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Why ideology should not be injected into science + Irreversible damage

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Why ideology should not be injected into science
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2021/06/1...o-science/

INTRO (Jerry Coyne): We’re increasingly seeing ideology worming its way into science, with science journals publishing political articles, taking stands on ideology (most often involving race), and condemning scientists of the past whose morals were considered inferior to those we hold today. Some scientific societies have annual meetings that are barely distinguishable from a convention of Progressive Democrats.

I have often criticized this trend, as science journals and meetings are not the place to formally hash out politics, morality, or ideology. There is a chilling effect on speech and on publication when journals or scientific societies consistently take one political line over others. On the other hand, scientists are free to speak about these issues on their own time, and in other venues.

The other day I highlighted (I believe in the Hili Dialogue) a piece by Anna Krylov in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (click on screenshot below for a free read, or download the pdf here). Having reread it after reader John sent me the link, I think it’s worth a standalone post. The author, Anna Krylov, is a quantum chemist who’s the Gabilan Distinguished Professor in Science and Engineering and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California.

Krylov’s thesis, with which I agree, is that the “woke” politicization of science diverts us from what we should be doing as scientists: doing science. Further, she argues that changing names of theorems (like “Newton’s laws”) or canceling scientists whose morality doesn’t comport with ours accomplishes nothing, for it’s performative “Social Justice” instead of real social justice. Finally, she arrives at these conclusions partly because (though she’s only 52), she lived through a period of Soviet science which saw similar cancellations, name changes, and even erasure of whole branches of science (e.g., the theory of resonating structures, for which Pauling won the Nobel prize).

Krylov: "Just as in Soviet times, the [Western] censorship is being justified by the greater good..."

[...] The result, says Krylov, is that “today Russia is hopelessly behind the West, in both technology and quality of life.” Some of this is due to phenomena that we don’t see in the U.S., like the canceling of entire fields (Mendelian genetics in Russia was felled by the axe of Lysenko.) But we still see instances of ideology impeding actual research, like the conflict between paleoanthropology and some Indigenous American myths, or the taboo on investigating differences between sexes or ethnic groups... (MORE)


Book Review: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, by Abigail Shrier
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/irrever...daughters/

INTRO: According to Harriet Hall, Abigail Shrier’s book describes a disturbing trend: an increasing number of adolescent girls who suddenly self-identify as transgender and demand puberty blockers and gender surgeries. We have no data on how many of them will suffer irreversible damage and regret their decision, and it appears that at least some of them have been unduly influenced by peer pressure, the internet, and by therapists who follow the affirmative care model. (Editor’s note: This post is currently under review by the founding and managing editors of SBM due to concerns expressed over its scientific accuracy and completeness. Until that review is complete, it has been removed from the blog.)
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That editor's note says it all. In contrast, how much humanities-bred pseudoscience is allowed through by science administrations because such -- as the very source -- caters to its own "reign of terror" ideological correctness? It's akin to a fascist regime's exploitation of capitalism, where it gives its blessing to businesses and industries that brown-nose the government or Party, but obstructs or dismantles those that don't.
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