• Tattorack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    249
    ·
    24 hours ago

    Science is only political because scientists have to continuously convince politicians reality exists.

    It’s frustrating that something like climate change is even a political discussion at all. Don’t Look Up captured that frustration really well.

    • Slashme@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Whether climate change is occurring, what damage it’s doing and what’s causing it are scientific questions. How to address it is a set of political questions: How do we get humanity to emit less greenhouse gases? How do we get countries on the same page? How do we make sure that the effects of these changes don’t increase global inequality?

      The scientific questions have been answered very well, and are continuing to be answered in more detail all the time.

      The response to the political questions has been an abject failure so far.

    • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      22 hours ago

      Convincing people your interpretation of reality exists is literally all that politics is.

      Unfortunately, despite being correct, science is also an interpretation of reality.

      • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        8 hours ago

        Convincing people your interpretation of reality exists is literally all that politics is.

        What? No. No, no, you naive fool… many politicians, if not most, don’t believe most of what they’re selling, and don’t give a flying fuck about it.

        They’ll sell whatever line the party they’re working for wants them to sell, and they’d just as happily sell the opposition party’s line if it paid better and they could switch without being called a turncoat.

        Also, it’s not about convincing people about specific beliefs; most people are mostly already convinced of their worldviews and if they change them it won’t be because of some politician. It’s about convincing them, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the politician shares those beliefs, and will impose them on people who don’t if they vote for them.

        despite being correct, science is also an interpretation of reality.

        Again, no. Science (except for mathematics, but that’s it’s own thing) doesn’t and shouldn’t ever claim to be correct.

        It’s the most accurate approximation we have so far of how nature works, but it’s constantly trying to achieve better approximations, and will happily throw away the old ones when it finds a better one.

        It also should always make very clear that it’s an approximation or a description, not an interpretation. Science should always be objective, never subjective, and interpretations are by definition subjective.

      • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        21 hours ago

        I think we need politics to go beyond one reality, and embrace a subjective multiverse where people can perceive what they want to perceive.

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          19 hours ago

          Cool cool cool so the climate is pretty fucked and now the way people have lived for millennia will cease to be possible. But at least we were open minded about delusion.

        • Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          27
          ·
          21 hours ago

          If only the idiots could just piss off to their own multiverse of idiocy and leave the rest of us alone

          • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            7 hours ago

            I would be happy if I didn’t have to share a universe with realists, but the thing about realists is, they’re not happy to let that happen. They think there’s only one universe. They psychologically abuse our kind to try to get us back to their reality.

            I have a friend named Sonic who’s an introject. He appeared in someone else’s head one day, having been assembled from thoughts about video games and comic books. He tried to get help from a psychologist with his mental health. Instead of helping him, she told him he doesn’t exist and tried to erase him. She messed him up so bad, he tried to commit suicide, tried to destroy the body he lives in and everyone else who lives in it, just to prove he could have an effect on the world, that he exists.

            He’s doing a lot better now that he’s surrounded by antirealists and he isn’t seeing that psychologist anymore.

    • fossilesque@mander.xyzOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      24 hours ago

      You can invent a vaccine, but getting people to take it is a different matter entirely and not just because of politicians.

      • starlinguk@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        20 hours ago

        Andrew Wakefield managed to fuck up people’s attitude towards vaccines quite well without politics.

        • fossilesque@mander.xyzOPM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          20 hours ago

          Inserting things under people’s skin just freaks people out in general. There are so many reasons.

    • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      23 hours ago

      They also have to continually convince politicians and other politically minded people to give them money, and risk having it taken away if their results are politically inconvenient.