- And how to handle it. Because this battle isn't going away.
She’s a nice woman, smart. We’re not especially close - we didn’t grow up near one another and we don’t live near each other now - but we’re blood, and in no way unfriendly.
One more thing: she’s an academic. You can guess her politics.
Just after we sat, we talked a bit about Covid.
She said she’d been only vaguely aware of my views or how controversial I’d become - surprising but not entirely, she’s had plenty else to worry about of late.
She’d googled me and come across “The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man,” though.
Of course.
We ordered, ate, caught up, gossiped about family.
We ordered, ate, caught up, gossiped about family.
The usual.
And then she said something along the lines of, Well. I would like to hear about your journey, how you developed these views.
Journey. Uh-oh.
Sure, I said.
One question I’d ask, one way to look at it - do you generally believe in the scientific method?
I think she said “scientific method,” not “science.” But she meant “science.”
Yes, this question has only one answer.
And then she said something along the lines of, Well. I would like to hear about your journey, how you developed these views.
Journey. Uh-oh.
Sure, I said.
One question I’d ask, one way to look at it - do you generally believe in the scientific method?
I think she said “scientific method,” not “science.” But she meant “science.”
- She meant, Do you believe in science?
Yes, this question has only one answer.
- What an idiotic thing to say, I said.
- After all, she had asked me if I was a moron, but she’d done so politely.
- Of course I believe in science, I said.
A nuclear power plant sits not far from where I live.
It exists because one group of brilliant scientists unlocked the secrets of the atom and another group figured out to how to use fission to heat water and turn turbines and make electricity.
Which I use every day.
I could have made the same point even more simply: whenever I get on a plane I don’t expect to see the wings flapping.
To exist in the modern world is to know science exists.
I could have made the same point even more simply: whenever I get on a plane I don’t expect to see the wings flapping.
To exist in the modern world is to know science exists.
To agree to a prenatal genetic screen, to check your favorite team’s highlights on your phone, even to drive - is to understand the profound technological revolution humanity has undergone in the last three centuries.
These people.
These people.
These smart liberal people.
- They believe, truly, that anyone who questions the mRNA shots must be a knuckle-dragging mouth-breather who has no idea what the scientific method even is...
