the war on Science

by Shawn Lawrence Otto

On the right, the antiscience tends to focus on denying known science on issues that often have to do with regulating personal or corporate behavior, such as climate disruption, smoking, evolution, HPV vaccines, abstinence-only sex education, gun control, acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and other issues that stem from industrial and religious vested interests. The probusiness conservatives and libertarians don’t want regulation, while the social conservatives oppose evolution and want to regulate sex, creating an unusual compromise with many contradictions. On the left, the antiscience tends to extend worries about health and the environment into areas that are not supported by the evidence, claiming nevertheless that, as in Silent Spring, there are hidden dangers to our environment, our health, or our spirits. Examples include the ideas that cell phones cause brain cancer; that Wi-Fi and other electromagnetic fields cause cancer, birth defects, or allergies; that vaccines cause autism; that genetically modified crops are unsafe to eat; and that fluoride in water is unsafe to drink. The progressives want to regulate business but don’t want to regulate sex. On both sides, generally speaking, conservatives want to protect consolidated power and progressives want to oppose it.