2. has made doing science ~feel~ apolitical. We’ve not really ever HAD to fight because everyone could agree this was a good ecosystem to maintain. 3. NUMBER 2 IS NO LONGER TRUE. Sorry, it’s just not. This means we have to do things a little bit different, which can feel uncomfortable 🤷🏻♀️
Science has always been political even where some scientists pretend it isn't
4. THE STAKES ARE FUCKING HIGH. Every. Single. Day. Someone asks me “but why would they do all this? People are going to die!” Yes. Exactly. It’s eugenics. It’s Lysenkoism. It’s what happens when a group of ppl in power want to reestablish a class system that has been threatened by evidence.
Totally agree, except that it's Gleichschaltung, not Lysenkoism. Lysenkoism was a well-connected individual persecuting his perceived rivals in one corner of science. Gleichschaltung was a systematic effort to bring the entire system of knowledge production under Nazi control.
(Also in a very flat-footed sense it can't be both eugenics and Lysenkoism since the basic scientific claim of Lysenkoism was that Mendelian genetics and Weissmanian inheritance are false)
1. RFK Jr is a KENNEDY with LAWSUITS OUT AGAINST VACCINE COMPANIES lmao. 2. Read this: kieranhealy.org/files/papers... by @kjhealy.co to understand how I approach science activism.
We can maybe understand RFK and Bhattacharya using the Lysenko comparison. But once you include NSF, EPA, NOAA, Smithsonian; the EOs on gender ideology, scientific integrity, "Gold Standard Science"; and the extortion campaigns against higher ed, it clearly goes well beyond those two individuals.
Please go look at the work my org @standupforscience.bsky.social is doing. I deeply understand the moment we are in rn, rest assured.
Not sure how leading an advocacy org establishes your expertise in HPSTS, but okay
Jesus christ. Who cares if the wrong verbage was used? The message is still loud and clear and undersrltood!
Because they worked in very different ways at very different scales and had very different consequences. Using an analogy that doesn't actually fit the present moment is more likely to lead to bad decisions.
if you see somebody getting stabbed repeatedly, and the person getting stabbed erroneously says "help! this guy is shooting me! he's gonna shoot you next!" are you gonna stop and say "well actually the killer is using a knife" or are you gonna understand a murder is happening and try to prevent it?
4. Cont. The MAGA war on science is happening because a symptom of the cancer of fascism is dismantling every institution that provides evidence against their core tenants (e.g., men and women are equal, one race isn’t genetically better, disabled ppl can live rich lives).
The cancer of fascism is a dismantling of evidence, historiography, knowledge, and argument, as such/per se.
5. SO, YEAH. YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO PUT YOUR ACTIVIST SHOES ON. Unless you want to be a bystander while millions die because MAGA has wielded pseudo-science bullshit to prop up fresh eugenic flavored policies. Again, this isn’t comfortable. We aren’t used to this. It’s not our “culture”. And yet…
Kudos for speaking out Colette. Yes, a key issue is that it's hard to step outside of usual roles--as a scientist, as a doctor, as a public official, as educators etc etc. But if ALL who believe in science and democracy do not stretch now we will lose our democracy and lose our science.
There isn’t a middle ground. You DO have to get political. It IS going to mean “looking like you’re taking a side” because…you do have to take a fucking side. There are lives at stake, a democracy at stake, and the collapse of our society at stake. Reimagine yourself as an activist.
Thank you!!
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Follow @standupforscience.bsky.social for ways to get involved. Time to get off the sidelines, dorks. We have a democracy to save. ✊🏼❤️
Tbh 1 has been field-dependent. Climate science and stem cell research has been politicized for decades. And I can tell you from my days at NIH the support was far from bipartisan. Just ask Rand Paul or Andy Harris.
Science is about what is true and what is not. And whenever what is true causes someone with power harm, it becomes political. The fascist "truth matters less than power" is opposed to uncontrolled science.