{"id":333083,"date":"2024-06-15T17:23:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T15:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333083"},"modified":"2024-06-15T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T15:23:34","slug":"what-postmodernists-got-right-about-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333083","title":{"rendered":"What Postmodernists Got Right About Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By William M. Briggs, Statistician to the Stars!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you can remember way back to the mid to late 1990s. Ancient history. This was the time of the original Science Wars, the assault by rapid postmodernists (i.e, the pre-woke) on the staid and solid walls of Science. I was in grad school at the time, and paid close attention, because I had planned on making science my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postmodernists claimed that there were different ways of knowing, and that science occupied a place no more important in its claims to truths about the world as did, say, Aboriginal origin myths. That argument would later become a woke one when it was said that Aboriginal origin myths are ackshually<\/em> superior to claims of science because the Aborigines were Victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That story you know. But it lay twenty years in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then? Well, it\u2019s hard to describe the visceral shock of scientists when they, for the first time, had their intelligence and motivations called into question. They reacted like the king\u2019s daughter whose virtue had been called into question. There arose a swarm of indignant articles<\/a> by scientists, and their fanboys, all with the theme How dare they<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postmodernists charged that science had become a vote, just another system of power-in-action, no more or less noble than any other. Scientists rebutted that postmodernists were ninnies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peak was, as you may recall, the so-called Sokal hoak, in which physicist Alan Sokal slipped a goofy jargon-filled incoherent science paper into Social Text<\/em>, a big name po-mo journal. Sokal\u2019s paper had statements like \u201cquantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind the hoax was that Social Text<\/em> was going to blush, postmodernists would be exposed, admit their sins, and science would again reign triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, this did not happen. Because the postmodernists were more or less right. Science in practice was becoming, in a large and increasing degree, the machinations of people who did not always, and sometimes not at all, have Truth as their goal, but who were interested in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sokal thought he was aiding the cause with his follow-up 1999 book (co-authored with Jean Bricmont) Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals\u2019 Abuse of Science<\/em>, in which he went to great and extended thousand-dollar-word-filled turgid lengths to boast about his progressive bona fides, pleading that therefore his critique was a good one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which, as I hope you see, grants the postmodernist premise that it mattered more who<\/em> you were than what<\/em> you were saying. Science had become a vote, just like postmodernists said. It also didn\u2019t help that it might really be true (as some think<\/a>) that quantum gravity is<\/em> a social and linguistic construct, a sort of mathematical game understood only by a clique, one that might have nothing to do with Reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing about the hoax is that, after the first hilarity died down, scientists forgot about Social Text<\/em>. It is still going strong<\/a>. At the time I write this, it boasts these top-three trending articles: \u201c\u2018Spirit in Opposition\u2019: Malcolm X and the Question of Palestine\u201d, \u201cIntroduction: Left of Queer\u201d, \u201cFascism\u2019s Spatial Imaginary at the Threshold\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science is becoming power politics, where might makes right. Not everywhere, no, but in bulk, and certainly in its main funding methods. Here\u2019s proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote many times (blog<\/a>, Substack<\/a>) that scientists will create entire subfields of activity, just because they think other<\/em> scientists think the area is paper-worthy. Scientists are just as prone to fads as anybody else. The mass of papers that develop in the subfield becomes<\/em> truth-as-vote. Scientists reason that because so many are working in this area, and are being funded, the basic claims must be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As proof of that contention, here is a Nature article<\/a> boasting about the number of \u201cclimate change\u201d papers, and using the increase as proof<\/em> that therefore the claims of \u201cclimate change\u201d must be true, and must be acted upon. We have, you and I, dear reader, over the years looked at enough of these papers to see that most are worthless to harmful, a prime (and, sadly, enduring) example of science-as-vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A more mundane, but even more revealing, example was provided in a recent tweet<\/a> announcing that the American College of Pediatricians had put out a statement condemning the satanic lunacy of butchering and drugging children in slave to gender theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first comments to this tweet was that the ACP is \u201ca fringe group\u201d. That was the entirety<\/a> of the tweet. The implication, plain to all, was that therefore it was right and proper to ignore anything the ACP says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commenter was right. The ACP is<\/em> a fringe group, and is so because it calls to Reality, whereas mainstream scientists are lunatics in love with twisted Fantasies. But the mainstream has a bigger vote. The mainstream won; they have the power. The key is that ordinary people recognize who is in power and who is out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should say lunatic or cowardly scientists love \u201cgender theory\u201d. But a scientist acting cowardly is just as much a confirmation of science-as-vote as the positive examples. Fear and trembling have become so rife even woke Nature<\/em> itself has recently put out a slew of articles<\/a> asking scientists to man-up. One title: \u201cWhy it\u2019s essential to study sex and gender, even as tensions rise\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Some scientists have been warned off studying sex differences by colleagues. Others, who are already working on sex or gender-related topics, are hesitant to publish their views. Such a climate of fear and reticence serves no one. To find a way forward we need more knowledge, not less.