No, literally, that’s what the guy wrote:
For some researchers, the fact that the election has come down to the wire is evidence that scientists simply aren’t connecting with the general population. Whatever happens, says Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, “we have a lot of work ahead of us”.
Distrust of Trump within the scientific community stems from his rejection of climate science, his rollback of numerous environmental regulations and his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 230,000 people in the United States. Nature’s own survey of its scientist readers demonstrated their condemnation for these actions: of the approximately 580 respondents eligible to vote, 87% said they would be doing so for Biden.
But as in 2016, Trump outperformed polls suggesting that his opponent was positioned for a potential landslide victory. With a clear winner yet to emerge, scientists — both inside and outside the United States — are disappointed.
Jeff Tollefson, “Scientists aghast as hopes for landslide Biden election victory vanish” at Nature
Not to get into the weeds of the politics on this one (and remember, most of yer Uncommon Descent frequent contributors are not Americans), two things about the Tollefson screed stand out:
- Why on earth did any of these supposedly smart people believe the polls? Aren’t the polls Lucy’s football?
In Cancel Culture, people don’t tell pollsters the truth about what they think. “Anonymous” people are easily “deanonymized.”
- It’s hard to understand why these people imagine that the Big Science response to COVID-19 would be viewed by many people as a success. Many people around the world have experienced it as one panicfest after another, featuring contradictory opinions on all sorts of things shouted at us from “the science.” In Canada, the current uproar favours three-layer masks. Earlier this year, the same expert said people without symptoms shouldn’t wear masks at all. Some of us are waiting for her to get round to suggesting a space suit.
Anyway, some of us are old enough to remember the polio vaccine. Today’s science practitioners want the same level of genuine respect for far less genuine achievement.
Ain’t gonna happen, folks. To fix things, start today, start small. First, don’t agree to let Lucy hold the football.
I’m sure the scientists and doctors are grateful to have hard-nosed, no-nonsense journalists around to keep them grounded.
Hurts, doesn’t it, Sev?
I thought scientists were supposed to OBSERVE REALITY objectively and unemotionally. At some brief moment in history, objective measurement was alleged to be the SOLE PURPOSE of science. That moment was a looooooooooooooooong time ago.
Now, of course, we understand that the sole purpose of science is holocaust.
Climate science has proven to be total nonsense. There still isn’t any evidence that CO2 drives the climate. And given the evidence it is stupid to say that CO2 drives the climate. Look how little CO2 contributes.
So yes, anyone who can read a graph would dispute the climate scientists asinine claims on global warming/ climate change.
COVID-19 caused so many deaths because the people are not eating properly nor do we all live healthy lifestyles. Most deaths came in blue States. The GOVERNORs were responsible for their constituents, not Trump.
The chief difficulty is that, after these sorts of displays, it will be difficult to trust pronouncements from “science” on any subject that has become polarized. Obedience can be compelled but not belief or respect. And even obedience can be hard to compel where alternatives still exist. Whoever wins or loses, these people are likely to regret their choice.
Lol with the possibility the Biden won with fraud with his magic mail in ballots
Scientists need to wake up and realize they know a lot less then they claim
And the science behind covid is both a tragedy and a travesty
If they are proud about that mess they NEED to be fired
Wow, we’ve got some serious inferiority complexes going on here. Can’t bear the idea some people might know more than you do on. Just like Trump.
News et al, would you agree that, in principle, individuals in a free society should be able to do anything they want up to the point at which their exercise of that right threatens the lives and well-being of other members of society?
Would you also agree that, where individuals ignore the risks their activities pose to others, society as a whole has a right to act to prevent such behavior in the interests of all?
Yes, seversky. It is obvious that you are inferior. You are a pathological liar who doesn’t understand science.
And until scientists can demonstrate what they claim- you know actually test their ideas, no one should listen to them.
“I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true, but proving them to be false.” – physicist Lawrence Krauss
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” – Albert Einstein
What experiment would prove that the evolution of any bacterial flagellum by means of blind and mindless processes is wrong?
