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Scientific American's departing editor and the politicization of science

(reason.com)
473 points Bostonian | 2 comments | 18 Nov 24 22:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.427s | source
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favorited ◴[19 Nov 24 00:00 UTC] No.42178638[source]▶
> For example, did you know that "Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy"?

Yes, because I read Inherit the Wind in middle school.

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anonymousiam ◴[19 Nov 24 00:35 UTC] No.42178918[source]▶
Ugh. I'm sorry, but could you please explain yourself? I also read Inherit the Wind in middle school, and my understanding is that it fictionalized the (true) story of the "Scopes/Monkey Trial", which was an ideological conflict between science and religion. It's been over 50 years, and maybe I'm so pure that I disregarded any racial context, but I don't remember any.

How does "White Supremacy" come into the story, or the denial of evolution as a whole?

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1. gopher_space ◴[19 Nov 24 02:26 UTC] No.42179551[source]▶
Biological evolution was butting heads with the dying concept of social evolution at the time, and that conflict provides illuminating subtext to the trial and book.
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2. rbanffy ◴[19 Nov 24 13:17 UTC] No.42183076[source]▶
Which is another interesting aspect of the political use of science: that people will cherry-pick and bend all they can in ways that support their policies.