Dichotomy implies a forced choice. I think you're reading far more into this than was intended. Professions have ethics. These ethical standards evolve over ti

Dichotomy implies a forced choice. I think you're reading far more into this than was intended. Professions have ethics. These ethical standards evolve over time based on how these professions interact with the larger society. Lawyers can't testify on their clients, for instance, because to do so would destroy the adversarial system of justice. Doctors don't prescribe medicines for themselves. Elected officials can't receive personal gifts from foreign countries over a certain amount. And so forth. There are conflicts of interests here between the professional responsibilities these people have and how their profession can interact in a free society. A good set of ethics requires that we identify those conflicts of interest and prevent even the appearance of impropriety. This is just ethics 101. Doesn't matter what your profession is. We can quibble about what ethics should be for publicly funded scientists. We should not be quibbling about whether those ethical standards should exist or not. At least I hope not. Nobody is asserting that scientists that advocate are not real scientists, and more than doctors who self-prescribe are real doctors. The question on the table here is in a democracy which funds lots of science, what is the appropriate ethical standard for recipients of public funding? How about for scientists in general? I can define the word "science" for you, and it's not about persuading people in a democracy. People who do this thing can also do many other things. There is no dichotomy. I've pointed out the conflict of interest. We can either continue exploring that conflict with an eye to finding solutions -- or run off into the deep grass with the misunderstandings and whatnot. With the reproducibility crisis alone, science has a lot of problems. It doesn't need to be adding any more. We all have the same goals here -- at least where it concerns the advancement of human knowledge.