Don’t Believe Everything You Hear… Including Science

 Joseph Cabornero

Professor John Horgan

HST 401-A

24 January 2024

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear… Including Science


I found it very interesting when F.D. Flam brought up the statistics of conservatives being more skeptical of scientists. It’s not surprising to me because I know how much conservatives hold religion on a pedestal. Science and religion have been butting heads all through history. However, when they bring up the percentage of conservatives who trust scientists “a lot”, they don’t bring up the number of liberals who do. This made me have a suspicion that they didn’t say it on purpose to hide something. For instance, if there is a low number of liberals that trust scientists “a lot” it would show this is not just a conservative issue but an issue for humanity as a whole. 

Flam goes into this later and addresses people’s overall lack of trust in scientists. I believe this is a reflection of humanity losing trust in what they hear over these last few decades. The internet has given us access to an infinite amount of news sources, some of which have pointed out the inaccuracy of the news of the past. The internet has given us easier accessibility to fact-check the news we are given on TV. Regarding the Israel and Palestine conflict, younger people are in major support of Palestine in disregard of the propaganda pushed by the American government. If the internet that we have now was accessible in the early 2000s, I wonder if we would have invaded Afghanistan. If American citizens had access to information other than such given by the American government or mainstream media, there would have been a bigger pushback against those military efforts.

Flam quotes Yale professor Daniel Kahan saying, “Most people don’t have time or training to gather their own data, he said, so they have to defer to experts” (Flam). This makes it extremely dangerous because not everyone has the time to pay attention to where news sources get their information or how those people get it. It becomes common for people to just believe whatever makes sense to them if it comes from a trusted, reliable source. Unfortunately, sources even as big as CNN can make mistakes. So, when people are too busy to constantly fact-check everything they hear on the news, misinformation is spread. For instance, CNN got a story wrong on popular stand-up comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan during arguably the most controversial time of his career. During the pandemic, Joe was questioning the authenticity of masks and vaccines for preventing COVID-19 publicly on his podcast. Rogan had his doubts and was highly in support of finding other forms of treatment as well as just eating healthy and exercising. However, When Joe Rogan was diagnosed with COVID-19, He was proscribed ivermectin by doctors that CNN manipulatively reported as horse dewormer (Fox News; Breaking Points). Due to CNN disagreeing with Joe Rogan’s stances on COVID, It is believed they were trying to discredit him on this issue

This misinformation creates an even bigger divide between what is true and false while also causing CNN to lose credibility. Some skeptical people might look at CNN’s attack on Joe Rogan’s public image as a tactic to silence him. Flam claims we should stay skeptical of authority while still trusting science but what if authority is what is pushing this science, for instance, our government and the CDC during the pandemic of COVID-19. Science is constantly changing so it’s hard for people to trust it. Even Dr. Fauci went back on his claims of the effectiveness of masks (CNN). Overall, I agree we should trust science while questioning authority however, I understand why the public is becoming skeptical of both.


Works Cited

Breaking Points. “‘You Dumb Mother F*****’: Joe Rogan Responds to Don Lemon | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOVA9UDLjkk. 

CNN. “Dr. Fauci Responds to Study That Says Masks Didn’t Work.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Sept. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AMslS6cKw. 

Flam, F.D. “Question Authority, but Trust Science.” Bloomberg.Com, Bloomberg, 6 Nov. 2016, www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-06/question-authority-but-trust-science. 

Fox News. “Joe Rogan Cancels the Cancelers.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmixv8Zp9ps. 

 

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