I learned a long time ago not to argue with my wife about matters of science. Science is just one of those courses I avoided in school. Maybe it was because my high school Chemistry teacher managed to suck any joy there ever was out of science. Maybe I just didn’t have the brain for it. I’ve always done better in English and Social Studies and that is why my school primarily puts me in those classes to support students.

We have seen this story in the comments on previous posts, so I will not belabor it here. A private school in Florida has chosen to bar teachers that have been vaccinated from working with students. I’m not much of a scientist and even I know that is the dumbest thing anyone has ever heard. That is until you hear the reasoning for doing it. I can just imagine the kind of teacher they get for their 30K bonanza of a salary.

Instead of poking fun at these people I decided to ask a serious question. How can we adapt our science curriculum to help our students and future voters not fall for junk science and alternative facts. The scientist in the house had a very simple answer to the question. The answer seemed simplistic to me and yet I went back to my mantra I mentioned in the first sentence. I should not argue about matters of science.

Her answer was one word. Christianity. Both of us are cradle Catholics and yet we somehow came down on the more liberal end of the Christian world. Mind you, she is more politically conservative than me, but I think she’s more fed up with the interference from the Christian community into science and the natural mistrust that is there.

You can’t paint anti-vaxxers with the same brush, but most come in with a Christian mindset. God will protect them. Of course, the irony is palpable. Much of the Old Testament is a recorded faith history of the Hebrew people. Included in that are the kosher laws. As a general rule we don’t follow those laws anymore, but these people seem to have a lack of historical understanding of the purpose of those laws. They discovered that certain foods or combinations of foods led to more deaths. Kosher laws were meant to protect them.

That is at least partially built upon the basic tenets of the scientific method. They made observations and changed policy and practices to fall in line with what they observed. Of course, we’ve learned more since then, but it was very much ahead of its time and built nearly entirely on science and not faith.

The funny thing is that God is not supposed to be in our public schools. Yet, we tend to avoid subjects like evolution almost entirely because it would tend to offend. The teaching of science becomes particularly problematic when knowledge itself becomes political. Experts become scorned and replaced with those without credentials on YouTube. Biologists with PhDs like my wife are replaced with celebrity anti-vaxxers like Jenny McCarthy and Rob Schneider. I know which one I will be listening to.

Alaska state senator Lora Reinbold is one of those: loud-mouthed, science denier, and anti-vaxxer.  She steadfastly refuses to follow COVID protocols, even refusing to wear an appropriate mask at the state capitol in Juneau and railing about “mask tyranny”.  Being a falsehood-spouting Republican, Reinbold is an active member of the Stupid Caucus of the GOP.  Her behavior has been so egregious (even to her fellow Republicans) that she was removed as chair of the state senate judiciary committee and banned from certain parts of the capitol for her repeated violations of COVID protocols and berating other senators.  She was even fined for refusing to follow protocols.

Reinbold’s behavior has now come with really serious consequences, and it’s hilarious. Alaska Airlines is the only airline that flies between Reinhold’s home in Anchorage and the state capital of Juneau, and she has clashed with airline employees over federal mask mandates and COVID protocols in place to protect travelers, and publicly complained about the restrictions.  Exasperated, the airline finally banned her this weekend from flying on the airline, period.  Announcing the ban to the media, the airline’s spokesman said,

“We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy.  This suspension is effective immediately, pending further review. Federal law requires all guests to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during travel, including throughout the flight, during boarding and deplaning, and while traveling through an airport.”

She now has to take a 14 hour drive, complete with a ferry ride to get to Juneau for legislative sessions. Last night, in a Trump-like response to the ban on Facebook, Reinbold threatened the airline with an investigation into its “monopoly”, and complained that she was publicly named after the ban, despite her regular public ranting about the airline.   Seems to me that turnabout is fair play.

Alaska Airlines not only did the right thing here and were forced to do so.  Reinbold is a danger to the public especially since she is an elected official who has used her position to flout the law and common sense.  She got exactly what she deserved.

Probably the most debated issue in public health is the safety and need for vaccines.  It’s really stupid that we’re debating the safety and need of vaccines since the performance and safety of vaccines has been settled for decades.  The problem is that junk science, with the assistance of social media, has become pervasive among those who are more inclined to superstitions and myths than to critical thinking.  That superstition was on public display this week when Arizona state representative Kelly Townsend idiotically claimed that requiring children to get the measles vaccine is somehow “communist”.  Never mind that “communism” has nothing to do with science or public health policy, Townsend’s nonsensical declaration is just another example of the damage that poor education, ignorance, and the proliferation of pure bullshit can inflict on a free society.  That pure bullshit is easily obtained online or by tuning into Fox Noise and other outlets of propaganda.

In the 21st century, we’re debating the efficacy of vaccines which has been settled science for decades.  We’re also debating the assertion that massive tax cuts increase government revenues.  We are debating national healthcare policy with those who believe that the rigged healthcare system is “free market”, which it’s most certainly not.  We are actually debating putting MORE guns out in public because some people believe that the most armed society in the developed world is suffering gun violence because their aren’t yet enough guns.  We are arguing over public education with some who believe that “school choice” is actually a serious proposal beyond the actual goal of killing public education.  We argue that labor unions, which protected the income of middle Americans for almost 100 years is actually evil and should be destroyed.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.  The problem with all public policy debates these days is that one side wants to argue policy, and the other side wants to argue bullshit. And that bullshit is ALWAYS politicized.  When you can’t even agree on the facts, informed debate is impossible, which is exactly the problem today.  Civil discussion is impossible because many live in an alternative reality while the rest of us live in the real world.

Idiots like Kelly Townsend actually believe the uninformed bullshit that they spout because all they hear or read is bullshit.  Because she read on the internet that vaccines are bad, she chooses to ignore the mountain of settled science about vaccines.  Because gun nuts believe a radical interpretation of the Second Amendment, they believe that God gives them the right to carry an AK-47 into Kroger to stock up on their weekly supply of Twinkies.  All of these radical ideologies carry a common thread, and that is that one American has no burden to carry their own weight in a civilized society.  They believe that their own private “liberty” overrules the rights of all others because of “freedom”.  Radical libertarianism has infested one side of the political spectrum, but that radicalism only extends to the first person; this is the irony of this way of living.  An individual has the right to do whatever they want no matter the damage to others, but others don’t have the right to do the same.  This way of thinking is irrational, non-historic, and can’t stand up to even the most casual straight faced test.

Such is the condition of our society today.   Logic is inundated by a virtual tsunami of bullshit, and it’s driving our society backwards.  That’s the bigger problem.