Science Authorities Self-Destruct in Cancel Culture

Although it seems less frequent nowadays, cancel culture is a method of punishing those who dare to go against the prevailing viewpoint. I believe that people want to be "right" or in the "best" movement, whether it is religious (including atheism), a political party, or something else. Those who disagree are shunned and even canceled.

A form of this happened when C. Richard Dawkins was "deplatformed" at the University of California, Berkeley. He said something people did not like about Islam. He has said other things that caused people to dislike him. These come about because someone goes against the trend.

Image from "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" by Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904 (enhanced at iLoveIMG)

Creation science and the Intelligent Design movement are unwanted on social(ist) media, and many times atheists try to have it stamped out. Calls for trolling raids, feculent comments, ridicule, and more are common fare for those who promote creation or ID. We were facing a form of cancel culture before it had a name.

Much of the time, complainers rely on insults and straw man arguments (among other fallacies). Very few cogently deal with the content of a post. For that matter, we see remarks like, "Science has proved the earth is 4.5 billion years old" and "Science is a proven fact." Those show zeal without knowledge, because science only disproves something. Indeed, I just learned a new expression: Science is the systematic application of doubt. Gnaw on that one a while.

Denizens of the secular science industry are enamored with their authority status. The public that is not involved in a mob mentality of those who think they are "right" (usually based on emotions instead of reason) are suspicious of reactionaries. When elitist authority figures reap the benefits or even encourage cancel culture, it indicates that they may not be able to answer challenges or at least rephrase their ideas to be more comprehensible.

FIRE president Greg Lukianoff and writer Angel Eduardo offer a thoughtful essay on the current establishment fret about “misinformation.”

Refreshingly, they come right to the point: Many of us mistrust what we hear from authorities because “our expert classes — those of us who should be trusted authorities on these matters — have torpedoed so much of their credibility with the public.”

One example Lukianoff and Eduardo cite is the establishment’s sneering dismissal of the now-widely-accepted lab leak theory of Covid’s origin as a racist conspiracy theory. In fact, it was always a reasonable inference from the available information:

The rest of this interesting ID article is found at "On Science and Other Subjects, the 'Experts' Have Blown Up Their Own Credibility."