1/7》 All of your examples are good, Simon. But I think one of the reasons so many people distrust science is that in some fields "experts" have proven to be untrustworthy. In some fields many so-called experts are just propagandists, or even crackpots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVk9a5Jcd1k&lc=UgyqbK1IDJFBj1mrRC54AaABAg…

2/7》 It's not just fringe actors who "love [only] 'evidence' that supports what they already believe." Among people comfortably sharing a majority opinion, it's even worse, because peer pressure amplifies confirmation bias. https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html… Have you heard of the Asch Conformity Line Experiment?

3/7》 Ideology also can contribute to anti-scientific bias, particularly at the extreme ends of the spectrum. Many articles of faith for leftists are simply incompatible with science. https://sealevel.info/intersectional_blah_blah_blah.html…

4/7》 Science is not fundamentally either Left or Right. But periodically the Left goes to war against science. In the mid-20th century Trofim Lysenko was the communist point man in the Left's war against science. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/trofim-lysenko-soviet-union-russia/548786/…

5/7》 The Scientific Method is the foundation of science, the single thing which distinguishes science from all other scholarship. https://sealevel.info/papers.html#whitherscience:~:text=If%20the%20test%20results%20fail,scientist%20worthy%20of%20the%20name… But the left-dominated U.S. National Academy of Science now opposes teaching the Scientific Method. https://twitter.com/ncdave4life/status/1648033766546239522x.com/ncdave4life/st

6/7》 Human beings are instinctively tribal. That results in a great susceptibility to peer pressure. Many people would even rather believe in terrifying horrors than question the doctrines of those they see as their own tribe, no matter how ridiculous. https://x.com/ncdave4life/status/1660797336577101825…

7/7》 Willingness to reevaluate and correct mistaken beliefs is a learned discipline, and it doesn't come easily. That discipline is as essential for mental health as for scientific progress and political sagacity. Unfortunately, it's almost as uncommon as common sense.