When it comes to scientific debate, here are three perfect ways to shut someone up:
- Challenge their credentials. Call them a “quack,” a “conspiracy theorist,” or, simply, “unqualified.”
- Dismiss their ideas or their research as “unscientific.” Even when it’s published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Insist that they’re wrong, not because there’s anything factually incorrect about their argument, but because “The science is settled,” or “The science is clear.” No room for scientific debate or discussion. End of story.
Malarkey. Baloney. Poppycock.
After more than 15 years as a writer and researcher, one thing I know for sure is that science is never settled.
Another thing I know for sure is that scientific debate is always healthy. And censorship is always wrong.
You can’t have science without debate
Censoring scientific debate can and does lead to grave consequences. Censorship (coupled with junk science) helped give tobacco companies a free pass for years. Censorship (and junk science) led medical doctors to wrongly believe that diethylstilbestrol was safe during pregnancy. Without open and honest scientific debate, children get injured by unscientific medical practices. People die.
So what does all this have to do with coronavirus?
Why is scientific debate important when it comes to COVID-19?
These are trying times.
The global fear of and reaction to COVID-19 has put much of the world into lockdown, led to a rise in domestic violence, child abuse, suicide, and self-harm.
The lockdown in America may very well cripple the economy for years to come.
At the same time, tens of thousands of people have tragically died from the novel coronavirus.
There’s no doubt this is an extremely severe illness for some people. But some doctors and scientists are wondering out loud if lack of timely testing, faulty treatment protocols, an unwillingness to consider alternative interventions, and an over-exposure to toxins are responsible for some of the most acute cases and deaths.
Most of us are running scared. We’re terrified of getting sick, devastated by the idea that we may be asymptomatic carriers and inadvertently get someone else sick, and also panicked about what seems to be a worldwide violation of religious freedom and civil liberties.
I suspect that shelter-in-place orders may be too extreme, a sledgehammer when a small knife is all that’s needed. I suspect that a more scientific approach, which includes widespread testing and subsequent quarantine for people who are exposed (the model that has been successfully used in Singapore and other countries) may be the more effective course of action.
I’m also concerned about the rollback of civil liberties. There is a very real threat that we may be paving the way to give power to fascists, dictators, and demagogues.
Even if the shelter-in-place method is the best one, what if we are inadvertently creating more problems than we’re solving, stomping on human rights to “save” humanity?
This is an evolving situation with no easy answers.
Which is why we need scientific debate, as well as political debate, dinner table discussions, and a willingness to consider the data about COVID-19 coming in from all sides.
Hatemongers can’t quell scientific debate
Haters gonna hate. And it turns out when you speak out against censorship—and in favor of scientific debate—it can bring a lot of ugly out of the closet.
To wit, this email arrived in my inbox today:
“Just wanted to say fuck you antivaxxer. I sincerely hope that you and your family get covid19 and suffer extremely bad before you die. You absolutely fucking waste of oxygen.”
That hate letter comes on the heels of a debate I started on Facebook that exploded.
Here’s what I wrote:
“Censorship is dangerous. Dialogue and discussion are healthy. I know we are all smart enough to read and consider multiple points of view. It’s small-minded to try to use ‘science’ to shut people up. As if science were written with a capital S.”
Keep an open mind
Name-calling and ad hominem attacks aren’t going to get you or me or any of us anywhere.
When you get infuriated because you disagree with something someone says, I suggest you take a moment to breathe and to examine your own anger.
Look what happened to Macbeth. Instead of trying to shoot the messenger, consider the message.
What you believe today may not be what you believe tomorrow.
Be humble enough to know that you may not be right. Be mature enough to apologize when you are wrong.
Be open-minded enough to keep reading, questioning, thinking, and engaging in scientific debate.
Let’s agree to disagree. Maybe even often. Scientific debate is healthy. Dialogue is always good. Working together, talking together, and problem-solving together is how we save lives.
Related articles:
Symbicort and COVID-19: A Dangerous Combination
Glyphosate and COVID-19: MIT’s Stephanie Seneff Connects the Dots
Finding Your Strength and Your Self During a Global Pandemic: Chinese Medicine Shows You How
Published: April 10, 2020
Last update: April 12, 2020
Thank you, Totally agree. keep going.
We need to be more respectful and open-minded.
Well said, hang in there. The world has many small and frightened people. Your courage makes them feel worse. They know questions should be asked and fear to do so and hate those who do. Retain compassion.
