Scientists have always had their prejudices, ideological biases and blind spots, but almost by definition regarded those as bad things to be minimised.
The insistence on subjecting all of science to ideological tests means maximising prejudice instead.
The insistence on subjecting all of science to ideological tests means maximising prejudice instead.
My, how we all laughed when Alan Sokal hoaxed a social science journal into publishing a paper ‘liberally salted with nonsense’ that ‘flattered the editors’ ideological preconceptions’.
Little did we realise that verbose and vapid social deconstruction was coming for physics.
Little did we realise that verbose and vapid social deconstruction was coming for physics.
In a new book, The War on Science, edited by the astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss, 31 scientists and scholars lament the corruption of their field by left-wing ideological nonsense. Whereas once a book with this title would have raged at the conservative right pushing creationism and sexism in the teeth of truth, now it is exposing the woke left pushing identity ideology and intersectionality at the expense of reason. @LKrauss1 @RichardDawkins @sapinker @GadSaad
Hilariously, the ideologues have painted themselves into an awkward corner in their attempts to decolonise mathematics. They demand non-western slants on algebra and algorithms, which are words of Arabic origin
Meanwhile, New Zealand now requires schools to teach indigenous Maori ‘ways of knowing’ as equivalent to scientific ones. So creationism is fine if brown people do it?
Many scientists continue to do good work unperturbed by this revolt against critical thinking. But the sheer volume of funding, publishing and attention that is being siphoned off into this pathology represents a massive opportunity cost. Grants are being spent, papers retracted, scientists sanctioned, hiring practices altered and peer reviews corrupted, while scientists are self-censoring to prevent their cancellation.
It is now clear that embracing ideology over truth directly led to scientists misleading us during the pandemic. ‘I hate when politics is injected into science, but it’s impossible not to, especially given the circumstance,’ wrote Kristian Andersen
Science has always behaved like a cult to some extent, enforcing dogma and persecuting heretics, but it has grown far worse with wokery. Science as a philosophy is still great, but science as an institution is about as true to its philosophy as the church was under the Borgias, and as ripe for reformation.
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