Nathanael Blake: "Health Experts Need To Get Out Of The Society Manipulation Business"

I couldn't agree more, FWIW...which may not be much.

   We (generic 'we') are good at some things and bad at others. For the good, see: Operation Warp Speed. For the bad, see: well, the attempts to manipulate society and micromanage our actions. That nonsense is largely responsible for the current backlash. There were the manipulative lies about masks. There was the Lysenkoist bullshit about Black Lives Matter rallies--which may have constituted the high-water mark of politicized science in my lifetime. And, of course: the pandemic is just one episode in general efforts to medicalize everything, misrepresent progressive politics as science, and micromanage our lives.

   Anyway: "we" seem pretty good at producing technological solutions Maybe it's because it's easier to be objective about success there. But as soon as politics starts influencing people, it quickly seems to swamp the power of scientific evidence. Science often requires stepping back and exercising fine discrimination. Politics is passionate. And people are just shit at stepping back from that. Progressive are currently (and perhaps inherently) worse at separating politics from non-politics...likely because their intelligentsia has duped them into believing that there's no separation to be had. Once you give up on the possibility, you have to give up on the ideal (by ought implies can). And if you've given up on even the ideal, you're lost.

   Actually, it's kinda fortunate that they get things ostentatiously wrong so much. Otherwise it might be easy to fall for. I mean...progressives do seem to fall for it...but that's a whole other thing. Trying to get progressives to be objective about this stuff is like trying to get religious conservatives to be objective about Jesus--it's basically wasted effort.