It is worth harking back to the Mertonian Norms of science[1], and seeing how we're doing.
> The four Mertonian norms (often abbreviated as the CUDO-norms) can be summarised as:
communism: all scientists should have common ownership of scientific goods (intellectual property), to promote collective collaboration; secrecy is the opposite of this norm.[3]
universalism: scientific validity is independent of the sociopolitical status/personal attributes of its participants.[4]
disinterestedness: scientific institutions act for the benefit of a common scientific enterprise, rather than for specific outcomes[5] or the resulting personal gain of individuals within them.
organized skepticism: scientific claims should be exposed to critical scrutiny before being accepted: both in methodology and institutional codes of conduct.[6]
We are not doing well on any of the four norms identified by Merton. In my opinion. If you disagree, please say why below.
This administration's actions are indeed unprecedented and hostile to science, but the author is pulling a trick - he is not speaking about science itself, but about the scientific community.
Because if he were speaking about science, he would have to concede it has been under attack for a while - when scientists were forced to make an ideological oath to diversity to get hired [1,2], were hired primarily based on adherence to that ideology [3,4,5], were told by major scientific publications to avoid or simply not publish studies that might question that ideology [6,7], disavowed studies based solely on them being used to criticize favored causes [8], were prosecuted by the state (albeit in Sweden) for true findings that harmed that ideology [9]. Papers were rejected if their results went against the liberal worldview, but methodologically-identical papers with pro-liberal results were accepted [10], and scientists were barred from accessing taxpayer-funded data if there was a risk their research might harm the dominant ideology [11].
Yes, science has been under attack for a while, but the author didn't notice because it was his ally scientists attacking it.
[4] A recent report from the Goldwater Institute found that 80% of job postings for Arizona’s public universities required applicants to submit a statement detailing their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. - https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-report/the-new-loy...
> The four Mertonian norms (often abbreviated as the CUDO-norms) can be summarised as:
We are not doing well on any of the four norms identified by Merton. In my opinion. If you disagree, please say why below.1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertonian_norms