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Of course, being weak, they can\u2019t help themselves and immediately walked that admonition back by calling (in that and other articles) for \u201cnuanced\u201d takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You remember the blind idiocy of mask madness. It had been known for a century, as I shouted over and over and over for years<\/em> (blog<\/a>, Substack<\/a>), that masks (except for spacesuits) did diddly squat in stopping transmission of respiratory bugs. Scientists before 2020 knew this. But once the panic hit, they pretended to forget or they let their minds be changed by political force. Mask madness hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly the panic faded. Finally, there came a Cochrane review showing what we already knew, that masks don\u2019t work, and are to some extent harmful. Alas, the review scientists forgot about hersterical (there is no misspelling) political forces of the cult of Safety First! Which led to this new article<\/a>, whose title says it all: \u201cAfter Throwing Scientists Under the Bus for a Media Smearing, Cochrane Backtracks on Mask Review Statement\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are many other examples, but this is plenty to prove the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was inevitable, perhaps, that after science became ubiquitous and powerful, and very rich, that it would devolve into politics. Which is what the postmodernists (in part) argued all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe you can remember way back to the mid to late 1990s. Ancient history. This was the time of the original Science Wars, the assault by rapid postmodernists (i.e, the pre-woke) on the staid and solid walls of Science. I was in grad school at the time, and paid close attention, because I had planned on making science my career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":333087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829234,691829232,691829233],"class_list":{"0":"post-333083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-acp","9":"tag-postmodernists","10":"tag-science-wars","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00climatepapers-1.webp?fit=1024%2C668&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1oEj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":260143,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260143","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":0},"title":"Escape The Postmodern\u00a0Matrix","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"These days we are hosed every day with verbage, both written and spoken, claiming that absurdities are facts, and that common sense is illusion.\u00a0 Examples include labeling the essential trace gas CO2 as a \u201cpollutant\u201d.\u00a0 A man can decide he\u2019s a woman and cannot be refused access to women\u2019s sports,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0war-is-peace-1984.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0war-is-peace-1984.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0war-is-peace-1984.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0war-is-peace-1984.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0war-is-peace-1984.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":333290,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333290","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":1},"title":"Reflections on K-12 science education","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/19\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The bigger issue is that societally-relevant issues related to health, the environment, and climate change are deeply complex, and fraught with ethical ambiguities. It\u2019s na\u00efve to think that providing students with fundamental science content will arm them against wrong beliefs. When experts disagree on both the problems and their solutions.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0-K-12-education.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0-K-12-education.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0-K-12-education.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0-K-12-education.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0-K-12-education.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":318987,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318987","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":2},"title":"Climate Change is Class Warfare","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/19\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The climate is up the spout and we\u2019re to blame. The planet is boiling like a pan of porridge. We face the possible extinction of all life on earth. \u2018Science\u2019 says so. Anyone who questions it is a demonic scoundrel. The climate catastrophe is a 100% solid-gold, slam-dunk irrefutable fact.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarmism\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarmism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Screenshot-2024-04-19-102719.png?fit=1200%2C603&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Screenshot-2024-04-19-102719.png?fit=1200%2C603&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Screenshot-2024-04-19-102719.png?fit=1200%2C603&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Screenshot-2024-04-19-102719.png?fit=1200%2C603&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Screenshot-2024-04-19-102719.png?fit=1200%2C603&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":222876,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=222876","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":3},"title":"Biden Feds Kneecapped Oil and Gas","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/08\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The number of people who are political appointees in the administration who came out of our industry or who really understand it, you can literally count on one hand.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-08-184857.png?fit=829%2C575&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-08-184857.png?fit=829%2C575&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-08-184857.png?fit=829%2C575&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-08-184857.png?fit=829%2C575&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":293922,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293922","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":4},"title":"CONTROL the CLIMATE NARRATIVE to CONTROL THE SCIENCE and MANIPULATE THE PEOPLE!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember this history! Because that\u2019s how climate alarmists have corrupted science!","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Alarmists\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Alarmists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00GDBC1AmbsAAGcM6.jpeg?fit=1144%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00GDBC1AmbsAAGcM6.jpeg?fit=1144%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00GDBC1AmbsAAGcM6.jpeg?fit=1144%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00GDBC1AmbsAAGcM6.jpeg?fit=1144%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00GDBC1AmbsAAGcM6.jpeg?fit=1144%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":367745,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367745","url_meta":{"origin":333083,"position":5},"title":"Unsettled Science: The Alarmists Want More Money (nope, time\u2019s up)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/26\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The mid-course correction of U.S. policy to reign-in the out-of-control Climate Science Complex is front-page news at home and abroad. Such reform is long overdue. The bloated\u00a025,000 registrations\u00a0for the last American Geophysical Society meeting indicate how big a government-subsidized sub-industry has become. Maybe next year\u2019s climate confab will be half\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"AAAS (American Association of the Advancement of Science)\"","block_context":{"text":"AAAS (American Association of the Advancement of Science)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=aaas-american-association-of-the-advancement-of-science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1GcO7sgVXEAAr4uC-2.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1GcO7sgVXEAAr4uC-2.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1GcO7sgVXEAAr4uC-2.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1GcO7sgVXEAAr4uC-2.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333088,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333083\/revisions\/333088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/333087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}