Proof that "I believe in science" doesn't actually mean anything practically

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1299703348447375360?s=20
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/08/29/conspiracy-theories-about-covid-19-vaccines-may-prevent-herd-immunity

[Del Tachi]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.  

The whole "Science is Real" thing as a liberal rallying cry really irks me.  Like, which science do they mean?  There's no shortage of anti-empirical attitudes and beliefs the Left loves to hang on to.

Also, science is better described as a process rather than the collection of some body of knowledge.  Good scientists understand that all of our knowledge is only approximate, to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.

[dead0man]

most people only believe in science if it matches what they think they already know, which is the exact opposite of how science is supposed to work.  You should be actively trying to disprove things you believe, not confirm them.

[RINO Tom]

COVID has really made me lose faith in Americans' rationality - yes, on #BOTHSIDES.  I have had numerous conversations with educated, intelligent and reasonable friends ranging in fields from lawyers to healthcare professionals to engineers to fellow MBAs, and they have been of all types of political persuasions...

... Every single frickin' one - regardless of politics - has a near-identical view on COVID:  We should have enacted a hard shutdown early (I'm still in shock some people adamantly opposed this) to gear up, then each month since then is going to be a phased return to normal life, provided an area's hospitals can withstand a surge (I'm still in shock some people can't wrap their minds around this objective, inevitable necessity).

This pandemic has led to the fetishization of *being scientific* to the point where people don't actually use any of the thinking tools that science prizes, let alone utilizing common sense thinking tools like mitigating risk.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.

I absolutely adore how meaningless every single sentence on those signs is. I have to see them very frequently as I often take walks around my majority suburban D neighborhood and it's hilarious.

The whole "Science is Real" thing as a liberal rallying cry really irks me.  Like, which science do they mean?  There's no shortage of anti-empirical attitudes and beliefs the Left loves to hang on to.

Also, science is better described as a process rather than the collection of some body of knowledge.   Good scientists understand that all of our knowledge is only approximate, to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.

The bolded is what consistently irks me the most. Their attitude seems to regard science as a coherent "it" with specific, frozen facts that you must ascribe to in order to qualify as one of the faithful, rather than as a process that is constantly transforming our body of knowledge and engaged in internal (dialectical?) debate.

[Santander]

COVID has really made me lose faith in Americans' rationality - yes, on #BOTHSIDES.  I have had numerous conversations with educated, intelligent and reasonable friends ranging in fields from lawyers to healthcare professionals to engineers to fellow MBAs, and they have been of all types of political persuasions...

... Every single frickin' one - regardless of politics - has a near-identical view on COVID:  We should have enacted a hard shutdown early (I'm still in shock some people adamantly opposed this) to gear up, then each month since then is going to be a phased return to normal life, provided an area's hospitals can withstand a surge (I'm still in shock some people can't wrap their minds around this objective, inevitable necessity).

This pandemic has led to the fetishization of *being scientific* to the point where people don't actually use any of the thinking tools that science prizes, let alone utilizing common sense thinking tools like mitigating risk.

If there ever was a legitimate both sides issue, this is it.

[John Dule]

Progressives believe in science*, not science. I remember when my far-left aunt's husband had cancer, she wanted to cure it using crystals. When my mom told her that was loony tunes, she responded by saying "Well, I believe in science." Just goes to show how little these platitudes actually mean to the people who parrot them.



*Caveats include GMOs, vaccinations, the entire field of economics, 5G, biological sex, the rate of climate change, tarot cards, zodiac signs, herbal remedies, nuclear energy, and anthropology.  

[Beet]

Not sure why people in rich countries are less likely to believe that vaccines are safe, but there's nothing wrong with saying that you believe in science. We would all be better off if society respected a scientific approach to issues like Covid, particularly where a professional consensus has been reached. The same is true with regards to other issues like climate change, social issues, and so on. In a time of division, empirical science is one of the few potentially uniting areas of knowledge that can help us move forward.

[John Dule]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.

I absolutely adore how meaningless every single sentence on those signs is. I have to see them very frequently as I often take walks around my majority suburban D neighborhood and it's hilarious.

You've inspired me.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.

I absolutely adore how meaningless every single sentence on those signs is. I have to see them very frequently as I often take walks around my majority suburban D neighborhood and it's hilarious.

You've inspired me.

