In 2020, Nature endorsed Joe Biden in the US presidential election. A survey finds that viewing the endorsement did not change people’s views of the candidates, but caused some to lose confidence in Nature and in US scientists generally.
Source: Political endorsements can affect scientific credibility
Once science plays politics, science has lost.
On June 2nd, 2020, Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo posted a tweet saying that protesting was more important than fighting a virus. Within a day, 1,188 scientists and public health “experts” had signed a petition saying the same thing (at that point an adult entered the room and took the petition offline).
Public health became 100% political and 0% science. “Trust the Science” became a joke.
That was the day my disillusionment set in. Celebrity epidemiologists and scientists piled on to social media with daily dueling expert views, spouting inconsistent, contradictory, incoherent and illogical messages on Covid. Many advocated ever more draconian and authoritarian, technocratic elite control over our lives – promoting actions that were not known to have worked in the past, and history showed, didn’t work now either. The experts were literally opposed to Democracy itself – and favored rule by experts.
The direct consequence is I no longer trust science to tell me the truth.
I came to distrust all science.
This extends beyond public health – I upgraded my insulation to greater than R-60, installed solar PV array on my house, installed 220v outlets for EV charging inside the garage, and outside the house. I took many more steps. When I was younger, I (stupidly) rode my bike to work. (Stupid because I ended up with multiple brain injuries from bike riding.) Today, I no longer know what to believe about climate as I lost trust in science itself – especially when it intersects policy, it’s all political activism all the way down by an elite that does not believe in Democracy.
And Nature, not content to reduce confidence in Science itself, goes ahead and shoots Science in the Head:
The author of that paper finding there are consequences to political endorsements responds to Nature’s editorial opinion:
Science has become opposed to democracy, opposed to freedom and in favor of authoritative rule by technocratic elite.
UPDATE: The Editor in Chief of Science says the same thing – and goes so far as to say he opposes Democracy and decision making by the stupid public: “We can’t concede that by letting people pick and choose”.
Science is now officially opposed to Democracy and favors rule exclusively by the gentry class of technocrats with titles and long credential lists. Because us peons are stupid.
WOW.
I no longer trust scientists. They have shot their credibility in the head. And few people were more “sciency” than myself, having grown up during the space program, studied engineering and computer science, communicated through satellites as a teen in the 1970s, earned a pilot’s license, earned a graduate degree in engineering and routinely engaging in numerous technical activities and interests. But the field has lost me – I am dumbfounded that science would fall so far. Wow. I don’t know what to say, I am stunned.
