1. There's no question some parts of American culture, including academic and private sector science, have been hijacked by 'virtue signaling' - subject to condemnation or praise by groups to show how virtuous and superior they are to those they self-identify with.
Or desire to exploit. Though the goal of science is to act in the public's interest, it has been the victim of a culture war beginning in the 1970s, and now most young academic scientists know not to study or even opine on anything that might deviate from the cultural forces down the hallway. Criticizing skeptics of global warming is okay, criticizing the notion that men are identical can be career-ending. The groups that are anti-science, when it comes to anti-vaccine, anti-GMO, anti-energy and anti-everything else, have mastered social media.
Scientists can't even criticize the postmodernism that got us to this point, lest they be denied tenure. So we now have rampant distrust of academic science among the public, because they believe it is an arm of politics.We now have large segments of society where people apparently feel that DNA research is all hokum and your X and Y chromosomes are irrelevant. When does human life begin? Don’t ask that one unless you’re ready for a fight.
At HotAir, they discuss the issue and link to our our Alex Berezow.
She would rather your baby have a birth defect than have science in Miami.
2. Most of Miami is concerned about Zika, presumably since Miami would like to be a tourist destination where couples have a great time and maybe end up pregnant.
Because mosquitoes finally seem to have hit continental U.S. shores, public health officials have used an organophosphate. They're right for doing so, unless you are an environmentalist. They don't like that the pesticide has been "banned in Europe."
Well, Europe also thinks cell phones cause cancer and water doesn't cure thirst, which is why America leads the world in science and Europe doesn't.
Miami is doing the right thing, just like if you use chemotherapy to kill cancer. Acupuncture is not going to kill a tumor and citronella candles and essential oils will result in a Zika epidemic.
3. Foes of vaccination, spearheaded most recently by the unethical work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, insist vaccines backfire and leadto adverse reactions and more disease, so they are protesting a California law to require them. Obviously, in a perfect world, California would not feel the need to use government to accomplish everything - but in a perfect world, coastal elites in California would learn some science and health, rather than reading supplement hucksters like Joe Mercola, D.O. Failing to qualify for a referendum for this fall’s ballot aiming to overturn SB 277 - Marin and Humboldt only have so many people that are all for sick kids - so they turned to a Superior Court judge in San Diego County, seeking an injunction to suspend the law until higher courts can rule on its constitutionality.
Yes, the anti-science lineup in California believe saving children's lives is unconstitutional, but that putting a cancer-causing warning on coffee is.
4. All of the science and health arguments regarding organic food have long been debunked. When the only people on your side are an economist who turned out to have been funded entirely by organic marketing groups and a guy who moonlights as a Yogic flying instructor, really it is just self-identification.
At Canada Free Press, Jack Dini punctures even that moral superiority.
