• effingnerd@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    “Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”

    Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

  • realChem@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    22% is distressingly low, especially given it’s on a downward trend still.

    Plot from the article, for those who didn’t click through:

    Edit: although I do wonder how much the absolute values are affected by the wording of the survey…

    • marshadow@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      although I do wonder how much the absolute values are affected by the wording of the survey…

      I wonder the same. My own confidence in scientific studies has been shaken by corporate science and the fact that our economic system affects what’s funded, studied, and concluded. But my trust in the method and principles of science is still absolute.

      What scares me, and what I suspect is reflected in that 22% number, is how many people say the method and principles are bogus, or variations on that theme.

  • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPM
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    1 year ago

    In the 2022 survey, Democrats’ confidence fell back to around pre-pandemic levels, with 53% reporting a great deal of confidence compared with 55% in 2018. But Republicans’ confidence continued its downward trend, dropping to 22% from 45% in 2018. Confidence in medicine has also grown more polarized since 2018. That year, Democrats and Republicans were about equally likely to say they had high confidence. By 2022, though, Republicans’ confidence had fallen to 26%, while Democrats’ has remained about the same as it was before the pandemic, at 42%.

    Overall, 34% of Americans reported a great deal of confidence in medicine in 2022, compared with 39% before the pandemic.

    • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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      1 year ago

      The endumbification of America. It’s pretty easy to see from this statistic who profits from this.