@bobsal u1553115,
bobsal u1553115 wrote:
There's so many of these cases. People are losing their lives because of conspiracy addiction. Where did we lose respect for science and knowledge?
When authoritarians starting taking over 'science and education' as institutions for subjugating people instead of as open-critical discourses to teach people to think for themselves.
They used to teach how the Earth was discovered to be round, how vaccines work, etc. Now people push acceptance that the Earth is round by ridiculing anti-science scapegoats who think it's flat, or they ridicule anti-vaxxers and paint them as dangerous questioners of authority who take personal medical choice into their own hands.
When you start making science and knowledge into a war of ridicule against authority-questioners, you are abusing it. Any flag of peace and independent thinking and liberty can be co-opted to make it into a flag of rallying majorities against minorities, submission/subjugation against dissent, etc.
It's just a question of how you frame the discourse, i.e. in terms of people thinking for themselves and respecting each other in discussion even when they disagree; or as people who are stupid if they question authority and dangerous when they resist submission/subjugation.