by empath75 | 2025-05-29 13:38:10+00:00
I think it's important to point this out, but I don't think it matters because the purpose of a report like that isn't to find the truth or even to persuade, because they don't expect the "audience" for this to ever read it, or to care remotely about the contents, but only to provide the existence of such a report as justification for enacting whatever policy they wanted to enact anyway.

The vast majority of people are incapable of understanding a legitimate scientific report, and have zero interest in reading them. They also don't have any basis for distinguishing good science from bad, or understand why people should listen to scientists or doctors anyway.

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A few relevant quotes -- from the Iraq War:

> The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

--- From Sartre:

“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

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1984:

'How can I help it?' he blubbered. 'How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.

Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.'

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So much of reality as it's perceived by people is socially constructed and it's possible to wield political power to shape that socially-agreed-upon reality to an extent, and for a length of time that would be surprising to most people in the "reality-based community."

You can show studies and measurements, etc, etc, etc, and they can go "nuh-uh" for literally years and decades and eventually it will matter to someone when they eventually find the stone that 'kicks back', but not to the people that were lying about it -- they already got what they wanted.

I think now we are in a situation where "being right" isn't good enough. You have to both "be right" and wield power, and right now one side of the argument is out of power and doesn't seem willing to exercise any power that they might actually have.

There comes a time where you have to stop playing word games with them and confront them with whatever political power you can bring to the fight.