This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1462496
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1462496
Everyone should be heartened science may be coming out of the shadows. But don’t be deluded into thinking Florida is any more than 6000 years old. Sure, the rest of the planet may be several billion years old. But not Florida.
Oh, and Walt Disney was a Communist groomer.
Tell your children.
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That is their right as citizens of course. That it should be increasingly necessary is a commentary both on the current state of civil society and the nature of the forces that would destroy it.
NB (ETA):
The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this: (1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; (2) that when they are agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and (3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.
These propositions may seem mild, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revolutionize human life.
– Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928)
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I think that Scientists have to create a rumpus to get their message out in part owing to the both sides - all opinions are equal and all ideas are worthy of equal consideration - bent of the modern news media. Indeed, the extreme view is that scientific findings are just another opinion. Therefore, scientists must become another loud interest group, whether they like it or not, and I’m betting most don’t like it, but feel that in today’s political climate they have no choice except to become activists.
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Anti-science mob activism became the GOP’s favorite swimming anvil. I led to massive destruction of world prosperity. It populated R organizations with hooligans who depredated their followers.
Science and engineering offer a path to million Dollar wealth that just doesn’t happen with Q-knowledge. Beyond the financial benefits, critical thinking avoids a lot of mistakes, and allows people to learn from errors. Science activism is only protecting a better form of living.
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There might be a third point of view in there somewhere.
Nah.
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Call me crazy, call me foolish, but I think truth tellers advocating for truth being made more widely known and understood is a good thing!
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What I have noticed or learned:
Science, Scientist talk in a language most uneducated and many educated folks don’t understand and it scares the hell out of them, us.
Maybe they should try to speak American.
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Debate me, bro, debate me!
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Moms For Liberty will push a suit up the chain to SCOTUS, and a 6-3 ruling will finally put a dagger in Truth’s heart.
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OT But in view of the way scientists like Peter Hotez
have been treated by Congressional “investigations”, perhaps a little relevant
Impeachment - knock yourselves out:
Sabato commented: “It would excite their activists, but most Americans would be
repulsed and shake their heads and say, these people need to get their house in order, then we’ll consider voting for them. I’m sure Biden, in a way, hopes he is impeached, and the others too.“It’s a waste of time: there’s no chance of the conviction in the Senate. They just sticking the knife in their own chest. They’re committing suicide. It’s fine, go right ahead, have a good time!”
You just noticed?
Kurt Bardella, who was a spokesperson and senior adviser for Republicans on the House oversight committee from 2009 to 2013, said: “It’s really something to watch the political party that spent the 2022 midterms hollering about being pro-law enforcement and anti-defund the police when now they’re using all of their resources and their very narrow House majority to do exactly that: tear down law enforcement and defund the police.”
Bardella, now a Democratic strategist, added: “It seems like Republicans love the idea of law enforcement except when it comes to white-collar crime and when it comes to people of their own. It’s interesting that they want two sets of justice systems: one that looks the other way and condones the multitude of crimes that their leader, Donald Trump, has been accused of and another justice system for just about everybody else.”
Basically, we don’t live in an enlightened society in spite of electric cars and other 21st century Scientific wonders. We are are really just Cro Mangon in t-shirts, cargo shorts and flip flops.
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Scientist Activism is not a new thing. But not every scientist has the interest or ability to be both. Just like anyone else. I have always considered my own life’s model to be more activist than scientist. But that is just me.
I think the biggest problem we face in this world is a very active, and well funded movement to destroy science as a legitimate pursuit. Science is hard; it is so much easier for people to just follow an authoritative line of thinking based on power or religion.
Here’s a nice summary on science activists in our past–
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Yes, but there is a scientific foundational argument for mental illness too…
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I would actually call you wise, and insightful. Gassho to you! 
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An excellent point. There’s a desperate need for either scientists who can write, and for reporters with enough scientific training to be able to translate “science talk” into something the average American 8th grader can grasp.
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Indeed. How many people can explain how a cell phone works?
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I was going to save this for later in the month, but this seems like a good spot for it.
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There is a huge literature on the Philosophy of Mental Illness, as you know. And it involves biology, psychology, and sociology. Not an easy, clear subject to research or settle. And it is not reducible to being a “brain disease.”
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“How many people can explain how a cell phone works?” C’mon man! You just tap on the screen. Geez!
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Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, some good news for a change. Especially with the election of Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This was the foundation of her election campaign. Josh Kaul, WI Atty General, filed the suit in June.
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