The Antiscience Movement
I am a citizen of the United States, and my country has been taken over by the antiscience movement. I hope the people of this world will survive my countries' willful ignorance.
I don't know when the antiscience movement started. It may have been there since the beginning. When the human race first started figure out how to use fire, make tools, and plant crops. Maybe it's always been part of the human nature to fear what we don't understand. Maybe a portion of human race has always felt an uneasiness going beyond what is known.
When you look back at history, there are a few times when the world celebrated intelligence and the progression of science. WWII comes to mind rather quickly, as well as, the cold war with the USSR. Another time that comes to mind is the age of enlightenment (AKA age of reason) which ranges from 1685-1815 according to history.com. Which covers the beginning of this country. That is why most of our founding fathers were logical people which included a scientist. I'll be the first to admit they weren't perfect, but they created and put a system in place that allows future generations to correct the mistakes they made. What could have been more logical than that?
Large portions of history were blighted with antiscience. One of the longest, and worst times in history commonly know as the dark ages or medieval times. Which according to the Encyclopedia Britannica covered the later half of the 1st century. In this time period there was little to no scientific advancement and an over abundance of war. Our ancestors looked only to religion and leaders (likely the same people) for help. Often leaving them starving, sick, and beaten.
It wasn't until the renaissance around the 14th century that our ancestors started to move forward again. Even then there were still people that preferred the older ways. One only needs to look at the life of Galileo to see this. Imprisoned because he showed the church was wrong.
Right now, as I write this, Donald Trump is the president. You don't have to look further than twitter to see an over abundance of his antiscience statements. Not to mention all the statements that are illogical, and completely without reason. However, if it was just Trump, I wouldn't be so worried about our future.
Trump appointed, and some how got past the senate, a secretary of education that has stated she wants public schools to teach creationism. Betsy DeVos has also been pushing public funding for schools moved from public schools to private schools. This has been documented many times, but the New York Times covered it pretty well. So not only is Trump showing his antiscience stance by appointing DeVos, the senate approved her appointment. Which means that the majority of the senate is antiscience as well. Maybe more like anti-education, but that includes science.
The administrator of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) appointed by Trump and passed by the senate is Scott Pruitt. This is a man that has sued the EPA about it's regulations thirteen times according to the Huffington Post, and spoken out about his belief that Climate change is not real. In other words, this is someone that values money from the oil companies more than science. Since his nomination was passed by the senate, it would show that the majority of them are antiscience as well.
The sectary of energy, once again appointed by Trump and confirmed by the senate, is also a climate change denier. This is covered rather well by CNBC. Once again showing that the majority of my federal government is antiscience.
I don't know what the future holds for my country, or the rest of the world. Though I can make logical predictions from current trends and lessons of history. I look at the leadership of my country, and know that a large portion (if not the majority) of my country has voted to have these antiscience and anti-education people as our leaders. I compare these facts to the lessons of history. The trends are leading towards another dark ages. Where education is sneered at, logic is deemed hate, and science is viewed like witchcraft of the past. Where intelligent people may need to hide, and the willfully ignorant are in charge.
I've already see some of this take place. I've just explained the leadership. I've seen intelligent children being bullied in school, not just by other students not doing as well, but by teachers too. I've seen college students do the bare minimum to pass only so they can gain the acceptance of their peers. Some of the smartest people I've ever met have been bullied, beaten, and scorned. In some parts of the country "geek culture" is still prevalent. While the rest of the country is pushing these elements out. I give you the Ark Encounter as evidence of this. Some logical assessments of facts and figures have already been deemed hate speech. I give you atheist as an example of this. Prominent atheist such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Hemant Mehta, and of course Sam Harris have been met with death threats, damnation, and hate filled campaigns to quite these individuals. I can't say I agree with everything these people have said, but I would never try to muffle their voices. Look at some of the twitter feeds, and Face Book post of scientists like Lawrence Krauss, Phil Plait, and Neil deGrasse Tyson and you will see hate being spewed towards them for doing nothing but trying to tell people about what science has learned. There has also been overabundance of wars. Seems the US as been nonstop fighting since the cold war.
I see two possible outcomes. One being we work against the encroachment of this plague of the mind. Which could possibly lead to civil war, and I have already seen some people calling for this action. Another being we roll over and let the willfully ignorant take over. Thus leading us into another century or two of the human race going backwards, or at best stagnate.
I say we fight. We can not let the human race fall short of our potential again. We need to educate the entire country. Hell, the world for that matter. Get on school boards and help fix our education system. We need to take back our government. It was created by scientists and logical people. There is must stay. Run for office, vote, and nominate scientist for positions that deal with science. We need to go out into our communities and show them the awesomeness of science. Do a science show in the middle of park. There are plenty of safe scientific demonstrations that will wow a crowd. We need to show people the lessons learned from history. Talk to people about what history has to do with today. Why we cannot continue down this path we are on. We need to call out the willfully ignorant when we see them. Once you have tried to education them and they will not listen, tag them a dumbass and move on. Don't waste your time. Don't let them get by with saying stupid shit. We need to boycott Fox News, Breitbart, Info Wars, and any other antiscience, anti-education, or anti-intellectualism outlet. Don't only boycott them, but their advertisers and donors as well. Hurt them in the one place that matters to them, the bank. When you see these types of messages on social media. Scorn them just as they do us. Tag them as a dumbass so everyone knows who they are.
