Sunday, April 09, 2017

Will we have an honest March for Science?

If my political emotions do not dissipate, and I do not think they will, I am sure I will participate in a march for the first time ever in my life.  At the March for Science.  And perhaps even carry a printout of this:


Of course, I expect very few Republicans to participate in the march.  After all, they are orgasmic with their fuhrer!  Which means that an overwhelming majority--almost all locally--will be left of the political center, and many of them way left of the political center.  I am, hoping that the participants will not ask me serious questions about my stand on various scientific issues.  Because, I will then want to engage them in honest conversations that they won't like!

Many left-of-center folks have made politics out of science as much as the damned Republicans have.  It is just that liberals do not think of their stands as being political, while Republicans are shameless in openly being anti-science.  Remember all my posts on GMOs, for instance? (Like here, here, or here.)  As I wrote in this post from more than a year ago:
I have blogged enough about the anti-GMO people who are invariably climate change activists.  About how some of the liberals are also passionate anti-vaccination folks.  Even though the scientific  community's confidence in GMO is no different from its confidence in the climate change issues which is no different from the scientific confidence in the power of vaccination.
Michael Specter writes about the need for the honest discussions related to the politicization of science:
If we truly want to endorse the idea of science, let’s break up into groups and fan out across America: let us talk quietly to people from Alabama to Maine and Alaska about evolution and climate change. Others can spread out among the Tesla crowd in Northern California and explain the power of agriculture, the growing need to feed the Earth, why all food is genetically modified, and why we need to stop protesting something that causes no danger.
Some of us could go to the richer precincts of Southern California, or stop by Vashon Island, just outside of Seattle, and describe to parents, in realistic but understated terms, the ways in which vaccines matter. Others might go to Hawaii to explain why a powerful telescope cannot only help us see the stars but understand ourselves.
Yeah, try telling the Tesla and Prius and Leaf owners about the importance of GMOs; they will run their cars right over you ;)

Imagine if I carried in the march a poster like this:


It is all politics, my friend.
Dirty
Rotten
Politics.

2 comments:

Ramesh said...

No, its not just politics. Its the inability of ordinary people to be rational and understand that a scientific fact is a scientific fact, period and not peddle their own biases.

I don't know what is it with humans - we are always ready to believe outrageous nonsense, but are slow to accept a fact.

May I stand with you , at least figuratively, in the March for Science.

Sriram Khé said...

"the inability of ordinary people to be rational and understand that a scientific fact is a scientific fact"
Most of the left-of-center vehement opponents of GMOs are people with academic credentials at various levels. It is not the inability at all.

Yes, if I do participate in the march, I will include your name in small font ;)