> Science is anti-fragile. The harder you attack it, the sturdier it becomes.
This is true for the subset of "scientific professionals, devoting significant amounts of time to their field". That's not all of the public. That's not even all of most scientific disciplines.
The scientific method is perfect.
The scientific method as practiced by fallible and irrational humans is subject to starts and stops, groupthink and cargo culting, and politics ad nauseam.
The even more common case of "laypeople, with limited technical background knowledge, devoting limited amounts of time to understanding issues, who want to appear informed and intelligent about issues" is significantly more fraught with danger. And the source of most ineffective outcomes.
This is true for the subset of "scientific professionals, devoting significant amounts of time to their field". That's not all of the public. That's not even all of most scientific disciplines.
The scientific method is perfect.
The scientific method as practiced by fallible and irrational humans is subject to starts and stops, groupthink and cargo culting, and politics ad nauseam.
The even more common case of "laypeople, with limited technical background knowledge, devoting limited amounts of time to understanding issues, who want to appear informed and intelligent about issues" is significantly more fraught with danger. And the source of most ineffective outcomes.