POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

      As far as I am concerned, both liberals and conservatives are anti-science. The only differences are which sciences they soundly reject. Both sides are dangerously undereducated in the scientific method^*.

      Conservatives are notorious for being anti-science, most notably for their denial of evolution (despite over 150 years of research and corroboration from nearly EVERY scientific discipline [including but not limited to organic chemistry, geology, plate tectonics, paleobiology, ecology, genetics, etc.] it is still supposed "just a theory" which, of course, doubles as a reminder that evolution deniers are woefully uneducated in the scientific method as it shows a profound ignorance of the meaning of the term "theory"), their denial of climate change/global warming (never minding ACTUAL evidence of rising sea levels, rising CO₂ levels, average global temperature increases, etc. Sure, the sun is getting hotter as it ages. Yes, the Earth has gone through hotter periods than today as well as colder. Sea levels used to be much higher. But it seems to be happening awful fast lately to pass off as one of those things and of course, to use such countermanding claims requires you to accept things that religious dogmas tend to categorically deny like the age of the Earth, acceptance of the accuracy of radiometric dating, etc.), the need for environmental stewardship (because why bother when you either believe the world is going to end with the current generation or that God gave us the Earth to do with as we please), their beliefs that homosexuality is a choice (because, well, this is hardly scientific, but why would anyone WANT to be homosexual given the way they are viewed/treated throughout the world? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I might accept the idea of it being a mental disorder or a genetic mutation of sorts but then that would require an acceptance of biological evolution so my original non-scientific idea stands), and human behavior (e.g. the need for sex education/contraception because again, to believe otherwise would require you to accept that you are both the product of and subject to, hundreds of millions of years of sexual evolution that is really not possible to overcome absent some sort of anomaly. Seriously, I'd love to believe abstinence could be enough, but just because logically it is the only way to 100% prevent a pregnancy does not mean it is reasonable to expect such behavior from meat machines designed to make other meat machines). I think because conservative anti-science is so much more "obvious" and a sign of a lack of more basic education in the sciences, that it leads liberals who are traditionally more educated, to view themselves as superior to conservatives and to be blinded to their own kinds of anti-science.

      Liberal anti-science comes to my attention primarily from celebrities who tend to be notoriously liberal (as well as stupid). Prime examples are the anti-vaccination crowd (never mind the 200+ years of evidence that vaccinations are WAY more beneficial than harmful...eradication of smallpox anyone?...and that, while yes, a few people suffer ill effects from vaccines, it is truly a case of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" so fuck you and your philosophical/religious objections to modern medicine. I say your kid either gets vaccinated with a dead virus or quarantined [at your expense] and exposed to the live ones. Let him get his immunity the natural way...assuming he survives. Don't even get me started on the indescribably retarded people who have linked vaccines to autism and continue to do so despite the original study being PROVEN as fraud. These assholes are damning us all with their ignorance. Vaccines are victims of their success because there's really no longer any living memory of the "classic diseases" and how people would actually lose friends and family to them but with the exception of smallpox, dangerous diseases like polio, measles, mumps, pertussis, and hepatitis are still around and still killing. But no, I have to do my OWN research because I don't find hundreds of years of evidence showing the safety and efficacy of vaccines convincing - you sound like the anti-global warming crowd and people who believe in "chemtrails". You honestly believe your pennyweight of doubt will balance out the tons of evidence?), the anti-GMO crowd (yes, Monsanto is practically the epitome of corporate evil, but this idea that genetically modifying an organism is somehow bad for us humans or for the environment is idiotic seeing as how all our staple crops are examples of genetic modification through selective breeding and/or hybridization. It's been going on for some time [dog breeds anyone? Mules? grapefruit?]. The only difference is now we know how inheritance works and can take it a step further and in far less time. Hypocrisy aside, you have scientists doing wonderful things like making rice produce vitamin A for countries whose diets are low in that vitamin and involve a lot of rice, improving the health of untold millions of people. Just because Monsanto does some pretty stupid shit doesn't invalidate the science behind genetic modification), the belief that reality is subjective rather than objective (Probably the most ridiculous and arrogant belief of all. Just because you believe something does not make it so. Our brains are designed to approximate reality, not perceive it, and the brain will lie to you - need proof? Check out ANY optical illusion. If your brains were windows to truth, you would not be fooled. So yeah, your perception of reality outweighs the entire fucking universe. Your personal "truth" supercedes all. Of course it does...), the alternative medicine crowd (because yeah, hundreds of years of medical research is totally invalidating by your non-degree-holding ass. You of course know better than generations of scientists who have spent their lives studying human health at levels you could not even begin to understand), the "natural is always better" fallacy (I wonder when it changed? When did we go from celebrating advancements in things like agriculture, technology, and chemistry to shunning them?), human behavior (brought to you by the people who believed that we are born as blank slates...that our minds are solely the products of the society in which we were raised again denying decades of research showing that there really were biological bases for male and female behaviors), and the germaphobes (These immensely ignorant people are damning us all by permitting the creation of vastly superior bacteria capable of doing us harm and are possibly behind the rise in allergies in the population) --- just to name a few.

I have no actual point to make with this post so let's just say, ideology and science do not mix.

Ideology is just as happy to use science as it is to suppress it when doing so suits its needs.

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^*  Not claiming that I have been properly educated