[Thread] There's a quote by Carl Sagan that tends to lend itself as a chilling prophesy foreseeing the crazy world we find ourselves in today.

It's interesting how every group and side believes this quote to perfectly represent the world, as they alone hold true to science.

This is evidenced by simply googling Segan quotes and looking at the various groups attempting to lay claim to his words by inserting their own branding over them. In an attempt to ally themselves with Sagan, and the ideals he dedicated his life to.

Yet most fall far short

I think it would be more beneficial to seek understanding of how he came to his conclusions, what led him to believe that a possible outcome could be this slide back to pre enlightenment thinking

Superstition's like homeopathy, critical theories, a return to racist segregation

However, this is not only an American problem. A shift to accepting knowledge purely based on feeling rather than demonstrability. And while all humans have suffered through these problems, at one time at least they fought to rise above our natural cave dwelling tendencies.

And this corrosion has affected to varying degrees all of us. This is not simply a matter of "the right" refusing to deny science by rejecting what we know about human influenced climate research. For the other side accepts equally unscientific proclamations about climate change

Themselves also refusing to "listen to the experts" despite their constant bleating of the phrase ad nauseum, instead relying on activists, whom have been demonstrated to be less informed on the various topics they advocate than the general public at large.

While scientists continue their research behind stone walls, often completely and possibly willfully ignorant of the tempest raging outside their ivory towers. In fact uninterested, potentially seeing the tempest as a distraction, as evidenced here: https://twitter.com/HPluckrose/status/1309188932765208576?s=20

With no real side having a valid claim to ownership of a desire to stand behind demonstrably reliable knowledge production. In fact our own Academia institutions are rapidly abandoning such practices as #CRT and Critical Theory's in general insist

Embracing such insane arguments as 2+2=5 (or anything other than 4) and calls to De Colonialize knowledge production. With their racist assertions that only white people contribute, though this too is not quite correct. More accurately they discard the contributions of non whites

They do this because they mistakenly believe Science and modern knowledge production is a "white" invention. It is not, but they don't care. Their own stated goals to use literary tools, word games if you will to destroy the institutions which built the society and technology...

... every one is using today to read these words.

No one will ever be a perfect model for adherence to the scientific method, in an unbiased way. Nor do they need to be. What's important is to try, and work towards being open minded while always challenging ideas for validity.

And this is why challenging these bad ideas is so important. Because as bad as things may seem today, as racist, and violent, and insidious as things may seem.

They can get far worse.

And don't even get me started on the perversion of biology by these very same activists, who's insane deranged cries to force acceptance of clearly wrong ideas is borrowed chillingly from Lysenko and the millions of deaths haunting their words....

Well that's all I have to say