On Scientific Consensus
“Consensus” is simply a fancy word for authority-driven propaganda.
Scientific Consensus – A Manufactured Construct
In a recent interview, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was challenged on his scientific views about COVID-19 and he said “I’m only interested in consensus” – words that would have Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei rolling in their graves.
The appeal to “scientific consensus” is fraught with problems, just like “The science is settled” and “Trust the science” and other authoritarian tropes that have dominated the pandemic.
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Consensus by Censorship
It’s not difficult to reach a scientific consensus when you squelch dissenting voices.
The origin of COVID is a classic example. Twenty-seven scientists published a letter in the Lancet condemning “conspiracy theories” that suggested the virus did not have a natural origin. Dissenting views were censored on social media and labelled “misinformation.”
It’s only now that the US Department of Energy and the FBI say the virus was likely the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, that it’s possible to have these discussions openly.
The Great Barrington Declaration is another example. Three eminent professors from Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford Universities, argued against lockdowns, which they said would disproportionately harm the underprivileged.
But former NIH director Francis Collins dismissed them as “fringe epidemiologists” asking Anthony Fauci for “a quick and devastating take down” of the declaration.
Scientific consensus has become a manufactured construct, dictated by politics and power.
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I think Michael Crichton – physician, producer, and writer – explained it best when he gave a lecture on science, politics, and consensus in 2003;
I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.
He continued:
Consensus is the business of politics….The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.
A great article. Give it a full read when you have time.
And a quote from Aaron Kheriaty, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center:
Science is an ongoing search for truth & such truth has little to do with consensus. Every major scientific advance involves challenges to a consensus. Those who defend scientific consensus rather than specific experimental findings are not defending science but partisanship.
The summary is this:
- If it is true science, then there is no consensus.
True science requires ongoing validation and testing. It should also be open source (so the research may be critiqued and repeated)—Something our three letter agencies, intelligentsia, and similar experts never do.
Consensus is the democracy (rule-by-many/rule-by-mob) equivalent for the science field. And we’ve seen how well democracy works out in politics. Do you really think it will do any better in an even more sensitive field? Are we to trust the average to always find the correct answer in everything?
Before you think we have “progressed” past the stage of bought-off scientists like the above, just look at our food situation. It is currently identical to the cigarette stage. See here, there, hither, and over yonder.
True science is always in a state of “becoming”. It is never “being”—as minds like Oswald Spengler would understand it. Right now, most of it is becoming degenerate.
Our primary takeaway should be that anyone that often quotes scientific consensus has absolutely no idea what science is. They are worshippers of the cult of scientism, not those truly seeking the truth via the scientific method. If they were the latter, then majority opinion would not matter to them.
Trust no one that expects you to place trust in authority figures, democratic procedures like consensus, or any other similar drivel. It will lead you into error.
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