{"id":21755,"date":"2016-10-17T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=21755"},"modified":"2016-10-17T10:19:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T14:19:40","slug":"a-report-from-the-front-lines-of-the-war-on-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2016\/10\/17\/a-report-from-the-front-lines-of-the-war-on-science\/","title":{"rendered":"A Report From the Front Lines of the War on Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Science
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On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the rabbi at my synagogue gave a sermon about four themes, all of which he felt needed addressing when there was a larger crowd than usual (though, it should be noted, the sanctuary was sparsely filled, especially compared to the SRO crowd the day before): racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and \u201cthe war on science.\u201d As he recited off his list, the first three items made perfect sense to me; I was even proud to hear him cover\u00a0current events like the Black Lives Matter movement and Donald Trump’s\u00a0misogyny and how they are understood within Jewish tradition (hint: the first one\u2019s good, the second one\u2019s bad). That fourth item, though, piqued my curiosity a bit.<\/p>\n

Since when did a war on science begin? Is it like the ill-fated War on Drugs? Or the ill-fated War on Terror? Or the ill-fated War on Poverty?<\/p>\n

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It turned out the rabbi was talking specifically about climate change deniers and their penchant for ignoring the overwhelming evidence pointing towards the anthropocentric damage we\u2019re doing to our planet. I admit that it was a bit refreshing to hear a clergyman align his religious values with scientific discourse, encouraging his congregation to do the same. He fell short of explicitly blaming market-based motives or any specific lobbying efforts for why the country as a whole struggles to enact legislation. But that\u2019s to be expected considering his delicate position as congregational leader of a highly varied group, culturally and economically.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience\u201d, of course, is a complex apparatus, an assemblage of research, experiments, textbooks, journals, breakthroughs, studies, and\u2014oh yeah\u2014scientists. If there is, in fact, a war on science, then it seems quite obvious to me that its allied forces (i.e., science\u2019s great defenders) would be led by General Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, host of National Geographic\u2019s Cosmos<\/i>, and oft-retweeted Twitter personality.<\/p>\n

You may remember some of Tyson\u2019s best work:<\/p>\n

This tweet declaring that\u00a0there are\u00a0objective truths and that, by aligning ourselves with them, the world will become a better place.<\/p>\n

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Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.<\/p>\n

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n