How Politics Hijacked Science
?I have always had a view of politics not exactly equal to lies but more equivalent to lies in order to persuade others to follow an ideology or direction.?So mixing science and politics for me does not work at any level.?The attached article I think is a nice editorial in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that explains how science as a philosophy is what is right but science as an institution has all the fallacies of religion as an institution (see Galileo vs the Pope).
WSJ article - How Science Lost the Public’s Trust
Blind faith in science the institution or science the philosophy has no place for the true scientist.?Politician pander to everything.?They pander to religions, races, social classes, academics, working folks, you name it, they pander to it.?They actually do not give a care about anything but their mission and themselves.?Politics corrupts, professional politics corrupts absolutely. Today, you hear the politicians say... I put my faith in science or numbers or whatever gives a good sound bite and most of them would not know true science if it bit their nose.
领英推荐
Anyway, the point I took away from the article was that the difference between science as philosophy and science as an institution is key.?Politicians gravitate to institutions and seek to hijack them.?I love the phrase....?"I am putting my trust in science".?Really!!!?????Science is not about trust but truth and facts.?Science does not need trust or want it.?Scientific institutions are made of humans and scientists that play politicians on TV.?They start out with science as a philosophy, gain power and recognition and worship from the inane public and all of the sudden they are head of the corrupt scientific institutions.?Galileo is a superb example of a scientist against the institution.
It must be very difficult for someone to watch the world unfold today who wants truth and facts.?If you watch the world that is close to you, you will not be disappointed but enlightened.?It is the common folk that have to work for a living and have to produce goods and services that give one a sense of purpose and joy in having theories and putting them to the test or throwing them out as they discover facts.?If you tune into popular media and news outlets you will see a very different world that is warped and does not actually resemble anything close to truth.?That goes for Fox, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, WSJ, WP, NYT, NYP, Facebook, google, twitter, reddit, etc.?These amassed collections of viewers, readers, contributors are all biased and their agenda is as transparent as glass....??To manipulate your mind and actions.?I do read WSJ but I am fairly selective.?I do use facebook for my club stuff and of course I use google for evaluations on restaurants and doing searches.?All of that has little affect on me but any time I see Fox or CNN, they are polar opposites but with identical goals and lies.?They are as far from the real truth of this country as you can get.?Solution??Stop with institutional propaganda and focus on your local community and your life.?Do not be anyone's monkey on a stick.
We need debate, we need freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom to believe the truth, freedom to believe lies (another person's misinformation).?It is freedom and openness and critical debate and conflict that causes the truth to come out.?Social media and the internet would have been the enabler for this but monopolies and institutions seek power and wealth through control, so Open Anything is not in their interests unless they own and control it.?The oxymoron begins again.?I guess this is just what mankind does repeatedly.?Truth is a lie and lies are truth and all presented by those with a vested interest in controlling the narrative.?The good news is there is always conflict and resistance and the next would be commissars will side with real truth to tear down the establishment until they manage to become the establishment and the cycle starts again (See Castro and Cuba).?So much for evolution giving us something better.?I guess you let it run long enough some happy accident may fix all of this rinse and repeat never ending cycle. I am not holding my breath.
Marketing Technology Evangelist | Web Publishing & Internet Marketing Pioneer | Digital Marketer | Content Creator | Programmer | UX/CX Designer
3 年I was despairing about this about this same time last year. It inspired me to write this article and what came before it where I distinguished art from science. People in the LIMS field have a particular advantage when it comes to understanding how not all data is good or credible. Others can't imagine why any scientist would ever need daily quality control or a LIMS. https://clickwhisperer.com/2020/06/defense-against-the-dark-arts-in-2020/ People don't really understand science until you contrast it against what they've already chosen to believe in and base their hopes around: Art.
LIMSforum Community Manager, Senior Laboratory Informatics Consultant
3 年Science is hard work. It is iterative. There are few epiphanies or transforming moments. It's carefully constructed studies that yield hundreds or thousands of data points, slowly, meticulously collected, double-checked, checked again then reviewed. Then entire studies are reproduced, hopefully yielding similar results, often not. Then the process begins again until a reliable set of conclusions can be made. And all of that to establish one probably quite insignificant but helpful piece of much larger puzzles. This requires patience, and does not create sensational headlines, and so is of little use to anyone (politicians, corporations, anyone with an agenda) except actual scientists. Ergo, we see massive funding with incentives for studies that will advance a given agenda/narrative, that play a little fast and loose with controls, double-blinds, reviews, data interpretation etc. Thus the death - or debilitating illness - of science.
CEO of LabLynx, Inc.
3 年I did a quick google on "faith in science" and found this article and organization that aligns with my own thoughts but of course may not align with others but the important thing for me is that there are many academics that are upset with where science as an institution is heading as of late.?https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/12/who-is-responsible-for-the-loss-of-faith-in-science/? Doing more googling, I find more and more on this topic and it is not from a bunch of cranks and conspiracy theorists.?While none of this is proof but only anecdotal evidence, time will tell the real truth like it always does.? A conflict is brewing in this area as well it should.? I have "Faith" that it will all sort itself out through the social and market conflicts that tend to keep things in check. I feel this is an important topic because science is about truth and knowledge and if it gets hijacked by politics, then scientific institutions will basically turn into houses of worship and a new form of a cult religion. This is not a good thing and it is worth protecting our scientific and academic institutions from the dark ages. We each need to do our part in protecting science and these institutions.
Healthcare Informatics SME | SDLC/Full-Stack Developer (open/closed source) | Enterprise Architect | Cloud/OnPrem | LIMS | API | FHIR | HL7 | Cyber | Lead ISO Assessor | FedRAMP
3 年I could not agree more, John Jones. This applies to the IT and software industry as well.
Florida native and retired journalist and editor volunteering extensive copy editing skills.
3 年Profound statement. Thank you for sharing. Stay safe.