Your perspective is spot on, I love that you are level-headed, thought provoking, science loving and super intelligent. Stay vigilant, stay safe and stay uplifted.
Very correct Science is always evolving, sticking to some research or lab testing which is never 100% leaves atleast .01% chance of error. Only fanatics can claim that they are 100% correct and same applies to science also. And also always keep in mind that predators are everywhere, sometimes in disguise of a gentlemen/women, a lawyer, a guardian m, coordinations of society or even in white coat with strethoscope hanging, it the pharma mafias who run the show. Once it was said that earth is stationary and sun and moon revolves, Simrat had to drink poison… the list is long so 100% support the issue.✨???
Thank you for working to keep us informed. My children were vaccinated and I regret it. They are 22 and 20. Thankfully I limited what they got and when, though there were less than today! I am trying to share with my friends and those young moms of today!
Support you ! I think scientific debate is great but it seems like people currently have lost the ability to evaluate information. The ones screaming the loudest are getting a lot of attention and upon further investigation it is difficult to trust the judgment of those that think Tom Hanks is a pedophile running an illuminati ring of underground child sex traffickers for Hillary and Obama, while at the same time being spot on about functional medicine.
It helps to remember that the haters are just projecting!
Yes! This is wonderful!
I’m so sorry to hear that you get such a horrible backlash. Sending you love, light and blessings for you and your beautiful family.
You have such a gift of stating things so clearly.
Pl read Custodian in place of coordination and Sukraat in place of Simrat ( error due to auto correct)?
“Censorship is dangerous.” Not when the idea being censored is that Jews deserve genocide.
“Dialogue and discussion are healthy.” Not when the discussion is the magical healing powers of drinking antifreeze or injecting Elmer’s Glue into your bloodstream.
“Let’s agree to disagree.” Only when the topic is truly undeterminable, like which flavor of ice cream is best. It is scientifically, and at times even morally, wrong to “agree” to disagree on the subjects of the moon being made of cheese, intelligent design creationism and glyphosate causing autism. All three conjectures have been thoroughly studied and unambiguously DEBUNKED, which is to say there is NO TRUTH AT ALL to the claims. No amount of further debate will justify magic thinking and conspiracy theories. On the contrary, they waste time that could be better spent debating topics that have actual scientific probability.
Your attempt to cloud this issue by complaining that one moron on Facebook resorted to name-calling and ad hominem attacks does not elevate the concept of antivaxxism to that of a valid debate anymore than a kindergartener’s argument that Big Bird is real becomes valid because someone called them a “brat”. The truth is the evidence supporting antivaxxism and glyphosate causing autism are as absent as the evidence of a 7′ talking yellow bird living on the streets of Manhattan. Humility, open-mindedness and respectful debate do not legitimize ideas which have been scientifically demonstrated to be false.
You are clearly intelligent as this is the most coherent such criticism I have read in some time. But no matter how erudite you may be in defense of your idea of science you clearly don’t actually understand how science works.
As you would know if you had actually READ and UNDERSTOOD the science on vaccines and autism, as well as glyphosate and autism, it would be obvious to you that links have been anything but “debunked.” The studied pointed to as “proof” that “vaccines don’t cause autism” amount to little more than comparing autism rates in fully vaccinated kids with autism rates in slightly differently vaccinated kids, and most of them are highly flawed. That cannot possibly (or logically) provide the level of certainty you express to a person of science, especially when it is known that at least 85 and probably more than 500 cases of vaccine-induced encephalopathy that led to autism have been compensated by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and there is a veritable mountain of experimental evidence indicating that autism is strongly linked to immune dysregulation in the brain.
Humility, open-mindedness, and respectful debate are qualities you would do well to develop, because those qualities tend to get people to start reading the actual science. You might be surprised to know that the people you denigrate as purveyors of “antivaxxism” think that is a very good thing.
Humility, open-mindedness and respectful debate do NOT legitimize ideas which have been scientifically demonstrated to be false. This is the answer to all Question all these Turkey that comes up with their personal point try to by pass science to make more Money. Enough is Enough if we had a respected Justice systems this would be out of Questions.
Excellent! Keep the good news coming. Remember when someone attacks you they are attacking the image of you that lives inside of them. Basically, they’re attacking themselves. Let it burn you, then move on. So pleased we’re connected.