There's definitely a Science communication problem because Science isn't about who is saying the things, but facts speak for themselves. The reliability, repeatability, and accuracy of what people say is far more important than who they are or where they come from, or whether they live on the coasts or in the "heartland" or whatever.
It's a real problem that there are a lot of ignorant people in the US that cultivate and defend themselves from the "other"--those elite liberals. They make it about identity and in-group dynamics rather than about facts.
The rest of your comment is just flat-out attack against all institutions and government without even considering whether this evil "bureaucracy" is just another mundane structure to administer the boringness of a functioning government.
> I think it is lazy to assume that he and his administration is the source of the breakdown here.
I mean, come on. Trump called COVID a "Democrat hoax" just weeks into the pandemic. Pile that on top of thousands of other lies and anti-science bullshit. Trump didn't build the bus that's carrying us off the cliff, but he and his supporters in the media have the gas pedal to the floor. They love people being ignorant and misinformed, and it's disgusting.
Can you point to prominent examples of it from a nontrivial number of major figures in the actual sciences? (As in, not in pop science, nor media figures merely reporting on science.)
Personally, I've never seen this supposed condescension. I've seen a lot of people claim it exists, but so far as I can tell, it's just a meme, a self-reinforcing narrative. Its only external support seems to be that people are upset that they can't actually understand scientific papers without....spending time learning what the terms mean and possibly getting a background education in the subjects they're talking about.
But that's not condescension. That's just scientists doing science and people expecting everything in the world to be simple enough to be understood in a sound bite.
So...not taking a vaccine because one doesn't like the attitude of people recommending it. Yet the "elites"--whoever the hell they are--have the attitude problem.
Do these people also believe the Earth is flat because Galileo was a poophead?
It's about time we call people who reflexively believe the opposite of whatever the "left" or the "progressives" say by their true names: right-wing reactionaries.
There's definitely a Science communication problem because Science isn't about who is saying the things, but facts speak for themselves. The reliability, repeatability, and accuracy of what people say is far more important than who they are or where they come from, or whether they live on the coasts or in the "heartland" or whatever.
It's a real problem that there are a lot of ignorant people in the US that cultivate and defend themselves from the "other"--those elite liberals. They make it about identity and in-group dynamics rather than about facts.
The rest of your comment is just flat-out attack against all institutions and government without even considering whether this evil "bureaucracy" is just another mundane structure to administer the boringness of a functioning government.
> I think it is lazy to assume that he and his administration is the source of the breakdown here.
I mean, come on. Trump called COVID a "Democrat hoax" just weeks into the pandemic. Pile that on top of thousands of other lies and anti-science bullshit. Trump didn't build the bus that's carrying us off the cliff, but he and his supporters in the media have the gas pedal to the floor. They love people being ignorant and misinformed, and it's disgusting.