• Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    If you catch your friends using Science as a religion, tell them they’re not a skeptic, they’re a cunt.

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 hours ago

      Am scientist (well, was, before career change), can confirm. Fuck dogmatic scientists, they’re worse than regular dogmatists because they’ve been given many opportunities to know better.

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    This is a clean example of an ignoratio elenchi fallacy.

    Statement B attempts to use Statement A to make an unrelated point that isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is still unrelated.

    This could be done with any combination of…

    “Under capitalism, <random thing> is…”
    “Under <random ism>, science is…”

    They would all result in a statement that supports Speaker B, but is no longer relevant to what Speaker A stated, as the topic has changed. In this case, from science to capitalism.

    I.e. It’s an anti-capitalism meme attempting to use science to appeal to a broader audience through relevance fallacy. Both statements may be true, but do not belong in the same picture.

    Unless, of course, “that’s the joke” and I’m just that dumb.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      I think you’re reading statement B too literally. I’m pretty sure the idea behind it is related to critical theory and is an objection to the idea that rationality is trustworthy and that class conflict should be regarded as a higher truth. In that way statement B is relevant to statement A; it’s an implicit rejection of it.

    • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Assuming this meme is some form of Marxist propaganda, it would be a self-defeating meme, since Marxism is rooted in dialectical materialism which is itself a scientific process. At least according to Marx.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Wow thanks! I’ve seen other instances of this fallacy but never knew its name (nor recognized that it is a common fallacy form).

    • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      You’re dead on. Science is a process. I can science the shit out of baking soda and vinegar to make a volcano, and I don’t need government funding to do it. What you science is effected by capitalism, but capitalism is just a scare word. No matter what you want to do, if it requires a significant amount of power or work to create your materials, a cost is accrued somewhere, and someone has to pay it, whether it costs dollars or beaver pelts.

      • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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        3 hours ago

        Capitalism isn’t just about “things need funding” the point of the meme is that capitalists determine what gets funding. A socialist state might put economic force behind other scientific endeavors, ones driven by capital are intended to create profit. The profit motive drives innovation instead of the pure ideological pursuit of truth or any other driver.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Thank you. Something about me was rubbing me the wrong way, but I couldn’t articulate it.

  • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    This statement is on the verge of being a strawman argument. The first compares science to other systems of knowledge, while the second criticizes the subjects of scientific study under a capitalist influence.

    These two statements do not refer to the same thing in context.

    Edit: clarity

    • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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      7 hours ago

      I would beg to differ. There is a THOU MUST PUBLISH OR STARVE ethos in modern research, which is directly incentivized on both sides by capitalism – researchers want to eat and pay rent and institutions want to be fancy so rich people bribe them to let their kids in. This has led to it becoming common place to do a study and THEN form your hypothesis, which is just not science. That’s how you get so many “chocolate cures ass cancer!” headlines. Somone is researching if chocolate blocks a protein you never heard of, it doesn’t, but through the magic of random sampling, this set of subjects had a low rate of cancer in five years so, we’re publishing that even though that’s NOT how science works. You’re identifying quirks of sample sets, not challenging hypotheses because of the direct intervention of capitalist incentives.

        • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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          6 hours ago

          Why is it a strawman? Are you saying that doesn’t happen? I’ve read a fair number of respectable sources saying it does. If not, where do the “study shows coffee causes cancer” and “study shows coffee cures cancer” articles come from? Are you just being contrarian, because Science™ is now a blue MAGA v original flavor MAGA political thing? What’s the angle here?

          • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            Bro, what point are you actually arguing against? The person you replied to never made a point about research bureaucracy.

            Google ignoratio elenchi

            • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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              5 hours ago

              I’m not trying to take a side in some weird internet flat earther thing, I’m just saying like Thomas Kuhn has a point in Structure of Scientific Revolutions… I’m not a Lacannian, but based on the one Slavoj Zizek talk I saw in grad school about his triad of reality, my understanding is he also had pretty good points about the inherent unreliability of second order reality, which is inherently run by some manner of corruptible authority, that addresses the same concern that research can be institutionally tainted and biased by the structures within which they exist… Capitalism is provably directly producing unscientific research at research institutions, especially in health contexts that have the most direct impact on people materially… Just look at the Perdue Oxycontin studies.

              • lunarul@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                Capitalism is provably directly producing unscientific research at research institutions,

                So you agree the second statement is not really about science.

                • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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                  3 hours ago

                  The fact that you are this thorny about besmirching the name of Science in vain is sooooo telling.

                  Yes, I agree, it is not Science as per The Enlightenment, what I as a pedant, call inductive reasoning, but when Neil goes out there telling you to wear a mask, is that backed by Science™, unless he’s taking Science’s name in vain (he was)? Science is inductively reasoned truth to what extent it is truth, and the very people who want to lecture us about Science™ want to throw things at the wall intuitively like shamen to calm us, and dictate what we should know for fear of our behavior, like an unordained Sangha using effective means to guide children

                  Edit disclaimer: I’m in no way antivax, I had em all you should too, and especially kids, but those are legit 95% certainty PROPER science as per claimed efficacy

          • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            I very clearly explained the strawman.

            Just because I pointed out that your argument is flawed doesn’t make me Maga or some kind of Trump supporter. It just means you made a bad argument.

            • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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              4 hours ago

              In what regard? Is this trolling? I am legitimately confused, which leads me to think you’re one of the abusive Cheney Dems on this platform, but I am open to other interpretations if you provide me room for that…

              • LengAwaits@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                I have no horse in this race, topically speaking, but your continual return to name-calling (“Cheney Dems”, “Blue MAGA”) belies your attempt to come across as a good-faith participant in this discussion. There are people out there that think differently than you, and there always will be. Using pejoratives, reducing people you don’t know to mere “thought-terminating cliches”, is not conducive to civil discussion or persuasive dialectics.

              • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                If you’re going to ignore everything, I’ve already said, I see no reason to continue. You’re obviously arguing in bad faith, and I’m not going to enable that compulsion.

                • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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                  3 hours ago

                  I am legit confused about this outrage, ELI5, please… I am legit not arguing in bad faith and am seriously confused, but I did not google your thing because I am lazy and don’t care if this meme is some cancelled thing I was arguing the underlying point that as per Kuhn, Scientific stuff is within a cultural/economic/geographical, yada yada like all human activity

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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    9 hours ago

    True but people also use this as an excuse to dismiss any research they disagree with which is idiotic.

    Most research is legit. It just might not be interpreted correctly, or it might not be the whole picture. But it shouldn’t be ignored because you don’t like it.

    People are especially prone to this with Econ research in my experience.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      9 hours ago

      For sure, but it’s important to keep in mind in fields with large financial interests.

      Medicine especially. Most studies claiming Cealiac disease (gluten allergy) was not real before it was conclusively proven to be legitimate were funded by bread companies. You won’t believe the number of studies funded by insurance companies trying to show that certain diseases aren’t really disabling, (even though they really are).

      • OpenStars@discuss.online
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        8 hours ago

        And sugar probably kills as many people as smoking, but… yup.

        Then again, we all are okay with killing children too, so long as it is with a gun and unwillingly rather than safely in a doctor’s office and medically necessary or at least expedient.

        • stoy
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          8 hours ago

          That seems like a crazy low estimate for deaths caused by sugar…

            • OpenStars@discuss.online
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              3 hours ago

              Both, but the studies were literally prevented from happening or those that were done anyway then the results shared with Americans - the USA threatened to boycott the WHO iirc if it did not remove language to the effect that sugar could be dangerous, in excess.

              HFCS lowers your metabolism, so makes every additional calorie count for a greater effect.

              Stores sell what they want to sell, in part based on what people will purchase (e.g. fast food companies like McDonald’s tried offering healthier options such as salads - people wouldn’t buy them), and things with higher shelf life. They aim for profits, not service for its own sake.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      7 hours ago

      The entire thing is an edgy strawman. Honest practitioners obviously take seriously the need to understand and articulate the limits of empiricism, and are hostile towards those who abuse the public trust placed in scientific authority. It would honestlt be great if we could do the same with our critiques of capitalism.

    • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
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      9 hours ago

      Isn’t there a replication crisis. I am not sure you can really claim “most” research is legit.

      • niucllos@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        I wouldn’t call it a broad crisis, and it isn’t universal. More theoretical sciences or social sciences are more prone to it because the experiments are more expensive and you can’t really control the environment the way you can with e.g. mice or specific chemicals. But most biology, chemistry, etc that isn’t bleeding edge or incredibly niche will be validated dozens to hundreds of times as people build on the work and true retractions are rare

  • socsa@piefed.social
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    8 hours ago

    Nihilism is fun! Science as a framework for truth seeking, and big S Science are functionally different things. Nobody is making the argument that Science is free from political or economic bias, or even that empiricism is the sole arbiter of truth. Literally just finish reading Kant, I’ll wait.

    On the other hand, you can look at the world and very plainly see that science… does things. It discovers truth with a far better track record than every other imperfect epistemology. But sure, capitalism bad. Twitter man cringe. And the internet is just like, an opinion, or something.

  • crawancon@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    science is science. it can be (sometimes necessarily) prioritized via societal influence, culture and monetary means.

    socialist countries have different types scientific spend but I don’t see femboys taking things in the ass for them I guess.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      7 hours ago

      Look, the only thing in the world which hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism is OP’s brain, which happens to be in a jar, on a shelf, owned by an evil demon, who lives in a hole at the bottom of the sea. Just be thankful that the capitalists have not figured out how to harness this phenomenological power yet.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      9 hours ago

      If you’d like to read into this I recommend these books.

      1. “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas S. Kuhn

      2. “Science as Social Knowledge” by Helen Longino

      3. “The Politics of Science” by David Politzer

      4. “The Science Industry” by Philip Mirowski

      5. “The Commodification of Science: A Critical Perspective” by various authors

      An example of why this matters would be that research claiming ME was psychological was heavily funded, by both governments and insurance companies because it meant that they didn’t have to spend money on people disabled with ME. No effort was made to look at possible biological causes. Only a couple decades later, we now know it is a neuroimmune disease. But since insurers and government don’t benefit from that fact, it took decades to show and disprove the mountain of research claiming it is psychological. This meant thousands of people died from the disease or were in severe poverty.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    And under socialism in the 20th century, science was an institution that only funds research that advances whatever narrative the hermetic powers-that-be decided to push and strengthen their grip on power, their obsession with secretiveness and projecting an image of infallibility.

    Take the Soviet Union.
    T.D. Lysenko and his crackpot food engineering ideas is one such glaring example. But boy oh boy could he talk a “toe the party line” game and suck up to Stalin.
    Or how about how the kremlin rendered nearly one quarter of Kazakhstan uninhabitable due to their relentless nuclear testing. And they nearly did that for all of western Europe with Chernobyl.

    In the name of workers and science, we shall poison your land. Science for the workers’ paradise, rejoice, comrades!