<
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-must-face-down-the-expanding-anti-reality-industry/>
"The U.S. is bracing for another summer of powerful storms and wildfires, on
the heels of an unusually warm winter and spring, and the monthly shattering of
ocean heat records. Beyond the now-annual threat of smoke that last year
blanketed the nation, a thickening haze of lies also looms—about everything
from global warming and wildfire smoke to abortion and racism. To break through
the dense fog of propaganda on media and social media, those who value
scientific integrity will need to expose and rip apart the increasingly
interconnected fantasies spun by the anti-reality industry.
With the presumptive Republican presidential nominee falsely calling climate
change a “hoax” invented by China, a former tobacco and coal lobbyist brazenly
lying to
Fox News viewers that last summer’s dense wildfire smoke posed “no
health risk,” and an Alabama court redefining frozen embryos as “children,” the
consequences of indulging decades of antiscientific agitprop are clear.
Conservative think tanks and lobbying groups have spent tens of millions to
push false messaging and draft restrictive laws around abortion. The false
messaging has included lies about its prevalence, basic biology and reality in
women’s lives. To energize far-right voters, these groups have attacked
transgender health care with the same playbook, yielding more than 400
anti-trans laws in 2024 alone. They’ve demonized vaccines and masks, minimized
harms from tobacco and wildfire smoke, and denied the realities of climate
change and COVID. In the classroom, where many anti-reality crusaders have long
fought against the teaching of evolution, they’ve expanded to banning books
about race, sexual orientation and gender identity, while attacking global
warming education.
Overcoming the mounting harm from the parade of con artists gaslighting the
public won’t be easy. More scientists and journalists must help clarify how
right-wing ideologues have twisted science and weaponized anti-reality. Ongoing
efforts, though, are already revealing the radical motives of such extremists,
who share sophisticated ploys, influencers and, often, deep-pocketed funders.
Meredithe McNamara, a pediatrician at Yale School of Medicine, describes
denying reality as one of the main “disinformation playbook” tactics: “The
first move is, if you want to ban some sort of care or advance a toxic policy,
then deny that the condition for which care is sought even exists, or make
false claims about it,” she told me. Denying the existence of dangerous
pregnancies or gender dysphoria, directly parallels the denial of COVID,
systemic racism and air pollution."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
