I found it interesting that in the third decade of the 21 st century we are experiencing conspiracism in science with political movements. In the late 20th century and early 21 st it was the left that was anti- vaxx. After Covid it is the right leading an attack based on marginal evidence of lab created deliberately by a foreign country and conspiracy to cause cancer in vaccine takers. So, counterculture or Big Pharma was led by the left. Now the right took conspiracism over.
This has continued with health food movement and eating better -from health food adherents from 1960s to MAHA now. The weirdest one is The Lost Century video by a "Dr" Greer a conspiracy to suppress devices that violate the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics are possible.
I know some skillful in science and were good in their filed as retired that give credence to this. This too is tied up into a notion that the media and government suppress findings of perpetual motion machine violators.
Is it a failure of education as we sometimes view lack of civics and history makes college student think the revolution was fought in 1900, and it was against Germany. Or not knowing how many branches of government there are. What has happened to rationality while people say there's less devote people. I wonder if we can survive as a species if everything from climate change to the polio vaccine to bird flu and culling is politicized? Any thoughts? I rather this be on what we can do as scientists and not political attacks on any one group. As I mentioned what is nuts on the right can be nuts on the left in the future as we have seen this switch.
Robert Doti "After Covid it is the right leading an attack based on marginal evidence of lab created deliberately by a foreign country and conspiracy to cause cancer in vaccine takers."
Shouldn't the handling of the pandemic be a good argument why social trust has reached new lows?
The pandemic started at doorstep of lab researching coronaviruses... A bunch of people on the top of US establishment decided to throw their whole authority that lab leak was impossible and one of them allegedly commit perjury to even claim no gain of function research was performed. Somehow impossibility of that lab leak has to be reconciled with other mainstream positions like that H1N1 influenza outbreak of 1976 had been a lab leak...
Add to it series of blunders during handling pandemic (my favourite are: policy U-turns or cases where authorities of different countries had been reaching mutually contradictory conclusions while claiming to their citizens that those conclusions had been based on unquestionable science; not mention famous implemented in my country (Poland) ban of going to... forests).
I'd say what has been done is a pure paranoia fuel (as not everyone pick gross incompetence) and afterglow of that would linger for years. (years, as in vaccine hesitancy studies there had been clearly visible legacy of communist occupation leading to lower vaccine uptake 3 decades after its collapse)
"I wonder if we can survive as a species if everything from climate change to the polio vaccine to bird flu and culling is politicized?"
Well, I was also surprised to watch how after a while had formed right-wing and left-wing position on handling pandemics. Politicizing findings like either denying agw or conversely attributing all extreme weather events to agw is crazy. However, what's shocking that policy selection becomes... politicized? When we're not talking about some abstract science but picking one of possible implementation (ex. how to balance emission reduction vs adaptation? How to share burdens? How to place it within greater geopolitical game? How to balance it with other needs? Those aren't scientific questions, as we may be in perfect agreement on models and prefer different policies)
Marginal evidence? Sufficient to convince the FBI, DOE and remain as a equal possibility by CIA. In fact, we do not know the origin but is circumstantial evidence for the lab origin, unlike the Fauci sponsored contrived speculation.
Cancer?? This was speculation of a technical article - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141813024022323#bb0175
Here's what you can do as an "'educator". Stick with chemistry in your junior college and stop pretending your bias passes for science.. You clearly know nothing of covid or biology.
Conspiratorial thinking has always existed, but the present digital age has magnified its reach and impact. Historically, when religious authority feels threatened (by science, rival sects, or modernity), conspiracism often provides a defensive narrative.
At present, from climate change denial to vaccine skepticism, conspiracism undermines trust in science, polarizes societies, and endangers public health.
Scientists and educators face the dual challenge of defending evidence-based reasoning while also fostering resilience against misinformation. Science often fails not because of weak evidence but because of weak communication. Complex jargon, inaccessible publishing, and overemphasis on technical detail create gaps that conspiracists exploit.
Conspiracies thrive where critical reasoning is weak. Conspiracism will not disappear, but educators and scientists can blunt its impact. Educators should Train students to evaluate sources, recognize logical fallacies, and detect misinformation tactics.
Robert Doti
I say again and ask for your response.
The issue with "education" is the too common educator who choses to indoctrinate rather than teach the subject matter.
"Marginal evidence" - multiple US governmental agencies including the CIA* (during Biden admin) consider the "lab leak" theory as the the most likely origin.
Of course - a liberal community college chemistry teacher with limited knowledge of the subject matter and no relevant data or insight claims to judge marginal evidence- going on to worry at the criticism of science when sin is their own.
* https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cia-shifts-assessment-covid-origins-saying-lab-leak-likely-caused-outb-rcna189284
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