Editor,
The one thing that unites anti-science cranks and spreaders of pseudoscientific nonsense is that they invariably gravitate toward attacking the most well-established and solidly evidence-backed scientific explanations. Nothing less, it seems, will do.
Since the mid 1990s, I have worked, on an on-again/off-again basis, on the public understanding of science. Explaining, from a layperson’s point of view, the complexities of various explanations and implications of science in our lives and why it is important to have an accurate basic understanding of them inevitably brings one into contact with anti-science cranks.
Whether the subject is evolution, climate science, electromagnetic “sensitivity” fears, worries about vaccines or a host of other issues, they all have their gaggle of crackpots determined to convince the world that the genuine science is wrong, that those telling you about it are an evil cabal out to fool you and that they know the “real truth.”
This is nothing new. Martin Gardner, in his 1952 book, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (reprinted and updated many times), details a score of such nonsense claims; from a hollow or flat Earth to “orgonomy” and Dianetics (the foundation of Scientology).
All the cranks and crackpots have in common the insistence that, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, their “refutations” of genuine science must be accepted and insist that, unless scientists “prove them wrong,” their beliefs must prevail. To a person, they consider real scientists and other authoritative sources to universally be blockheads or evil actors involved in a worldwide conspiracy bent on controlling the minds of the poor lost souls who are unable to see the “truth” as they can. And all of them are impervious to facts. They are so emotionally invested in being smarter than those they attack that they are unable to even conceive of the idea that they might be wrong.
Sometimes, as in the case of flat Earth believers, the beliefs are harmless, if annoying. But in many cases, such as in climate science denial or anti-vaccine beliefs, positive harm is being done.
Compounding the problem is that we live in an age of widespread belief in conspiracy theories in general, with large numbers of people insisting that, if they believe something with enough determination, it must be true. And that is a dangerous place for our society to be.
Scott Goodman,
Courtenay