In the Storm

We’re living in the Golden Age of Stupid. Rather than spend any more time discussing politics in the Golden Age of Stupid, I thought I’d rather deploy my classic blend of uninformed speculation and blind rage towards the trend of science/ reality denialism. Today’s example comes from the world of climate science.

A large hurricane, Beryl, has been swimming through the Atlantic over the last couple days, the first Category 4 hurricane ever recorded in June. As of this writing, Beryl has “devastated” Grenada and is making its way towards Jamaica. On seeing the initial headline, I made a snarky remark on Twitter, saying, “It’s ok, guys. I was told climate change is a hoax.”

Kind of looks like my cat’s butthole.

Big mistake on my part. First came the standard “weather isn’t climate” remarks. (I know, I know.) Then came the “climate change isn’t a hoax, but manmade climate change is,” remarks. Followed closely behind the “climate change IS a hoax” crowd, followed shortly after by a few accounts, for some reason, Jew bashing.

In all instances, the respondents told me not to trust the claims of experts in the field because… ?

You can fill in the question mark however you like but their logic – such as it is – seems to originate with the argument that scientists regularly falsify their studies to either get more funding or to get published in prestigious journals, which will lead to more funding, leading to more falsification, until the whole edifice of science crumbles under the weight of hokum.

Like all arguments, there’s certainly some truth to those criticisms. For one thing, some journals have been found to publish bad studies. This has led to a larger conversation in the scientific community about how studies are evaluated and peer-reviewed prior to publication. I have no knowledge about how those conversations have shaken out, but it seems from the outside as though the scientific community as a whole is taking the problem seriously and attempting to address it, which is exactly what they should be doing.

The argument that really sticks in my craw, however, is the one that says scientists alter their findings to align with the “preferred” outcome of their employers. Especially when it comes to climate science, this argument is, frankly, ludicrous because it fails to take into account the fact that anybody who could disprove manmade climate change would be snapped up immediately by any oil company or organization whose interests would be immensely helped if manmade climate change could be disproven.

But that hasn’t happened. Why not?

Because they can’t.

Yes, there’s a lot of money at stake when it comes to climate science. Billions or trillions of dollars have been, or will be, spent to mitigate the problem. Imagine how valuable it would be if somebody came along and could prove that we don’t need to spend shit and we can keep on driving our oil-burning cars without repercussion. The person who overturned scientific consensus on this point would become, instantly, one of the most famous scientists on Earth

Climate change, apparently, has “something” to do with being Jewish, but the author does not elaborate.

As many scientists have pointed out to me, overturning the apple cart isn’t how you get “deplatformed” in science – it’s how you become immortalized. Consider Newton, Einstein, and Tesla. All brilliant. All revolutionary. All celebrated in their times, although, to be fair, Tesla died broke.

The beautiful thing about the scientific method is that nobody has to take anybody’s word for it. The method is designed to be testable by anybody. A result is obtained and then other scientists attempt to replicate those results. If they can, it adds validity to the claim. If they can’t, the claim is considered invalid.

Look at the controversy from about a year ago regarding the alleged room temperature superconductor, in which a South Korean team claimed to have discovered (or invented, I guess) a material call LK-99. The news was met with a thunderclap by the idiots like me who got excited before the results could be confirmed. Guess what? They could not be confirmed. And LK-99 went back to the lab for further testing and analysis. That’s science and it’s pretty fucking awesome.

Consider the alternative worldview being put forward: science cannot be trusted. How does that work? If we cannot believe a single scientist’s results, you go, “Ok. That makes sense. That scientist’s, as in the case of LK-99 could not be replicated. That scientist is full of shit.” If their worldview is correct, it means no scientist can be trusted, that the scientific method itself cannot be trusted. The GPS in your car, the cellphone in your pocket, the electricity in your home. All of it becomes suspect.

How would such a conspiracy even work? How does this shadowy global elite (let’s be honest – Jews) get everybody around the world to agree to falsify their findings in the same exact way? Do none of these scientists have a conscience? Why haven’t any of them gotten together to blow the whistle on those nefarious globalists?

Could it be because it’s not true? No, no. They’ll tell you the truth is being suppressed. The truth is being buried, hidden, obfuscated, and only those with special bullshit detectors can pick apart the faulty scientific literature to drill down to the Truth! They will pelt you with logical fallacies and big words that don’t make anything to you because you’re not a scientist, but sound authoritative because their podcaster of choice uses them.

It's this kind of absolute rot that gives rise to the sentiment, “I alone can fix it.”

Consider the curious of the actor of Terence Howard. If you haven’t seen any of his recent interviews, Howard has been presenting himself as a re-inventor of mathematics and physics. If you were to just listen to him speak, such as in this interview with Joe Rogan, it sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, sort of. At the very least, he sounds authoritative. He certainly did to me, when I first heard him. I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, which made me think I must be dumb.

No. As it turns out, Terence Howard is full of shit. Terence Howard does not what he’s talking about any more than climate denialists know what they’re talking about. They hear buzzy words and grasp at them because they seem to support their preferred worldview. Everybody’s biased.

So how do we overcome our biases?

When it comes to politics, not so easy.  When it comes to science, SUPER EASY. You look at the data and you listen to the experts who are better able to discern the data than you (me). That’s why even though I was super-excited about LK-99, I am no longer because other, smarter experts than me concluded that LK-99 is not what the authors promised. I was biased towards believing it because I wanted to believe it, but I moved away from my wishcasting towards reality when the evidence didn’t support the claim.

I have been accused of using the Appeal to Authority Fallacy, which is an argument from logic that says is committing a fallacy when one looks to experts to support their opinion. The problem is, all of those people accusing me of using the Appeal to Authority Fallacy don’t actually understand what it is, which is an appeal to an authority on one subject about a subject in which they have no expertise. For example, relying on my opinion about climate science. While I am certainly in expert in being a very handsome young man, that expertise does not translate to climate science, and so my opinion on the matter of climate science should not be taken with the same seriousness that as an actual climatologist’s, just as the climatologist’s should not be taken as as authoritatively as mine when it comes to being a very handsome young man with a huge repertoire of erotic movements.

It's been a maddening and disheartening few days. I’d leave you with some good news but there is none. Except for the indisputable scientific fact of my own continued handsomeness. Any disagreements regarding that indisputable scientific fact will be met harshly, and with Pepe the Frog memes.

QUICK UPDATE: If you want to watch Terence Howard, click below. He’s obviously very smart but also very stupid.