Science and the Left

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | August 29, 2011 | Yuval Levin

[neverdem]

In an effort to scratch up Rick Perry’s bourgeoning presidential campaign, some on the left (with the usual sort of help from some on the right) have trotted out the familiar tale of a conservative war against science. The themes are just as they were in the middle of the last decade (although the embryonic stem cell debate has yet to rear its head this year), and the arguments of the left are pretty much as you would find them in Al Gore’s 2007 book The Assault on Reason (which, despite what the title might lead you to expect, was not an autobiography).

 

It’s all terribly interesting, but not so much for what it tells you about the right. There are some fascinating and important tensions between science and the right, but they have basically nothing to do with the left’s “war on science” fantasies—these critics have such a poor grasp of the reality of contemporary conservatism they seem genuinely to believe that Michelle Bachmann was serious when she joked to a crowd that last week’s earthquake and hurricane were messages from God about the deficit. It is interesting, rather, for what it tells you about the left and its self-understanding. The “war on science” stuff never moved many voters, but it was a powerful rallying cry for committed liberals, affirming their understanding of themselves as the party of science and of their opponents as an army of ignorance.

 

Absent from that self-identification is any sense of the enormous tensions between the ethic of modern science and that of the modern left—particularly the tensions between science and the left’s brand of egalitarianism (the first of which demolishes the premises upon which the second stands), and between science and environmentalism (which draw upon roughly opposite worldviews).

 

I wrote about those tensions (as well as the considerable tensions between science and the right) in this 2008 book, and the chapter on science and the left was excerpted that year in The New Atlantis, in case you’re interested.

[neverdem]

The party of science fiction is reduced to ad hominems. What else is new?

[InterceptPoint]

The party of science fiction is reduced to ad hominems. What else is new?
++++++++++++++++
Well not quite. There is also their claim of “the scientific consensus” supporting their view. As if that mattered even if true. They are not going to let that lie go without a fight. Fortunately it’s a fight we can win.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[JudgemAll]

The left loves science if science helps them live corrupt lives. So they love the pimp science. They live in a small world science.

Real science is about working hard to rejuvinate the society, and it is an investment and a leap of faith into future generations.

Just as they misappropriate funds, they misappropriate the meanings and the usage of words.

These people do not have their minds right.

[DB]

Real science is about truth.

Real science is in conflict with the left’s definition of truth. The left has to redefine science to make it fit in their world view through the ministry of truth - not the actual evidence.

[GraceG]

[ The party of science fiction is reduced to ad hominems. What else is new? ]

Science Fiction my shiny hiney!!!!!

Science Fiction and Political parties: A Guide.

Liberal Science Policy = (Dystopian Future) Brave New World, 1984, The Day after Tomorrow.

Conservative Science Policy = (Hard Science Optimistic) The Moon is a Harsh mistress, Ender’s Game, State of Fear, Fallen Angels.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2663043/posts

[Para-Ord.45]

I wrote about those tensions (as well as the considerable tensions between science and the right) in this 2008 book, and the chapter on science and the left was excerpted that year in The New Atlantis, in case you’re interested:

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/science-and-the-left

” That liberals take attacks against their own political preferences to be attacks against science helps us see the degree to which they identify themselves—their ideals, their means, their ends, their cause, and their culture—with the modern scientific enterprise.

Ethical disagreements over the destruction of embryos for research are described instead as a conflict between science and ignorant theology. Differing judgments about the proper role of government in sex education in schools are painted as a quarrel between objective public health and medieval prudishness. A dispute about the prudential wisdom of a variety of energy policy alternatives is depicted as a clash of simple scientific facts against willful ignorance and greed. And the countless minor personnel and policy decisions that always shape the day-to-day operations of the federal executive branch are pored over in an effort to reveal a nefarious pattern of retrograde anti-rational obscurantism. “

[Chode]

science? what the hell does the left know about science???

all they take are Black/Woman's/Queer/Hispanic/etc/etc/etc Studies and philosophy

it's conservatives that take the hard sciences that start companies and design and build things

[Howindependent]

How about this:

1. A fact is a true statement or event that can not be changed, ignored, or partially accepted by anyone, at any time, under any circumstances. All other states are either false or expresses an opinion.

2. One who argues against an opinion or a false statement is a wise person; one who argues against a fact is a FOOL.

The positions of the Left explains exactly what they are.

H

[TheBigIf]

Just simply examine the things a typical leftist will claim to be scientific fact;

1.) Mankind is killing the earth by having free markets.

2.) Homosexuality is natural and human beings have their sexuality hardwired at birth. But gender is not hardwired at birth and is not determined until you make a choice.

3.) Human beings were once apes, and originally were even lesser life forms but through natural selection evolved to their current state. Other species though still cant do the same because....???

4.) Even though an unborn baby will become human after birth they are not really human before birth and it is alright to kill them up to this point.

Science for the leftwing is really just an excuse to spread their hatred for Life into public policy.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[tophat9000]

The left promotes and creates science “fictions” as justification for their grabs for authoritarian power
Another Global Warming Menace: Space Aliens!
http://reason.com/blog/2011/08/19/another-global-warming-menace

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks neverdem. They're a buncha Marxists.

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[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[Condor51]

Science and Religion are NOT mutually exclusive.
One of the best Theoretical Physicists in Great Britain is (No not Stephen Hawking) a...

Catholic Priest!

Nope, not joking. It's the truth.
He's in a lot of the programs on the Science Channel when The Universe & Big Bang is the topic.

[JudgemAll]

Indeed. THe left is only interested in easy politics, man vs man, especialy when they are older or have the upper hand against a weaker creature or individual facing a collective of ponzi/pyramid loan sharks... but when it is them vs. God or science, watch them cry uncle, give up, conjure up suicide theories, anti-darwin darwinism of letting things “happen” etc...

[JudgemAll]

“that’s racist”, “it’s for the children”, “science”, all these are Hitlerian claim the left loves to make in order to justify in pseudo-solid “secular” terms their bureaucratic machine of evil and mass extermination and theft.

If it is a belief, they blame people using the belief for war. But at least, with a belief, you question yourself and you can always be questioned. Not with their adament system of nonsense filled with great errors, arrogance and blindness.

Watch the march of the government follow that “mandate” in lock step with the new fuehrer, the ideology, the left.

[Piranha]

See also the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists: http://www.aojs.org/

[neverdem]

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Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The party of science fiction is reduced to ad hominems. What else is new?

Now, now....the "party of science fiction" is probably conservative/libertarian (the influence of Robert A. Heinlein, and others). Yes, there were a FEW screaming liberals among SF authors (Asimov, Bradbury) but their influence on the "zeitgeist" of SF seems to have been minimal.