Science v Science

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

Update:  McQuade, Barbara, "Attack From Within," 2024.  New York Times best seller.

I’m not an expert on anything. I appreciate your attentiveness to someone who is an expert on nothing with an opinion on nearly everything. Selecting a topic to write about relating to the state of affairs in the U.S.A. in the Summer of 2025 is something like hitting a locust with a BB. So many choices, so much chaos.

So, the most difficult part of journaling during this time is selecting a topic by which you can offer an account of what is going on in a large enough context to make it readable, understandable and relevant. It can be weeks or even months between my writings simply because I need time to formulate my thoughts and then compile them in a way that might be helpful to you and me.

Today, the topic is Science. My thesis is that science is being systematically dismantled to appease the Eschatology of the farthest to the right religious believers behind the Trump Administration who believe that they can make Biblical prophecy come true. Something tells me that God is not going to take too kindly to having “His” work done for “him” by mortal “men.” That is a much bigger topic that I am by no means prepared to address in this medium.

The systematic attack on education, science, democratic government, the environment, women, acceptance of diversity, and truth and anything else that I might have missed, is based on the work of the Heritage Foundation and their work on Project 2025.

My experience as a middle school Science teacher and attention to science over the past 40 years gives me a little incite into the work of science and what scientists do . I have a respect for the way science works.

I confess to being baffled at the Trump Administration attack on Science. Eight months of Executive Orders say one thing and do almost across the board exactly the opposite. The best explanation that I can muster is that it is part of the overall Project 2025 plan to render democracy unworkable and replace it with some new world order revolving around the narrow beliefs of an increasingly smaller yet influential right wing Christian movement to facilitate the end days as prophesized in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

Science is data driven and fact based. Data and facts are part of the foundation of civil society. Data and facts are inconvenient truths to those bent on rewriting history and creating their own narrow narrative of the future.

Stand up for Science.

On the Bright Side

If you are in the San Francisco area, consider joining the 17 x 17K Rally along El Camino Real between Santa Clara and Menlo Park on September 1 from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.  Here's a link with more information.

Cover from a Thank You note from the Carter Center.

I long to return to the day when service and giving to others was the message from the White House.

Peace.