Don’t let Government blind you with Science

/in /by

The go to argument for politicians is that they are following the science.  This statement is used not because they are following the science but because it intimidates people in to silence.  The irony of our technologically advanced society is that very few people understand science so when science is invoked people go along rather than ask questions.  This situation fits the criminal aspirations of the average politician perfectly.

But what can a person who does not understand much about science do?  How do you know when it is science and when it is just another politically expedient lie?  Well in my mind you can do a broad analysis that works 99% of the time or a more detailed analysis that works 100% of the time.  The broad analysis uses 2 simple screening criteria.

  1. When the media presents someone as an “expert” they are not an expert. Do not believe anything they say.
  2. When the media and the government tell you the same thing it is a lie. The truth is likely to be found in the exact opposite direction.

This simple approach is probably enough for most people but if want a more rigorous approach the detailed method is really not that much more complicated.  The rigorous approach starts with asking the question, “Are they using the scientific method”?  If they are not using the scientific method then you are following someone who is not following the science.

So what is the scientific method then?  Here is how the University of Waterloo explains it in an introductory science course.

Please look carefully at that flow chart and tell me on what step do you find consensus or peer review?  Peer review and Consensus are not part of the scientific method so they are not part of science.  Now ask yourself; when someone says they are following the science do they discuss how rigorously they applied the scientific method or do they speak about peer review and consensus?  If it is the former listen carefully to what they say.  If it is the latter laugh at them.  Treat them like the village idiot that they are.

Consensus is politics not science.  Before Galileo there was a consensus that the earth was the center of the universe.  The consensus mob hounded Galileo to his death rather than accept science.  Peer review is a modern concept.  None of the really important scientific discoveries were peer reviewed unless you call the mob that hounded Galileo on his death bed as peer reviewers.  Peer review was supposed to be a quality control step before findings were published.  In reality peer review is just a way to market junk science.

So when the government tells you they are following the consensus, peer reviewed science what they are really telling you is that they are lying.  You do not need to be a scientist to come to that conclusion.