Excerpt: But if there was one underlying theme to it all, this was a March for…
…and to the extent that the March for Science was at its heart a rally in support of The Truth, it failed, because there is no such thing as THE Truth…and it ignores, or denies, massive scientific evidence to suggest there is. The March for Science did for the social sciences about human reasoning and perception just what it railed against for so many other issues. It was overt denialism of scientific evidence that competes with the tribe’s views, and it was self-defeating as a result.
The idea that there is a Truth with which we all agree, about anything, is laudable, but laughable. That science can establish a universally accepted Truth, about anything, is a worthy aspiration, but entirely unachievable. Research — scientific research — has established beyond any question that while the scientific process is great at establishing the facts, in the end how we see those facts is subjective…affective…a blend of the facts and how we feel about them. Social science and neuroscience research on congition and how the mind works confirms, and helps explain the reasons why, we have always lived in world of alternative facts depending on who you ask. This may be frustrating, but it’s hardly new.