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Another point to make is the USDA is not the NSA or the CIA, you can't keep a cap on mostly left-leaning scientists and expect it to hold. It won't work.
by noobermin 10y ago
Another point to make is the USDA is not the NSA or the CIA, you can't keep a cap on mostly left-leaning scientists and expect it to hold. It won't work.
- mi100hael 10y agoHell, look how many leaks were coming out of the FBI in the weeks leading up to the election. Keeping a blanket gag on any bureaucracy is a futile endeavor.
- mschuster91 10y ago> Keeping a blanket gag on any bureaucracy is a futile endeavor. Look what Obama did to Snowden and Manning, and that from a Democratic president. Trump meanwhile has stated multiple times that he supports torture and Guantanamo - I don't know if I'd have the courage to be a leaker under a President Trump. One thing is for sure - anyone caught leaking anything opposing or contradicting Trump will spend a long time behind bars or worse.
- burkaman 10y agoIs it illegal to leak non-classified information? I think at worst you would be fired.
- mschuster91 10y ago> I think at worst you would be fired. Remember "Three felonies a day"? When you're targeted by Trump or his cronies, you don't stand a chance.
- omegaworks 10y ago>mostly left-leaning scientists I know it's popular to say "reality has a liberal bias" but I don't think it does us a service to keep promoting that myth.
- pg314 10y agoAccording to [1] most scientists are indeed liberal: 52% of scientists describe themselves as liberal versus 9% as conservative. The numbers for the general public are 20% and 37%, respectively. [1] http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-politics-and-religion/ http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-...
- omegaworks 10y agoMaybe my meaning was lost. I don't think it does a service to our political dialogue when we casually throw "mostly left-leaning" on "scientists." We don't want to encourage the instant siloing / ignorance that can accompany labeling someone whose profession is gathering objective evidence with a particular subjective political tribe. Language matters. I think "reality has a liberal bias" and other patronizing quips have helped usher us into a post-truth era.
- serge2k 10y agoWhat myth? Until the right stops rejecting science and promoting lies (cough crowd size cough) that saying is pretty much true.
- jcranmer 10y agoThe left is equally guilty of being anti-science when it suits them. The anti-vaxxer and anti-GMO crowds tend to be predominantly left-wing, for example.
- st3v3r 10y agoAnti-vaxxers are a fringe element of the left. Climate deniers are the mainstay of the right. Do not falsely equivalate the two.
- jcranmer 10y agoAnti-GMO is most certainly not fringe, particularly not in Europe where it's as mainstream a position as climate change denial is in the US, and just as dismissive of science.