Re: <nettime> science wars replace culture wars as new divider in contemp politics

[carlo von lynX <lynX@time.to.get.psyced.org>]

On Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 09:22:45AM +0100, Alex Foti wrote:
> let's win the science wars to prevail in the climate and class struggles,

Yes, please.
Thank you for emphasising the issue of science in all of this.

TL;DR:
  How big is the impact of culturally accepted anti-science
  and will this new awareness also help focus on that?

A crazy optimistic thought of mine: what if a new attention
towards fact-orientedness and science in the reasonable
majorities of society suddenly helps unveil other areas of
political thought, where anti-science has been commonly
accepted for decades?

What if these developments bring about a new honest look at
otherwise ideology-driven political movements like the
"economic sciences", "conservative" political parties who
praise free markets while ignoring that the markets haven't
been free for quite a while now?

Each time I hear "conservative" or "liberal" leaders like
FDP's Lindner spew out populist el-cheapo phrases like "no
raise in taxes" when taxes, applied to the right people,
are absolutely essential in achieving sustainable existence
of the human species, it makes me worry about the intelli-
gence of voters. And then they interview some student who
says he voted for FDP because saving the planet is impor-
tant but to him it matters more that no speed limit is
introduced on highways.

The science vs ideology vs radicalisation wars, are they 
about Internet desinformation? Or are they about stupidity?
Or about lack of empathy and care? Who cares about future
generations if even many of today's kids don't?

Anyway, I wish us luck.

What were the culture wars actually? Fighting over ideologies
while more or less accepting facts to be facts and science
to be science? Well, then maybe it is good that the disrespect
of science in large chunks of the political spectrum becomes
more visible - not just those parts of anti-science that are
not acceptable culturally.

P.S. Another example of culturally widely accepted anti-
     science: The microwave oven scare.

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