Science denial trained today’s politicians to deny any inconvenient facts.
Evidence
The tactics that we see employed in the post-truth world of today were learned in the earlier campaigns of truth deniers who wanted to fight the scientific consensus and won. And if one can deny the facts about climate change, why not those about the murder rate? If the link between tobacco and cancer can be obscured by decades of misinformation and doubt, why not hope that the same could be true for any other issue that one wishes to politicize? As we can see, it is the same strategy with the same roots; it now just has a larger target, which is reality itself. In a world where ideology trumps science, post-truth is the inevitable next step. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 81
Categorization
- XREF: Caps the chapter’s central argument that the post-truth playbook originates in organized science denial campaigns like tobacco and climate change. — connects to: Science denial pioneered tactics now applied across all factual reality; Manufactured doubt is the replicable engine of science denial.; Climate denial trades on manufactured doubt, not persuasion of scientists — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 927 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Science denial pioneered tactics now applied across all factual reality
#expands(0.92) - Manufactured doubt is the replicable engine of science denial.
#expands(0.85) - The tobacco industry invented science denial as public-relations strategy
#expands(0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 63 - Climate denial trades on manufactured doubt, not persuasion of scientists
#exemplifies(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 927 - Denying the predictability of social facts logically yields pure opportunism
#expands(0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 602