Monday, June 27, 2011

I got yer "Scientific consensus" right here, bub

I Want A New Left brings the Clue-by-four.  Win:
Let’s say that academia was dominated by conservatives, and let’s say that conservative scientists claimed they had evidence that women who get abortions are unlikely to live past the age of fifty. (This is purely hypothetical.) When various people point out that they know plenty of women who got abortions who have lived past fifty and that there are some scientists who dissent from this view, the conservative scientists are unimpressed. They say first that their results have been peer reviewed, that there is a consensus, and that the science is settled. They also reply that a few counterexamples don’t refute their overall statistics, that there are still far too many women dying too young because they got an abortion when they were younger. Moreover, they point out that the scientists who dissent are all funded by abortion clinics. Eventually, an email scandal erupts in which it becomes clear that (1) there has been some fudging of data, and (2) the people at the top want to prevent those who have come up with contrary results from publishing (to redefine peer review if necessary). In addition, these scientists refuse to release their data.
I am so waiting for the next cocktail-party-with-the-lefties, where I intend to roll it out with a double helping of sneer.  Sadly, they don't invite me much anymore.  Can't imagine why.

The whole post is simply outstanding.  RTWT, and bookmark it.

2 comments:

TJIC said...

Outstanding analogy.

I don't even KNOW anyone who's part of the leftist cocktail party circuit.

OTOH, I live next to Cambridge, so I can probably just tap some stranger on the shoulder and end up talking to a leftist "intellectual".

kx59 said...

You know how the saying goes, the libs don't want to be confused by facts, their minds are made up.
It appears that epic disasters like 9/11 are required to snap some of them out of their hopey change stupor. Many of them will have to be on their death bed after decades have passed and the earth did not burn to a crisp before they will admit that global warming was nothing more than a dull knife with which the socialists whittled away at liberty...if even then.