{"id":2188,"date":"2025-01-26T20:53:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T20:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2025-01-26T20:53:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T20:53:46","slug":"scientific-consensus-is-nothing-more-than-manufactured-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/?p=2188","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Scientific Consensus\u2019 Is Nothing More Than Manufactured Consent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Index:<\/a> please click on the link for the index please?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Brownstone Institute<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link copied<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miss a day, miss a lot.<\/strong> Subscribe to The Defender’s Top News of the Day<\/a>. It’s free.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Maryanne Demasi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a> was challenged on his scientific views about COVID-19. He said, \u201cI\u2019m only interested in consensus\u201d \u2014 words that would have Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei rolling in their graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeal to \u201cscientific consensus\u201d is fraught with problems, just like \u201cThe science is settled\u201d and \u201cTrust the science<\/a>\u201d and other authoritarian tropes that have dominated the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A widely accepted theory, such as the theory of evolution, depends on a consensus being reached among the scientific community, but it must be achieved without censorship or reprisal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Aaron Kheriaty<\/a>, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, recently said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience is an ongoing search for truth & such truth has little to do with consensus. Every major scientific advance involves challenges to a consensus. Those who defend scientific consensus rather than specific experimental findings are not defending science but partisanship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consensus by censorship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not difficult to reach a scientific consensus when you squelch dissenting voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The origin of COVID-19<\/a> is a classic example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-seven scientists published a letter in the Lancet<\/a> condemning \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d that suggested the virus did not have a natural origin. Dissenting views were censored on social media<\/a> and labeled \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only now that the U.S. Department of Energy<\/a> and the FBI say the virus was likely the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, it\u2019s possible to have these discussions openly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Great Barrington Declaration<\/a> is another example. Three eminent professors from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities, argued against lockdowns, which they said would disproportionately harm the underprivileged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But former NIH Director Francis Collins<\/a> dismissed them as \u201cfringe epidemiologists\u201d asking Dr. Anthony Fauci<\/a> for \u201ca quick and devastating take down\u201d of the declaration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scientific consensus has become a manufactured construct, dictated by politics and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent release of the \u201cTwitter Files<\/a>\u201d reveals how government agencies, Big Tech<\/a>, media and academia colluded in an effort to police online content, and censor dissenting voices to create a false perception of consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One egregious example was Stanford University\u2019s Virality Project<\/a> which brought together elite academia, experts in artificial intelligence and social media companies to censor \u201ctrue\u201d stories of vaccine injuries under the guise of fighting disinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Robert Malone<\/a>, physician and pioneer of mRNA technology summed up the situation accurately when he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real problem here is the damn press and the internet giants. The press and these tech players act to manufacture and reinforce \u2018consensus\u2019 around selected and approved narratives. And then this is being weaponized to attack dissenters including highly qualified physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has made this insidious behavior more visible, but the reality is, it has been happening for a long time \u2014 I would know \u2014 I was caught up in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consensus in mainstream media<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a TV presenter on ABC\u2019s top-ranking science program \u201cCatalyst\u201d for over a decade, my role was to investigate science issues and, if necessary, challenge orthodoxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ABC is not funded by private industry, but by the public purse, to avoid the bias which befalls the commercial networks. Or so I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, my successful career at the ABC came to a grinding halt after defenders of \u201cscientific consensus\u201d criticized several documentaries I produced, which questioned various medical orthodoxies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, nutritional guidelines and the over-prescription of medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One documentary questioned the health impacts of prolonged exposure to wireless<\/a> devices (such as iPads, laptops and smartphones) which emit low-frequency radiation \u2014 we did our due diligence and undertook an excruciating process of reviewing the program for legal, editorial and factual integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the program, we questioned why the Australian government\u2019s radiation safety authority (ARPANSA<\/a>) had safety standards that were out-of-date and excluded important evidence from multiple peer-reviewed papers by independent scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It unleashed a firestorm of complaints<\/a> from the Telco industry, the regulatory authority and ARPANSA, all of which had been preparing for the biggest wireless rollout the country had ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry experts emerged from the shadows, and the media obliged, uncritically reporting criticisms of the program while ignoring those defending it. No attention was paid to the industry\u2019s influence over the science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics complained that I\u2019d given weight to a \u201cfringe\u201d position that was not supported by science. And by \u201cfringe\u201d they were referring to Devra Davis, Ph.D., MPH<\/a>, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, with a distinguished career at the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ABC caved to the relentless pressure and suspended me from on-air duties, concluding that I\u2019d given prominence \u201cto views challenging the scientific consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by \u201cscientific consensus,\u201d they meant the position taken by ARPANSA, the very organization I had criticized for its lax regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, ABC banned the program and \u201crestructured\u201d the department by firing the staff. What the network believed would be a quick solution had serious and far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would not only deter future journalists from questioning orthodoxy, but it sent a chilling message that the ABC would succumb to industry pressure and favor scientific consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Michael Crichton<\/a> \u2014 physician, producer and writer \u2014 explained it best when he gave a lecture on science, politics and consensus in 2003:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConsensus is the business of politics. \u2026 The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it\u2019s consensus, it isn\u2019t science. If it\u2019s science, it isn\u2019t consensus. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published by Brownstone Institute<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryanne Demasi is an investigative medical reporter with a Ph.D. in rheumatology.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children’s Health Defense.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Index: please click on the link for the index please? By Brownstone Institute Link copied Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender’s Top News of the Day. It’s free. By Maryanne Demasi In a recent interview, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was challenged on his scientific views about COVID-19. He said, \u201cI\u2019m only interested in consensus\u201d \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8080,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/8080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/humanityandearth.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}