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You make a good point. But take an objective look at all the other responses on this page. How many of them contain the hidden assumption that Republican voters

You make a good point. But take an objective look at all the other responses on this page. How many of them contain the hidden assumption that Republican voters are stupid? I see a few. You might not be able to see it right away. You have to read them a certain way. Some have been downvoted and are light gray. But they are there. And conversation here on HN is very restrained. When this news hits other social media, there will be more claims that Trump is stupid, Republicans are stupid, and any independent who is considering voting for a Republican is stupid. So, yes, this article has unleashed a new wave of hatred in the world. I have nothing against professional scientific writers writing a letter to the New York Times, or even writing an editorial there. In fact they should. I agree with you that it's good when they correct a specific claim with scientific evidence. This is something else. This is the whole Scientific American organization putting their stamp of approval on the idea that Republican voters are stupid.

sammalloy 6y ago
Republican voters aren't stupid, they are grossly misinformed. This fact is supported by multiple studies of the subject, and is hardly controversial. > The group who names MSNBC as their main news source is far more likely than the Fox News group to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory and that it will take a year or more for a vaccine to become available. On both questions, the portion in the CNN group to answer correctly falls between the MSNBC and Fox News numbers. > About three-quarters (76 percent) of those who name Fox News as their main source are conservative Republicans and Republican leaners, while 57 percent who name MSNBC are liberal Democrats and Democratic leaners. https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-how-americans-perceive-the-outbreak-and-view-media-coverage-differ-by-main-news-source/ https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-...
- famouslastwords 6y ago
  >to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory >answer correctly No bias at all here. /s So parroting a MSNBC talking point means being correct now? Will these people eat their hat in case the virus is shown to be a leak from a laboratory?
- leereeves 6y ago
  > to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory That hasn't been proven either way, and probably never will be. And journalism.org's linked source is not scientific evidence, but rather a "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19". I guess they mean "answer politically correctly".
  - sammalloy 6y ago
    The conservative talking point that the "coronavirus originated in a lab" has been conclusively shown to be false by working scientists. https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-linked-groups-push-study-claiming-china-manufactured-covid https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-linked-groups-pus... This false idea is currently being spread by pro-Trump nonprofit groups called the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, both linked to Steve Bannon, the former top Trump strategist now facing felony fraud charges. Virologist Angela Rasmussen at Columbia University has dismissed the claims as entirely "fictional" and other health experts have noted that Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been amplifying these false claims as one of the biggest coronavirus denialist mouthpieces on television. Scientists: 'Exactly zero' evidence COVID-19 came from a lab https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/05/scientists-exactly-zero-evidence-covid-19-came-lab https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/05/scientis... The coronavirus was not engineered in a lab. Here's how we know. https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-la... Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory Of Pandemic Emergence https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841925672/scientists-debunk-lab-accident-theory-of-pandemic-emergence https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841925672/scientists-debunk-l...
rektide 6y ago
> But take an objective look at all the other responses on this page. How many of them contain the hidden assumption that Republican voters are stupid? I see a few. You might not be able to see it right away. You have to read them a certain way. Some have been downvoted and are light gray. But they are there. I'm not going to accept a couple of downvoted outbursts as evidence of a problem. it's hard to guess who might leave such comments & whether they are even authentic. I'm not even going to judge a lot of these people even if they are authentic & being mean. I don't know what they have experienced & perhaps they have some good reasons to be so upset as to have become uncivil. > So, yes, this article has unleashed a new wave of hatred in the world. That you don't like how they feel & seem scared of it is not what civics is about. You are right though, that mentioning this kind of deeply politicized mistreatment of science will stir anger in some people, often anger people already harbored. Perhaps some of that hate is due. Perhaps uncivil forces are acting with greed & profiteering, destroying earth's resources & legacy, plundering our shared inheritance.
- kangnkodos 6y ago
  Do you mean that people in general should not accept evidence of a problem that is literally right in front of their eyes? I must have misunderstood what you meant.

sammalloy 6y ago

Republican voters aren't stupid, they are grossly misinformed. This fact is supported by multiple studies of the subject, and is hardly controversial. > The group who names MSNBC as their main news source is far more likely than the Fox News group to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory and that it will take a year or more for a vaccine to become available. On both questions, the portion in the CNN group to answer correctly falls between the MSNBC and Fox News numbers. > About three-quarters (76 percent) of those who name Fox News as their main source are conservative Republicans and Republican leaners, while 57 percent who name MSNBC are liberal Democrats and Democratic leaners. https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-how-americans-perceive-the-outbreak-and-view-media-coverage-differ-by-main-news-source/ https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-...

famouslastwords 6y ago
>to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory >answer correctly No bias at all here. /s So parroting a MSNBC talking point means being correct now? Will these people eat their hat in case the virus is shown to be a leak from a laboratory?
leereeves 6y ago
> to answer correctly that the coronavirus originated in nature rather than a laboratory That hasn't been proven either way, and probably never will be. And journalism.org's linked source is not scientific evidence, but rather a "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19". I guess they mean "answer politically correctly".
- sammalloy 6y ago
  The conservative talking point that the "coronavirus originated in a lab" has been conclusively shown to be false by working scientists. https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-linked-groups-push-study-claiming-china-manufactured-covid https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-linked-groups-pus... This false idea is currently being spread by pro-Trump nonprofit groups called the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, both linked to Steve Bannon, the former top Trump strategist now facing felony fraud charges. Virologist Angela Rasmussen at Columbia University has dismissed the claims as entirely "fictional" and other health experts have noted that Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been amplifying these false claims as one of the biggest coronavirus denialist mouthpieces on television. Scientists: 'Exactly zero' evidence COVID-19 came from a lab https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/05/scientists-exactly-zero-evidence-covid-19-came-lab https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/05/scientis... The coronavirus was not engineered in a lab. Here's how we know. https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-la... Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory Of Pandemic Emergence https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841925672/scientists-debunk-lab-accident-theory-of-pandemic-emergence https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841925672/scientists-debunk-l...

rektide 6y ago

> But take an objective look at all the other responses on this page. How many of them contain the hidden assumption that Republican voters are stupid? I see a few. You might not be able to see it right away. You have to read them a certain way. Some have been downvoted and are light gray. But they are there. I'm not going to accept a couple of downvoted outbursts as evidence of a problem. it's hard to guess who might leave such comments & whether they are even authentic. I'm not even going to judge a lot of these people even if they are authentic & being mean. I don't know what they have experienced & perhaps they have some good reasons to be so upset as to have become uncivil. > So, yes, this article has unleashed a new wave of hatred in the world. That you don't like how they feel & seem scared of it is not what civics is about. You are right though, that mentioning this kind of deeply politicized mistreatment of science will stir anger in some people, often anger people already harbored. Perhaps some of that hate is due. Perhaps uncivil forces are acting with greed & profiteering, destroying earth's resources & legacy, plundering our shared inheritance.

kangnkodos 6y ago
Do you mean that people in general should not accept evidence of a problem that is literally right in front of their eyes? I must have misunderstood what you meant.