We have been pushed around, bullied, marginalized, beaten, threatened, and killed long enough. The dumbasses of the world have taken over and we must make a stand.
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| From: Discover Magazine The post linked by Phil Plait is dated, but still completely relevant. |
When you look back at history, there are a few times when the world celebrated intelligence and the progression of science. WWII comes to mind rather quickly, as well as, the cold war with the USSR. Another time that comes to mind is the age of enlightenment (AKA age of reason) which ranges from 1685-1815 according to history.com. Which covers the beginning of this country. That is why most of our founding fathers were logical people which included a scientist. I'll be the first to admit they weren't perfect, but they created and put a system in place that allows future generations to correct the mistakes they made. What could have been more logical than that?
Large portions of history were blighted with antiscience. One of the longest, and worst times in history commonly know as the dark ages or medieval times. Which according to the Encyclopedia Britannica covered the later half of the 1st century. In this time period there was little to no scientific advancement and an over abundance of war. Our ancestors looked only to religion and leaders (likely the same people) for help. Often leaving them starving, sick, and beaten.
It wasn't until the renaissance around the 14th century that our ancestors started to move forward again. Even then there were still people that preferred the older ways. One only needs to look at the life of Galileo to see this. Imprisoned because he showed the church was wrong.
Right now, as I write this, Donald Trump is the president. You don't have to look further than twitter to see an over abundance of his antiscience statements. Not to mention all the statements that are illogical, and completely without reason. However, if it was just Trump, I wouldn't be so worried about our future.
Trump appointed, and some how got past the senate, a secretary of education that has stated she wants public schools to teach creationism. Betsy DeVos has also been pushing public funding for schools moved from public schools to private schools. This has been documented many times, but the New York Times covered it pretty well. So not only is Trump showing his antiscience stance by appointing DeVos, the senate approved her appointment. Which means that the majority of the senate is antiscience as well. Maybe more like anti-education, but that includes science.
The administrator of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) appointed by Trump and passed by the senate is Scott Pruitt. This is a man that has sued the EPA about it's regulations thirteen times according to the Huffington Post, and spoken out about his belief that Climate change is not real. In other words, this is someone that values money from the oil companies more than science. Since his nomination was passed by the senate, it would show that the majority of them are antiscience as well.
The sectary of energy, once again appointed by Trump and confirmed by the senate, is also a climate change denier. This is covered rather well by CNBC. Once again showing that the majority of my federal government is antiscience.
I don't know what the future holds for my country, or the rest of the world. Though I can make logical predictions from current trends and lessons of history. I look at the leadership of my country, and know that a large portion (if not the majority) of my country has voted to have these antiscience and anti-education people as our leaders. I compare these facts to the lessons of history. The trends are leading towards another dark ages. Where education is sneered at, logic is deemed hate, and science is viewed like witchcraft of the past. Where intelligent people may need to hide, and the willfully ignorant are in charge.
I've already see some of this take place. I've just explained the leadership. I've seen intelligent children being bullied in school, not just by other students not doing as well, but by teachers too. I've seen college students do the bare minimum to pass only so they can gain the acceptance of their peers. Some of the smartest people I've ever met have been bullied, beaten, and scorned. In some parts of the country "geek culture" is still prevalent. While the rest of the country is pushing these elements out. I give you the Ark Encounter as evidence of this. Some logical assessments of facts and figures have already been deemed hate speech. I give you atheist as an example of this. Prominent atheist such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Hemant Mehta, and of course Sam Harris have been met with death threats, damnation, and hate filled campaigns to quite these individuals. I can't say I agree with everything these people have said, but I would never try to muffle their voices. Look at some of the twitter feeds, and Face Book post of scientists like Lawrence Krauss, Phil Plait, and Neil deGrasse Tyson and you will see hate being spewed towards them for doing nothing but trying to tell people about what science has learned. There has also been overabundance of wars. Seems the US as been nonstop fighting since the cold war.
I see two possible outcomes. One being we work against the encroachment of this plague of the mind. Which could possibly lead to civil war, and I have already seen some people calling for this action. Another being we roll over and let the willfully ignorant take over. Thus leading us into another century or two of the human race going backwards, or at best stagnate.
I say we fight. We can not let the human race fall short of our potential again. We need to educate the entire country. Hell, the world for that matter. Get on school boards and help fix our education system. We need to take back our government. It was created by scientists and logical people. There is must stay. Run for office, vote, and nominate scientist for positions that deal with science. We need to go out into our communities and show them the awesomeness of science. Do a science show in the middle of park. There are plenty of safe scientific demonstrations that will wow a crowd. We need to show people the lessons learned from history. Talk to people about what history has to do with today. Why we cannot continue down this path we are on. We need to call out the willfully ignorant when we see them. Once you have tried to education them and they will not listen, tag them a dumbass and move on. Don't waste your time. Don't let them get by with saying stupid shit. We need to boycott Fox News, Breitbart, Info Wars, and any other antiscience, anti-education, or anti-intellectualism outlet. Don't only boycott them, but their advertisers and donors as well. Hurt them in the one place that matters to them, the bank. When you see these types of messages on social media. Scorn them just as they do us. Tag them as a dumbass so everyone knows who they are.
We have been pushed around, bullied, marginalized, beaten, threatened, and killed long enough. The dumbasses of the world have taken over and we must make a stand.
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