Can we have a ban of the use the definite article “the” with science ? Unpack to at least one level to be clear “we need to heed the dire warnings of the coronavirus infection modellers” or “we cannot ignore the impact of change in weather patterns”
“The science” implies certainty when science rarely has it (but parts of science can have high confidence - lack of complete certainty does *not* mean no very confident view) and it often socially placed science as an actor in other societal debates
Ie, rather than societal debates accepting shared facts +understanding, poking and asking questions of the science, some people think of science being allied with their point of view, often spilling over from the “understanding the world” bit to the “and so what do we do” bit
Science’s sometimes confident understanding of aspects of the world can be used to play out consequences (if we do this ... the most likely thing to happen is this), but not *support* an argument
(These likely consequences might support or refute a line of reasoning but usually the debate has more than one dimension and aspect)
(Before people think this is a specific sub tweet it is not, and to a first approximation left and right politics/commentators both fall into this “the science supports” or “the facts of the matter are” )
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