Editorial

‘The Science:’ be skeptical

“The Science.”

This two-word phrase has been a common one heard in our polarized political discourse for the better part of four decades. Any issue that had to do with health concerns, pollution, or environmental science, and especially “climate change,” was shut down with phrases that to not trust “The Science” is to be a flat earther. Those who questioned the data or methodology of those charged with “The Science” was modern-day heresy.

Two issues, especially, have shown that science, like everything else run by humans, is subject to manipulation, distortion, and outright fraud. It has become indisputable that Dr. Anthony Fauci, late of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was dealing in fraudulent evidence to hide the fact his office was funding illegal research and helped develop the mutation that caused Covid-19, and the ensuing pandemic.

In the process, Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, lied to the American public, and colluded with others in the field to put the world through the two years of diktats and heavy-handed tyranny. Masks, for example, were worthless, and known by these two keepers of “The Science,” but gave them the performance art they needed to help keep the public and the media in line. Those who questioned were shunned, despite their own credentials.

The mask mandate was one of the most devastating edicts to come out of the pandemic days, harming children, and traumatizing adults. No better proof of that is the recent spat in a lesbian bar in Greenfield, MA, where the mask mandate still operative in the establishment, was to be lifted on one night. The Sturm und Drang that has followed would be comical if it were not so inane.

Similarly, climate change has been treated as a matter of faith rather than speculation, particularly human influence in climate activity. Yet, a recent search points to thousands of climate change peer-reviewed papers have been retracted for assorted reasons, including data errors, methodology, or downright falsified input. In total, more than 10,000 papers have been retracted on various matters, where the settled “science” was not in dispute. The United Nations’ own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change quietly backed off its own frameworks that underpinned the hysteria we see throughout the world, most especially amongst believers here and in Europe.

The point is science, and scientists are no different than anyone else. Both issues mentioned above had strong backing from government and international agencies, and if researchers wanted funding, they had to toe the line or face ritualized exclusion. Ad to this the famous “Publish or Perish” dictum that universities impose on faculty, and you have ingredients for a skewed stew of junk science.

It points out also that science is not static, and latest information – or in these cases embargoed information – can change the analysis of the expected outcomes.

Climate Change and the pandemic were in many ways political tools, exercised by scientists in collusion with politicians to deny liberties and stoke fear in the public. It is good that the scales have fallen from the eyes of many and healthy skepticism is returning.

“The Science” is not a matter of faith, but of constant search for the truth. Like many such disciplines it is subject to the same evils and vices that have plagued humanity from the beginning.