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The measures treasured so much as to be indicative of one’s basic humanity are mitigating at best. We should do them, but viruses are gonna virus. The gleeful COVID shamers really think only Republicans are keeping the virus alive. This idea is corrosive, divisive, and false. https://twitter.com/ajzeigler/status/1344142372922404865
Ask California and Europe if MAGAts are to blame for their spikes and rises. The virus was politicized from day one because it was an election year. Criticize Trump all you want, nothing from Biden or the rest indicated they had a plan other than “science!” messaging either
There’s always been a terrible nexus of politics and media, but adding the authority of “science”, defined in my quotes as a near religious following that’s more of a belief and appeal to authority spread through media and not as the academic process it really is - yikes
“Science” when it’s brought up in media & especially in political discussions isn’t really a pursuit of knowledge and internal hashing out of ideas. When it’s brought up on these big issues, as it increasingly is, it’s meant to be a final unquestioning stamp of political approval
Science as a process of testing and expanding knowledge is absolutely vital. And I think most scientists in fields that aren’t controversial, ie that don’t result in policy, believe that’s still the driving societal force behind their work.
Most scientists are earnest in their pursuits and nose deep in their work, and love to see their ideas not only spread but enacted as it’s a validation of what they’ve worked on.
Here’s where the breakdown between science and policy and happens though. Politicians treat scientists as an endorsement base that’s been cultivated by corporate media as all knowing and infallible.
Nobody in a field believes themselves infallible. There’s arguments and personality disagreements and competing hypotheses. But the larger public has the media-driven notion of “settled science” that’s to be taken as dogma and as unquestioned basis for legislation
A lot of the science community is based on reputation and on publications. If you’re lacking in either then you won’t last long. And academia is left-leaning/lurching. So it’s a massive gamble to go against the grain in any meaningful sense.
Given that milieu, and given that certain fields are granted almost carte blanche to recommend policy and legislation, and that they’ll get certain adulation from a media that has pushed them to the fore, idk that doesn’t seem conducive to truth to me
There isn’t a sinister science conspiracy at all. They’re just human like the rest of us. And they’re not priests to be followed blindly. And I think they’re being taken advantage of by the ruling class and by the media and not realizing it because they ostensibly align with them
And to tie it back to the original tweet, there’s a real zeal to punish anyone not following “science” - as though anything that comes out of a PhD on CNN is Gospel and anyone who fails to adhere at all times is a heretic that deserves death
This is where the nexus of politics and media and “science” becomes corrosive - when the sort of consensus discussion between academics is pushed by gov and media as TRUTH THAT CANNOT BE QUESTIONED, and unbelievers deserve their deaths. There are some Copernican parallels there
There are obviously physical truths that are incontrovertible. The political and media part is lumping skepticism of “science”’s political conclusions together. If you say hang on just a second Dr Fauci are you *really* on the same level as a Flat Earther or Holocaust Denier?
Dr Fauci is dealing with a fluid situation, and conclusions necessarily change as new data comes in. But if you don’t follow his every recommendation, do you deserve death? Should your end be celebrated as a cautionary tale to listen to your elders?
To convince people that Letlow didn’t deserve to die, as fucking disgusting as that should even be to argue, even as he followed guidelines as best he could but wasn’t on the right team in the end, unfortunately that requires some deconstruction of that nexus
If I got anything wrong, that’s on me and I own it. But it’s all to argue that a father and husband did not “have it coming” and tell you to pull your humanity out of your tribal partisan asses.
