Science Fraud - Part 2

By Leo Gura - July 3, 2023

A week ago I posted about fraud and corruption within the scientific community. Some people gave me shit for this, as though I was exaggerating things. “But Leo! Just because science has a few bad apples, that’s expected.” No! It goes deeper than that. The corruption of science is systemic. It’s like systemic racism in police departments. People who deny the systemic corruption of science are just like people who deny systemic racism. Exactly the same cliched language is used to deny it: “Just a few bad apples”, “It’s not a big deal”, “But are you saying all police are bad?”, “But why do you hate the police?!”

“But Leo! Why do you hate science!?” I love science more than you. I love police more than you. Which is why I want to see them both cleansed of their corruption.

“But Leo! Scientists are already cleansing science of corruption!” To a degree. But it’s all relative. I simply hold science to a much stricter standard than anyone else. If you are in science you will tend to give science a pass, just like if you’re in the police you will tend to overlook the corruption of your cop friends because admitting it would be too painful and inconvenient. This is so counter-intuitive because at first glance you’d think that scientists should have a stricter standard for science than a non-scientist. But this isn’t the case in practice because they have an enormous conflict of interest. They are too close to the problem to see it objectively. If I was a professional, licensed scientist my understanding of science would be shallower than it presently is. The most damning critiques of science must come from outside of science because science cannot see itself objectively. This is not just true of science, this dynamic is true of all institutions and even individuals. One of the most challenging things in the world is to see yourself objectively. I don’t see myself objectively.

Anyhow, this story just broke:

Don’t misunderstand me: THERE ARE DEFINITELY GOOD PARTS TO SCIENCE. Not all scientists are as shameless as that lady.

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