Given that we’ve already been subjected to much talk of the “settled science” over the last several years by the permanent managerial class and their ventriloquist dummies in corporate state media, and it’s only going to get more frequent and insistent once the Trump team assumes office, what better time than now to debunk the term?
We hear “settled science” most often in corporate media in reference to anthropogenic climate change, vaccines, water fluoridation, or some other Sacred Cow that is not to be questioned under any circumstances, under pain of social ostracization, suspended social media accounts, and ruined careers.
Related: WATCH: Hillary Claims ‘Climate Change’ Killed 500,000 Last Year, ‘Particularly Pregnant Women’
It is a nonsensical and contemptible phrase invented by the self-serving cretins who believe The Science™ is an institution — their institution — and not a practice, intended to discredit any challenge to scientific dogma not on its merits but before a single question can even be asked.
Via The Daily Sentinel (emphasis added):
The concept of science has become one of the most misunderstood in public discourse. It is hackneyed to the point of triteness to say policy leaders should “follow the science.” I’ve said that, too, but I flatter myself to have had at least an elementary understanding of what science is. Today, leaders throw the word into speeches whenever they need credibility the argument itself doesn’t have.
You can spot it a mile away when they include the word “consensus.” The very concept of consensus, meaning unanimous agreement, is an affront to science. As John Kay wrote in 2007, “Science is the pursuit of truth, not consensus.” He explained, “The route to knowledge is transparency in disagreement and openness in debate.”
No wonder people have grown weary of being told the science is “settled,” on various issues, only to observe later that the conclusions were exaggerated, or flat wrong. Think of the damage done over the centuries in the name of settled science.
In 1633, Galileo was arrested and interrogated by the Catholic Church for refusing to accept the “settled” church view that the Earth was the center of the universe. His own astronomical observations showed that the sun-centered theory of Copernicus was right. Nevertheless, the church banned Galileo’s books, prohibited him teaching his “heresy,” and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The church finally admitted it was wrong, and cleared his name — in the 1990s.
Related: 'Zero-COVID' Cultists Accuse 'Anti-Maskers' of Kitten Murder
Historical pseudoscientific beliefs and practices that were once considered “settled science” — beyond reproach, agreed upon by all learned men — include:
- Applying leeches all over the body to purify the blood
- Tooth worms as sources of cavities
- Miasma (bad air)
- Mercury as panacea (yikes!)
- Smoking cigarettes to cure asthma/hay fever/rose fever
- Cocaine also as hay fever treatment (Who knew taking your medicine could be as fun as chain-smoking and blowing lines?)
- Tobacco smoke enemas to cure cholera
- The earth as the center of the universe, with the sun revolving around it and not the other way around
The Earth as center of the universe and tobacco inserted in the patient’s rectum as therapy, you see, was once “settled science.”
Challenging scientific orthodoxy is, in fact, part and parcel of science, which is a discipline, method, and practice — not an institution, as it is construed by some to mean in 2024.
