Its heartening to me to see this here, and to see people understanding that science and scientism are not the same thing. Scientism is actually anti-scientific.

Its heartening to me to see this here, and to see people understanding that science and scientism are not the same thing. Scientism is actually anti-scientific. Science is a practice and a process, not a cult idol or a dogma. I think a lot of people have promoted scientism in an attempt to fight low superstition and other obvious bullshit, but I think that's a devil's bargain. You may get some superficial acceptance of "science" that looks like progress, but you are not actually teaching rational thought. You are just getting people to misuse science by placing in the same role as any other superstitious idol. I also think it in part is responsible for the huge resurgence of "scientific" racism. That stuff looks like science and sometimes even is, albeit of a cherry picked and spun nature and interpreted in a way that is devoid of deeper philosophical consideration. To really refute it requires both a deep study of the real science and of topics like ethics, morality, history, epistemology, and language. It's hard for that kind of discourse to compete with a few graphs and color coded maps and memes that all say "science." You also have things like "Plandemic" that I am personally seeing catch on among some who have a cargo cultish belief in "science" but no understanding of what it actually is nor desire to really learn. Those videos and memes also toot the dog whistles and pay homage to the shibboleths of scientism, but they are maybe even further from actual science than race/IQ dogma. Cultish idolatry of any form biases the audience toward short simple catchy messages that pay homage to the idol and toot the right dog whistles. Longer form discourse loses, especially if it even tiptoes anywhere near questioning the idol or the cult. Even if an idolatrous cult starts from ideas and premises that are somewhat rational it will drift into lunacy over time.