British sociologist Noah Carl is the one who reported it: the political right has seemingly lost all confidence in the "scientific community."
The data he used came from a "general social survey," something whose reliability would perhaps seem suspect if the findings didn't also match most of our anecdotal, personal experiences. Still, the more pressing and interesting question is: why?
Why has almost half of the country lost belief, respect, and confidence in something as objectively based as scientific research?
The short answer, for anyone who actually wants to know the truth rather than just mine for provocative headlines, partisan potshots, and a two-way street of insults, is that there is no short answer. It's actually a very complex, very involved response that takes multiple factors into consideration. Here are a few:
Unacknowledged Assumptions - The rise of social media has permitted extraordinary public abuse of actual scientific work. A study is published and immediately cherry-picked for data that seem to confirm one group of people's prior beliefs. They then post the correlating "evidence" and claim that science has proved them right. Another group of people find their own "evidence," post it, and claim that the better science proves them right.
So often what appears before us is not science, but rather someone's interpretation of a set of scientific data. Those interpretations are often brash, extreme, controversial, and conflicting.
Loss of Curiosity - Sometime in the last generation or two, science has become about pontificating instead of pondering. Its fields have become overrun with activists eager to render conclusions rather than professionals eager to ask questions. Scientific advancement comes now through exerting authority and publishing rather than repeated appeals to inquiry and process.
Science as Political Bludgeon - One anecdotal example can thoroughly illustrate the point. Why do most of us know the name of Bill Nye? Because for a couple decades he has been celebrated as the man who inspired a new generation of young people to be fascinated by, and motivated to pursue, careers in science. But in actuality, Nye is an entertainer, opinion author, and at best a science communicator.
He does not conduct research, nor does he publish scientific papers. His forays into the realm of science are often provocative at best, unhinged at worst. He's made his money touting left-wing interpretations of the scientific literature, but passes off his bias as authoritative. His clamoring endorsement of all things "climate change" has earned him multiple platforms on sympathetic media outlets. But in the end, through his politicization of a field he doesn't really belong to anyway, Bill Nye has done more damage to the credibility of science than he ever did inspiring young people to love it.
Illegitimate Authority - Look back at that chart and notice the timing of the spike (upward and downward). It correlates to the years 2019-2022: the COVID era - a period that will forever be associated with the demise of scientific credibility in the United States, and probably around the world. Unelected researchers were thrust into policymaking positions. That led first to a crisis of humility. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And if nationwide travel bans, economic shutdowns, school closures, and mask mandates aren't absolute power, I'm not sure what is.
Now that both the foolishness and arbitrariness of their guidelines and recommendations have become public - healthy people didn't need to isolate, masks (even the fancy ones) and then double masks didn't work on an airborne virus, social distancing was simply made up with a random distance established. No data, no research, and now, no apology. That's how you wreck your credibility.
So then, return to the question I asked to start:
"Why has almost half of the country lost belief, respect, and confidence in something as objectively based as scientific research?"
Because, as all these reasons begin to demonstrate, science in the West is no longer predicated around objectively based scientific research. Rather, it's become subjective, cherry-picked, arbitrary interpretations, focused on securing profit, personal advancement and political power.
People have lost their confidence because their confidence has been betrayed.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
