As having worked for Mattis, he’s the only one that doesn’t give me an anxiety attack. I really adore that man. I know that might sound weird to this group, but he really is far more thoughtful, conversant, and reserved than what people may think.

The internet allows stupid people to have a voice and share their stupidity far easier than the media of any other age.

Trump voters thought they were electing a revolutionist. A man of the people. A new voice for the working class. They were wrong.

They are going to pillage the fuck out of the US economy and become even richer while their dim-brained supporters celebrate token wins like a 500 jobs in East Jesus Kentucky.

Cmon, these people of long ago knew their shit. Look at their cure for Malaria! Forget medicine, we need magic words and lion oil (I’m pretty sure that’s Trump’s new medical plan).

Yeah guess so. Although STEM degrees don’t ncessarily teach general critical thinking it should be giving us a population that understands how science works!

Yeah there’s that; that kind of thinking definitely drives the leaders of anti-science movements. But even those anti-science folks who don’t go full conspiracy theory (which I think is the majority) seem to think that scientists work by “just making shit up.” They don’t understand that there’s processes - e.g.…

No, we are getting smarter as a society. More and more people are at least getting basic education with each passing year.

I wouldn’t be so matter of fact about that. Trump’s got about as much religion in his bones as a Roomba, and that didn’t seem to stop people projecting their religious beliefs onto him. Hell, an open draft dodger, a man who has cheated on his multiple wives, who has not discernible opinion on anything, the only person…

The unfortunate thing is that a tiny number of scientists do lie for nefarious purposes just like any group of people. It’s hard to convince a group that’s already biased against a point of view that your point is correct when they can trot out a couple bad apples. It’s similar to how I’ve always tried to downplay the…

Some scientists lie. Hell, if the history of science has shown us anything, it’s that scientists lie, get shit wrong, make up crackpot and untestable hypotheses, and generally try to bullshit all the damn time.

There are definitely small pockets of bullshit science that do so for corporate dollars. But when the bulk of the scientific community are in agreement, it’s usually a sign that they got it right. What’s interesting is that big oil and Conservatives, with all that money can’t get the scientists on their side.

Yet, the same folks that assume most scientists are lying for nefarious purposes seem completely oblivious to the possibility that the “scientists” and politicians they’re listening to could be lying for nefarious purposes. They find one argument in favor of their beliefs, and feel completely validated, and dismiss…

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

Hence “on the whole”. There are exceptions to everything, and that’s built into that very phrase. You’re not saying anything that anyone doesn’t already know.

As someone who follows him on twitter, he’d be a terrible politician. He’s great in his field and a great educator/explainer.

Well, none of the board members of Theranos were scientists, and lab technicians are not scientists. I’m not sure if she employed any actual scientists - citation?

This a thousand times this. The number of times I have been called a “Shill” for countering an obviously flawed argument is, to use a mathematician friend of mine euphemism, “statistically significant”. If it were true that I was taking money from Big GM, Big Green or even Big Pharma I would be much better off. Hell…

no Atheist will ever become president and should not waste their time.

“Age of Ignorance”

I’m hoping I can clean up the air in the room and just note that Ignorance is not worse off than it has been at any point in time. Intelligent people will always be in a world where intelligence is laughed off and loathed by blind faith. The internet has given the ignorant a direct line into our…