the war on Science

by Shawn Lawrence Otto

There is a sudden, quantitative expansion of the number of scientists and engineers around the globe, coupled with a sudden qualitative expansion of their ability to collaborate with each other over the Internet.

“balance” doesn’t mean you present stories evenhandedly. It means you present them like a set of scales, and if the vast weight of the evidence is on one side of the argument, that’s the side that should get the vast weight of your reporting. You don’t push on the other side to falsely balance the scales. You tell the truth. That’s the “balance” we used to talk about in journalism. Today what we too often see is called “false balance,” because it presents both sides as if they have equal weight of the evidence, when that is objectively not true.

As our knowledge becomes more refined and precise, so too must our social contract, and this process is disruptive to moral, ethical, economic, and political authority based on prior definitions and understandings. Science itself is inherently political, and inherently antiauthoritarian.

They know enough about science to be skeptical, but not enough to allay their fears, and they have too little trust in science to take the risk.

What is at stake is the freedom to investigate, debate, and express ideas that run counter to the interests of corporations and their political allies.

Population plus individualism plus technology may be our ultimate undoing.

One of the most important things a concerned citizen can do is organize,