Thursday, April 30, 2020
Science Friction
It’s a troubling thought, especially coming from someone who spent the first part of his career as a journalist, defending that cherished right.
But to paraphrase comic book legend Stan Lee, “with great freedom comes great responsibility” and lately I see people exercising their right to the former with no regard to the later.
This is hardly a new phenomenon. It has been going on since man first invented language and unfortunately will continue until our race is extinct.
And the way things are going lately, I fear that extinction may be right around the corner.
This pessimism isn’t born of the Coronavirus pandemic that’s currently sweeping the globe. It’s only the latest symptom of it.
My pessimism comes from the fact that we’ve lost trust in science and that people think that they know more about any given subject after 10 minutes on Google, than the scientists, doctors and engineers who’ve spent the better parts of their lives studying it.
It’s about politicians and fossil-fuel-industry executives denying climate change when the evidence that it is happening is right in front of their faces. They’ll claim the science is inconclusive even though 97 percent of the world’s scientist say it IS happening. Look, if only three people out of 100 say you are not an ass, it’s time to get fitted for a saddle, because you ARE an ass. And if you have to begin a sentence with the phrase, “I’m not a scientist, but….” you’re right.
You’re not a scientist.
You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
So just SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Yes, I understand that our current way of life is built on the use of fossil fuels and I understand we can’t just get rid of them overnight. But denying a problem exists, doesn’t make it go away. Neither will encouraging people to keeping kicking the problem down the road. Eventually the problem will catch up to us and just because you may not be around to pay that price, your children or grandchildren will. So if you care about them, you need to start doing something now.
It’s also about the Anti Vaxxers, who after reading some discredited medical studies or conspiracy theories on the Internet, think they know more about diseases than doctors who have spent their lives actually fighting and treating them. They will disregard the effectiveness of these drugs focusing on the very small percentage who’ve had some pretty bad reactions to them.
I get it that vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective. But nothing in life is guaranteed. And by advocating that others should follow their misguided lead, Anti Vaxxers are hurting the rest of humanity by reducing our heard immunity and leaving us more prone to pandemic outbreaks.
Look, I’m not saying that Anti Vaxxers are responsible for the Covid-19 crisis.
Far from it.
There is absolutely no evidence that herd immunity would have protected us from the Coronavirus.
What I’m railing about is people blatantly disregarding doctors and scientists’ advice about social distancing, wearing masks and or taking other common sense efforts to keep the disease from spreading just because they want a haircut; think it’s a hoax perpetrated by the “left” and the liberal media or think that it can be “cured” by injecting bleach ; exposing the human body to heat and light and promoting an unproven drugs as a coronavirus 'miracle cures.'
Again, Mr. President – and all you who think like him – if you have to begin a sentence with “I’m not a doctor. But…” just shut up and let actual doctors do the talking!
I get it that the president as well as many in the general public are concerned about the economy. I know they want get back to work ASAP so they don’t lose their livelihoods. But by disregarding the advice of experts, we can make things much, much worse. You can’t have a thriving economy if half the world is dead.
It didn’t work for Thanos, and it won’t work for you.
So instead of using your freedom of speech to sow disbelief in science and scientists, how about encouraging people to actually believe in the ingenuity and creativity of these folks? If scientists, doctors and engineers could get us to the moon and back in just ten years, I have no doubt they can figure out Covid-19 and other issues plaguing our society, too.
Yes, scientists will undoubtedly make mistakes along the way, and we need to expect that. But that’s how we learn. By experimentation, collecting data and basing new theories and experiments on that data – not by basing our findings on the way we wish things to be.
All this takes time and a lot of effort. So unless YOU are willing to put in all the work needed to get a degree in your scientific field of choice, put down your damn smartphone and stop telling people you’re an expert because you read some random article on the Internet, and let the people who ARE experts get on with their work!
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