Wallace spews contempt

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Jan 24

RE: Blame Reagan for distrust of science. Op-ed by Craig Wallace. The Hamilton Spectator 8 Jan 24.

The column by Craig Wallace is one of those Too Stupid for Publication.  He spews nothing but contempt: “..many conservatives are trapped in a flawed ideology that does not allow them to respond rationally to serious crises.  It isn’t logical to embrace an ideology that may very well lead to death.”

Let’s ignore the numerous and fatal philosophical mistakes in that contemptuous dismissal of conservatives, and examine his claim that Reagan, the guy who believed in space defence (a.k.a. “Star Wars”), is to blame for conservatives’ alleged distrust of science.

Wallace cannot tell you what a science is.  Do you distrust physics? Chemistry? Econometrics? What does ‘to distrust physics’ even mean? Do you distrust bureaucrats-cum-scientists with something to hide, or with an obvious political agenda? Do you distrust Anthony Fauci? Theresa Tam? Neil Ferguson? Michael Mann?  Those are different questions from distrusting virology, epidemiology, and climate “science.” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is an eminent epidemiologist, and he got cancelled because he was opposed to the lockdown policies.  How can you trust vicious politics like that being passed off as “science’?  Science doesn’t lie, but scientists do, especially those on the make for their next research grant.

It’s not science that conservatives distrust; it’s the “expert,” whose rule they are wary of.

It’s a parlor game among a self-appointed smart-set to sneer contemptuously at conservatives, but it’s articles like Wallace’s that expose how shallow and empty-headed those games really are.

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