In the aftermath of the unprecedented protests on behalf of science that occurred across the nation last week, here is something I think is interesting…and it explains why Trump voters would do it all over again.
In a 2012 report that appeared in the American Sociological Review journal, the level of trust among Americans in science dropped a full 25% from 1974 to 2012.
That drop, the report said, happened because of the dramatic decline of trust in science among conservatives and people who attend church regularly.
The attitude among liberals, moderates, and others toward science showed no significant difference during the same 40 year span. The shift was only among conservatives and church goers.
That change becomes even more dramatic in light of the fact that in 1974 the percentage of conservatives who said they had trust in science was higher than among any other group.
Further, education does not account for the increased skepticism toward science among conservatives. Actually, just the opposite is true. College educated conservatives show more skepticism toward science than less educated conservatives.
The reason, the author of the report said, is that “highly educated conservatives are more fluent in what the [conservative] ideology means and its relationships with institutions. So they understand where the conflicts lie, what the value system is. In other words, they’re more ideological.”
Therein is the reason science is, relatively speaking, “on the run,” or at least, on the defensive. For conservatives, ideology trumps science.
The report called this phenomenon “the politicization of science.” Among today’s conservatives, political beliefs determine the level of their trust in science.
According to the report, what tipped the scale for them was liberals using science to justify the expanding role of government in the marketplace.
Conservatives see that role as imposing government regulations on the market, and liberals see it as the government “protecting” Americans from exploitation and unsafe products and work conditions.
But conservative skepticism of science in regard to “big” government has morphed into a rejection of science altogether.
One of the critical issue where we see this happening is climate change/global warming. Conservatives reject out of hand the scientific consensus on the significant role humans are playing in damaging the planet with fossil fuels, with 97% of all climate scientists of any statue in agreement.
You can hardly get a consensus like that among scientists or scholars on anything, let along something as complex as climate change/global warming, yet conservatives dispute the consensus because, after all, 3% of all scientists disagree.
When ideology trumps science to this extent, conservatives speak and act in ways that can only be described as ludicrous, as North Carolina Republicans proved in 2010.
When the North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission released a study that had undergone a rigorous peer review process that concluded sea levels along the state’s coastline could rise by as much as 39 inches by the end of the century, conservatives were irate.
Real estate developers and major coastal business interests not only attacked the report, they launched personal attacks on the authors. Then, when Republicans gained control of the North Carolina legislature, one of their first acts was to pass a law that barred state and local agencies from developing regulations or planning documents anticipating a rise in sea level based on the report.
Comedian Stephen Colbert called what the legislature did this way: “If your science gives you a result that you don’t like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved.”
Colbert captured how utterly silly people can become when they allow ideology to override their capacity to think clearly and reasonably.
What all of us must accept, most especially conservatives, is that science is not our enemy. It is a neutral friend that gives us information and then leaves the responsibility for using it wisely in our hands.
Liberals can certainly go off the rails in the way we use science, but I think it is fair to say that in regard to great issues like climate change/global warming, conservatives have gone off the proverbial cliff.
Worse, they are trying to create a nationwide distrust of science that will have terrible consequences for future generations.
That is why I find myself so distrusting of conservatives. It’s as if they don’t care about the quality of life we will leave for all American children and grandchildren, and the children of the entire world.
The world is one, whether we like it or not, believe it or not. The quality of life here in the U.S. already depends on the quality of life around the globe, and that will only become more true for future generations.
Science can be used to make life better and more beautiful, or make life ugly and more precarious because of self-centered decisions individuals, groups, and nations will make.
I would have never imagined that a day would come when the science community would feel the need to march on behalf of our nation valuing the role of science in our lives.
But here we are, children and grandchildren watching what we do and listening to what we say.
When they reach our age, will they remember that we were wise enough to know that science is nothing more than the expression of the human yearning to know more than we know?
And will they remember us as being wise enough to know how to use science in constructive ways that gave them a wonderful world to live in and a wonderful planet to explore?
A phrase that was used by several speakers at the various marches for science summed everything else up for me: “There is no planet B.”
Will future generations of Americans know that we were wise enough to act in ways that reflected the truth of that statement because we loved them too much to do anything less?
linnposts.com 