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.