member of the class of credentialed experts authorized to determine the “consensus,” your duty is to shut up and obey.

What they are telling us, really, is that our own education and experience are invalid. Whatever schools you attended, whatever degrees or diplomas you may possess, whatever knowledge you may have acquired through your employment — none of your credentials count for anything, if you are disposed to challenge the authority of the expert class.

When and how did this insistence on elite authority develop? It didn’t start with the COVID-19 pandemic or with “fact checkers” telling us not to believe Donald Trump. A more obvious starting point of this expert “consensus” theme was The Great Global Warming Scare (which has been renamed “climate change” because the experts find this phrase more convenient when record snowfalls occur). You could point to the 2000 presidential election as the historic fulcrum in this regard. Al Gore shoved his chips all-in on global warming, and lost the election to George W. Bush, whose connections to the oil industry were no secret.

It was just about the time Gore came out with An Inconvenient Truth (2006) that we were told “the science is settled” about global warming, and the expert class decided that skeptics must be silenced. The Michael Mann lawsuit against Mark Steyn, et al., was the manifestation of the belief that it should be illegal to question the “consensus.”

On all matters scientific, I find myself forced to defer to John Hoge, the engineer who makes space robots for NASA. A mere journalist has no business arguing about science with an engineer, really, and so whenever such subjects are under discussion on The Other Podcast, I am compelled to leave it to Hoge. But he is at odds with those who endlessly declare that we must believe The Science™ when it comes to things like dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no such thing as The Science™ — a complete set of solutions, of which Dr. Anthony Fauci and his colleagues are the sole proprietors — because that’s not how science works.

Reasonable skepticism — citing facts and logic that contradict the liberal establishment’s preferred narrative about COVID-19 or anything else — is now being labeled “misinformation,” not because of science, but because of politics. Skeptics cannot be permitted to speak freely, to express doubt toward the “consensus” on subjects that may affect the political power of the liberal elite. And therefore “deplatforming” and other means of censorship are used to suppress dissent: Shut up, because science.

Well, we won’t shut up — you can tune in to hear more at 7 p.m. ET Saturday night on The Other Podcast.




 

Category: Science, The Other Podcast

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