And some institutions are led by people funded and supported by the same attackers. So if there’s any helping to be done it won’t be for the scientists.
Chris Mooney’s The Republican War On Science covers a wide range of similar tactics directed at scientists across a range of disciplines through the noughts. Tobacco scientists and historians faced the same, as have evolutionary biologists back to the ‘20s at least.
Yeah a colleague of mine wrote a short book about the NZ context back in 2016, Silencing Science. We didn’t have the in-person attacks here until the pandemic, and now every event I speak at has to have security. That’s the differentiation I’m thinking of.
When I got into vaccination research in ~2015 I thought it was so nice to be starting a line of research that was so mainstream and nonpartisan (after gender/information & young parents). Those were the days!
I’m a historian! Thought I could just quietly get on with work about the appropriation of “science” by the far right/misogyny in science & tech, but since 2020 I’ve been working on disinformation 🤷♀️ you know how that goes…
Yes, same, but it’s specifically 4 years since I alerted my (then) institution to what the pandemic was doing to harassment myself & colleagues were receiving & how this was effecting us.
Perhaps an ignorant question, what can one who isn't a scientist or in academia do to help? On a personal level, I try to educate people who deny science using every bit of logic I have. Tough crowd! Suggestions of how the layman can assist would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for what you do.
Thanks Kate. I will be sharing this with my university leadership tomorrow. I like the idea of having a direct place to contact and making sure people know about it in advance. Being on good terms with the vice provost for research means I will require we do the work before the worst happens.
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https://www.academie-sciences.fr/en/In-memoriam/roland-douce.html