You glorious SoB, you beat me to it. While walking to pick up my bike earlier today I was contemplating a yardsign that said "Good things are good, bad things are bad, humans are people."

[dead0man]

that's freaking awesome, I want that on a tshirt

[dead0man]

that's freaking awesome, I want that on a tshirt

it says "in this house..." ya halfwit!

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Not sure why people in rich countries are less likely to believe that vaccines are safe

Probably because the diseases eradicated by vaccines weren't eradicated within recent memory in those countries.  Thus people in rich countries appreciate vaccines less than people who live where these diseases still exist or did exist until recently.

[Santander]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.  

I'm getting one.

[afleitch]

https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1299703348447375360?s=20
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/08/29/conspiracy-theories-about-covid-19-vaccines-may-prevent-herd-immunity

There's questionable correlation in the third diagram and seems strongly linked to ongoing v historic mass vaccination programs since the 50's.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

entire field of economics,

I thought we were talking about science though? (And I wouldn't be smug if I were you: just as much strange stuff comes from your side (Austrian Economics etc) as the MMT people).

//

I was curious, so I looked up if any surveys had been done on various pseudosciences and political affiliation:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/944404/alternative-medicine-opinions-for-cancer-treatment-by-political-affiliation/

It looks like there is no significant difference in alternative medicine as a supplement for real medicine.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2395697

In regards to astrology, Democrats in 2012 were more likely to be supportive than Republicans (although strangely moderate Democrats are more likely to believe than the libs). This looks like an age thing?

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/03/republican-views-on-evolution-tracking-how-its-changed/

doubt in evoution was most common in republicans in 2015 (duh)

I'd assume Democrats will be far more likely to indulge in "exotic" and comoplitain woo (Feng Shui), Republicans in explicitly Christian stuff (flood geology), but most mundane pseudoscience to be spread across the political affiliation.

[AGA]

I've been seeing these signs up all around the place recently.  

The whole "Science is Real" thing as a liberal rallying cry really irks me.  Like, which science do they mean?  There's no shortage of anti-empirical attitudes and beliefs the Left loves to hang on to.

Also, science is better described as a process rather than the collection of some body of knowledge.  Good scientists understand that all of our knowledge is only approximate, to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.

Those signs are all over the place in parts of North Jersey.

[Alcibiades]

entire field of economics,

I thought we were talking about science though? (And I wouldn't be smug if I were you: just as much strange stuff comes from your side (Austrian Economics etc) as the MMT people).

The funny thing about what Dule said (which I doubt he was aware of) is that most academic economists lean left.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

entire field of economics,

I thought we were talking about science though? (And I wouldn't be smug if I were you: just as much strange stuff comes from your side (Austrian Economics etc) as the MMT people).

The funny thing about what Dule said (which I doubt he was aware of) is that most academic economists lean left.

Well, most academic anythings lean left these days.

[Alcibiades]

entire field of economics,

I thought we were talking about science though? (And I wouldn't be smug if I were you: just as much strange stuff comes from your side (Austrian Economics etc) as the MMT people).

The funny thing about what Dule said (which I doubt he was aware of) is that most academic economists lean left.

Well, most academic anythings lean left these days.

Yes, but Dule specifically accused liberals of exempting the “entire field of economics” from their alleged belief in sciences, implying that most expert economists were right leaning.

[John Dule]

entire field of economics,

I thought we were talking about science though? (And I wouldn't be smug if I were you: just as much strange stuff comes from your side (Austrian Economics etc) as the MMT people).

The funny thing about what Dule said (which I doubt he was aware of) is that most academic economists lean left.

Well, most academic anythings lean left these days.

Yes, but Dule specifically accused liberals of exempting the “entire field of economics” from their alleged belief in sciences, implying that most expert economists were right leaning.

No, I was just referring to people like Berkeley sociology majors who think economics isn't scientific because "Homo Economicus isn't real lol; people don't maximize their utility at all times you heartless capitalist." These are the same people who will say "Marxism is a science."

[HisGrace]

The whole "Science is Real" thing as a liberal rallying cry really irks me.  Like, which science do they mean?  There's no shortage of anti-empirical attitudes and beliefs the Left loves to hang on to.

The woke left says objective reality is a social construct invented by evil white men. Guess they "don't even science". Hard to use the scientific method to observe reality and learn from it when there's no reality to observe.