I have been warning that the politicization of science and the attempt to turn it into an ideology—even a religion—would badly undermine the public’s confidence. Indeed, I warned that the outrageous stem cell hyping, the global warming hysteria, and the clear suppression of dissenting views by the Science Elite (as opposed to the hard working bench scientists), would ultimately result in science being perceived by the public as just another special interest fighting to feed at the public trough and to obtain power in order to enforce it’s ideological desires.
A recent Washington Post poll shows that is now happening, with distrust of scientists on environmental issues up in the last eighteen months or so from 30% to 40%, and soaring from April 07, when it was just 24%. In fact, the “distrust” group has the plurality over trust completely/a lot (29%) and trust moderately (30%). From the poll:
30. How much do you trust the things that scientists say about the environment - completely, a lot, a moderate amount, a little, or not at all?-------- Trust ------- ---- Do not trust ---
A Moderate A Not No
NET Completely lot amount NET little at all opinion
12/13/09 29 10 19 30 40 26 14 1
7/28/08 30 6 24 39 30 23 7 1
4/10/07 32 5 27 43 24 19 5 1
3/14/06 31 5 27 41 27 22 5 1
The media deserves its share of the blame for this. Instead of being journalists and forcing “the scientists” to prove their arguments, media were instead too often breathless shills and boosters. In the end, that kind of malpractice hurts the group being pampered, because it doesn’t force them to play their best game.
It’s not too late to turn this around. All the science sector need do is act like the science sector: Stop the hype, stop the suppression, open access to data, and stop being so political. But that won’t happen. “The scientists” are very ideological. And so the confidence of the public will continue to slowly wither away.
