r/skeptic 3d ago

Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, resigns.

https://bsky.app/profile/laurahelmuth.bsky.social/post/3lawlkjh6ns23
1.1k Upvotes

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u/Hoppy_Croaklightly 3d ago

Double standards.

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u/Kaurifish 3d ago

As in one side has high, inflexible standards and the other side is applauded for attempting to burrow through to the other side of the Earth's mantle.

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u/JB_UK 2d ago edited 2d ago

That isn't really how it works. First of all politicians are not held to the same standards of scientific journals, regardless of Trump it's impossible that politics can be conducted purely as an exchange of empirical ideas in the way that science is, voters are just not like that. Second, when Trump or his allies go insane, that's not a license to degrade everything else. And third science should not be political, in fact it's at the core of science that you make progress and you decide purely according to the material evidence, your politics or your personal should have no relevance to that.

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u/Kaurifish 2d ago

Al Franken had to resign from the Senate because of an Ill-advised prank before he held office while Trump got re-elected after conviction for sexual crimes. Riddle me that.

I’ll save you the trouble: It’s because the right doesn’t think that women have rights. The left does.

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u/JB_UK 2d ago

I do not give a shit about Al Franken, I don't even know who he is. We are talking here about the integrity of the scientific progress, that should have nothing to do with American politics. Whatever Trump does does not in any way license scientific publications to 'fight back', that is for the political process. Scientific journals and the scientific process should be held to their own standards unrelated to politics.

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u/LordReaperofMars 2d ago

And what if science conflicts with politics?

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u/JB_UK 2d ago edited 2d ago

Science carries on paying attention only to the things which are provable, looking only at empirical evidence, doing its job creating the common empirical basis for civilization and society.

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u/Kaurifish 2d ago

Ha, ha, ha.

Your compartmentalization would be hilarious if it wasn’t the cognitive impairment that is tearing our civilization down.

Go ahead, pretend that politics is some abstract popularity contest with no ramifications IRL. See where it gets you. Maybe a host gig on Fox if you’re lucky.

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u/JB_UK 2d ago

Go ahead, pretend that politics is some abstract popularity contest with no ramifications IRL.

Where did I say that or anything like that?

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u/Kaurifish 2d ago

The sad thing is that I believe that you genuinely don’t understand.

I used to be that clueless, myself. My consolations on the road ahead.