Will America’s disregard for science be the end of its reign? | Big Think

Will America’s disregard for science be the end of its reign?
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From America's inception, there has always been a rebellious, anti-establishment mentality. That way of thinking has become more reckless now that the entire world is interconnected and there are added layers of verification (or repudiation) of facts.

As the great minds in this video can attest, there are systems and mechanisms in place to discern between opinion and truth. By making conscious efforts to undermine and ignore those systems at every turn (climate change, conspiracy theories, coronavirus, politics, etc.), America has compromised its position of power and effectively stunted its own growth.

A part of the problem, according to writer and radio host Kurt Andersen, is a new media infrastructure that allows for false opinions to persist and spread to others. Is it the beginning of the end of the American empire?
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TRANSCRIPT:

KURT ANDERSEN: Americans have always been magical thinkers and passionate believers in the untrue. We were started by the Puritans in New England who wanted to create, and did create, a Christian utopia and theocracy as they waited for the imminent second coming of Christ and the end of days. And in the South by a bunch of people who were convinced, absolutely convinced, that this place they'd never been was full of gold just to be plucked from the dirt in Virginia. And they stayed there looking and hoping for gold for 20 years before they finally, finally faced the facts and the evidence and decided that they weren't going to get rich overnight there.

So that was the beginning. And then we've had centuries of 'buyer beware' charlatanism to an extreme degree and medical quackery to an extreme degree, and increasingly exotic, extravagant, implausible religions over and over again from Mormonism, to Christian science, to Scientology in the last century. And we've had this anti-establishment, "I'm not going to trust the experts. I'm not going to trust the elite," in our character from the beginning. Now, all those things came together and were supercharged in the 1960s when you were entitled to your own truth and your own reality. Then, a generation later when the internet came along, giving each of those realities, no matter how false or magical or nutty they are, their own kind of media infrastructure.

We had entertainment, again, for our whole last couple 100 years, but especially in the last 50 years, permeating all the rest of life, including presidential politics, from John F. Kennedy through Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton. So, the thing was set up for Donald Trump to exploit all these various American threads and astonishingly become president. But then you look at this history and it's like, "Oh, we should've seen this coming."

TYSON: The power of journalism: A mistake becomes truth. The print journalism is taking what I said and turning it into an article, so it has to pass through the journalist, get processed, and then it becomes some written content on a page. One hundred percent of those experiences, the journalist got something fundamentally wrong with the subject matter. And just as an interesting point about the power of journalists, I had people read the article and say, "Neil, you must know better than that. That's not how this works." They assumed the journalist was correct about reporting what I said, not that I was correct and that the journalists was wrong. This is an interesting power that journalists have over whether you think what they're writing is true or not. That was decades ago. In recent years, what I think has happened is that they're more journalists who are science fluent that are writing about science than was the case 20 years ago. So now I don't have to worry about the journalist missing something fundamental about what I'm trying...

[bipqrslef]

We pay lawyers more than teachers. This indicates to me that we value the ability to bend the truth more than the ability to pass it on.

[michaelcristel]

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” - Isaac Asimov (1980)

[jstnsmutek]

Stupidity is no longer looked down upon it's just seen as a different way of thinking

[rabbit]

I'm an American who has lived in Japan for the last 20 years. Japan is a country that believes in the science and so it is difficult to belief what America has become. I no longer talk to my family in the US anymore. Their logic is not that we can agree to disagree, their logic is that they should have freedom to say what they want regardless of how wrong it is and not be corrected. Basically, they can say what they want and I can't. My freedom of speech infringes on their freedom of speech. My brother literally told me that I had to decide if I wanted to be part of the family or not. It was an easy decision.

[Dan-udhz]

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov

“It is necessary to take what is common as our guide; however, though this logic is universal, the many live as if each individual has his own private wisdom.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

[Jackson-T]

“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.”

[TheFlutecart]

"How to spot bullshit" should be a middle school class required in the USA. Commercialism oozes the stuff.

[Alister]

This has to be viewed as a quirk of culture combined with a related failure in education. I live in New Zealand, which has plenty of its own problems, but is nothing like the US. I work in education. A colleague of mine who was from California was utterly confused when I said that you couldn't opt kids out of science education in New Zealand. She had lived here for many years (and has two kids here) but she just wouldn't believe it was true. We eventually worked out that science education in New Zealand is a mandatory part of the curriculum; it requires you learn science. As a teacher I can (and in fact kind of have to) say to kids 'climate change is real and human-caused'. Or 'vaccines protect you'. Simple as that. I can't have parents come to me and complain that it contradicts their magical thinking, because if it's science, it's science. America needs that level of shift in their education at the barest minimum if they are going to address this problem, and it will sadly probably not even shift things in the country for decades as the older generations of magical-thinkers have to die off. It is scary as hell to think that the most powerful country on Earth is also the (among) most deluded.

[phild]

It isn't just science that is disregarded, it is politeness, knowing history, even the concept of "bettering oneself" is now anathema to the popular culture.

[lynnjacobs]

"People [Americans] don't want to give up their cherished beliefs that they find comforting." That pretty much sums up the main reason for the dilemma we find ourselves in.

[BadgerCheese]

I been into science since I was a little kid in the late '90s... and you can thank shows like Magic School Bus and Blues Clues for that... and its disheartening to me now over 20 years later as an adult seeing the anti-science ignorance in this country. We live in a time of unprecedented information and still choose to stick our heads in the sand.

[willasd]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who learn from history are doomed to watch in horror as others repeat it.

[liveecarbme]

The great irony is that the very fruits of science: computers, cellphones and the internet/"social media" are the harbingers of the denial of the scientific method and the decline of America as a world influencer and power broker.

[remy]

It's funny that ever since beginning grad school I realized how little I knew about science and how little I knew about anything. It's funny to see people so confident in what they know.

[ThunderHOWL]

when i was a kid i was so fascinated by science. it was my favorite subject in school and i loved shows like mythbusters, jimmy neutron, magic school bus etc. At the time my mom was really encouraging and supportive of my interests. but now when i explain to her how vaccines work or how climate change is happening for sure, she just says stuff like “oh those scientists don’t know anything” or “they’re getting paid to say that”. it’s very frustrating and i’ve pretty much given up on trying to get through to her. God damn these “alternative facts” peddlers. they’re rotting peoples minds.

[kenmacleod]

I once read a book called 'Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". It's a hell of a good read that lays the situation out pretty clearly. Though it was written in the early 1960s, it holds up well. Just about everything he wrote about can be found in everyday life today.

[WalkerBohAus]

I'm surprised they didn't talk about the decline in verification studies due to lack of interest in reporting. They go halfway, talking about the importance of reporting on verified results rather than unverified claims. But seriously, journalism hurts science by encouraging unverified sensationalist claims but it also discourages the entire scientific verification process by refusing to grant attention which stifles funding.

[mybrainhurts]

Now I feel like US was just doing great things in science to compete against USSR.

[lactobacillusprime]

What I find amazing is people willing to turn their backs on science and still want all the comforts of modern day living. I guess lack of insight and lack of education is what makes people do that.... We'd still be scared people living in the dark ages if it wasn't for science.

[beausheffield]

It's sad that the only people this will reach are those who already believed in Science and understand the peril that we find ourselves in.