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The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist's Warning Peter Hotez Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (2023)
You prefer to say anti-science aggression rather than misinformation. Why?
Misinformation makes it sound like its random junk that appears out of nowhere on the Internet. Its not: its an organized, well-financed, politically motivated campaign thats meant to tear down the fabric of science. And we have to frame it in that way.
Anti-science rhetoric is not new. Whats changed?
Now, its fully embraced by a major political party in the United States, and by authoritarian regimes in other countries such as Hungary and, previously, Brazil. Its sanctioned by elected leaders in the US Congress. Its reached a new level of organization and aggression its starting to resemble the 1930s, when Joseph Stalins regime in the Soviet Union portrayed scientists as enemies of the state.
The point of the book is to draw a line in the sand and say, No, this must stop.
How did you see this play out during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Some 200,000 Americans died because of anti-science aggression. They were victims of this coordinated campaign. Thats why we need to care about it. Its horrifying. I want to honour the legacy of those victims.
COVID scientists in the public eye need protection from threats
When I went into the more conservative, rural areas of east Texas, essentially everyone I talked to had lost a loved one because they refused a COVID-19 vaccine. In the intensive-care unit, you saw some people deny COVID-19 existed, yet in their dying words feel remorse and advise their friends: Dont do what I did, get your COVID-19 immunization. These are good people. [Anti-science campaigners] took advantage of that.
More https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02981-z
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The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist's Warning Peter Hotez Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (2023) (Original Post)
BootinUp
Sep 2023
OP
ffr
(22,677 posts)1. I see this on a daily basis. Anti-science aggression is real.
Scientific knowledge is looked down upon. Money, greed, and luxury are fostered above all else by the anti-science crowd. Science tends to get in the way of those things, especially if there's a green way of doing something, as opposed to a cheap dirty environmentally unfriendly way of doing something.
BootinUp
(47,211 posts)2. I am thinking about buying his book. This is one of the main issues
that drives my interest in politics. Also the use of religion to justify the anti-science effort.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)3. I dislike resorting to pop culture references in these matters, but...
The Matrix got it analogously right: these people are victims of the anti-science regime, but until theyre brought to reality they are also enemies.
BootinUp
(47,211 posts)5. makes me sick. nt
appalachiablue
(41,199 posts)4. K/R