“Wow, we’ve got some serious inferiority complexes going on here. Can’t bear the idea some people might know more than you do on. Just like Trump.”
Brilliantly funny and ironic that you’d say that
Lovely blanket statement combined with an attempt to minimize others lol.
Just maybe those experts should stick to what they claim to be experts about and actually do their job
Instead of telling people how to live their lives something that they don’t know how to do them selves
I find it “interesting” that the announcement of an effective vaccine came this morning, after the Correct Candidate was definitely “elected”. Before the Correct Candidate was “elected”, vaccines were considered far in the future and dubious or ineffective.
Maybe “elections” do make a difference after all. Amazing how those viruses alter their epigenes according to vote totals.
Seversky at 8, the problem is not whether society has the right to act to prevent harm to self or others but whether anything like justifiable certainty can provide a basis for doing so in a given case. In many places, that hasn’t been happening. Under those circumstances, lockdowns and crackdowns simply discredit government.
Well, that was fast. Now Lord Cuomo says the vaccine is a myth because it happened during Trump. If that’s the rule, then how come the virus isn’t a myth because it happened during Trump?
When do we get our Nuremberg Trial for this worldwide holocaust? When do we get our Never Again?
There’s a parallel here.
The scientists believed the polls and were aghast the polls were wrong.
UD believed the estimates of 200,000 deaths was “fear mongering on an insane scale”, and UD turned out to be wrong.
There’s a lesson here, people shouldn’t trust polls and UD shouldn’t have trusted Trump’s narrative COVID-19 was no worse than the flu.
@Polistra -stop spreading misinformation, Cuomo said. “The good news is the Pfizer tests look good and we’ll have a vaccine shortly.” Read that carefully and see if that resembles anything like what you asserted.
He also said “The bad news is it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over, and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan.”
It’s about two months before Biden takes over is the bad news, not the vaccine is about two months too early.
@ David P
So it wasn’t fear mongering and Trump was wrong about it being no worse than the fl
That’s some interesting commentary there showing you didn’t pay attention to everybody else’s crap
Pelosi saying it wasn’t a big deal and there was no problem in Chinatown
To Dr. Fauci constantly goofing up on his reports and changing his misinformation hiding behind the shield of science that science is somehow fluid while telling everyone church is bad but NEVER calling out BLM riots
He called out church gatherings though
Would you like to Newsweek articles stating that Trump rally spread the virus while black lives matters riots show no signs of spreading the virus or how about CBS using Italy’s hospital photos to make it seem like our hospitals where over run when they weren’t ( they issued an apology)
How about the super duper accurate death reporting on coronavirus? I mean that’s been a problem it’s a little parent too
How about the remarkable hypocrisy, People can’t protest about losing their business due to lockdowns (you spread the virus and kill people how selfish) but you’re cool to amass in the 10s of thousands, kill cops (David Dorn) and burn businesses down, because Social justice righteousness and the study claiming that there’s no signs of it spreading through black lives matter protests
The virus in reality was nowhere near as deadly as everybody predicted it to be
The only thing you got right was Trump was wrong it was slightly deadlier than the flu but our ridiculous and incompetent reaction to the disease was uncalled for and it had uncovered how stupid science can really be
As I said in a previous post, many scientist should’ve been fired over the incompetence and stupidity of this disease
Everybody thinks it was just the orange man, well it was the entirety of the government including the leftists they were all absolutely stupid
This disease was ported by the media as an apocalyptic doomsday disease and the only thing apocalyptic about was the monumental stupidity that followed it
Because in 30 years when I talk to my grandkids I’m not gonna tell them about the coronavirus I’m gonna talk to them about the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 and how our economy crashed after it was finally good for the last three years
By the way I caught the disease, one of my close friends who caught the disease lost a loved one due to the disease but given my job I have seen many many more both suffer and even past due to the ensuing chaos caused directly by the media and the incompetence of the officials all of the officials not just the orange man
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Well said, Aaron.
Sadly I used talk to text on a lot of that and tried to edit it and I still failed
But Thank you OldArmy94