
Persecution of Scientists Whose Findings Are Perceived as Politically Incorrect - tokenadult
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/persecution-of-scientists-whose-findings-are-perceived-as-politically-incorrect/
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grownseed
This is, rather unfortunately, a pretty pervasive issue which isn't limited to
science. I've noticed this trend whereby it is somehow ok to make completely
emotional (as opposed to rational) arguments as long as the point they defend
is itself politically correct.

As an example (of which there are many), I recently ended up being caught up
in a conversation about a man who alledgedly committed rape. Even though the
evidence is still being reviewed and no verdict has been served, the man in
question is already being carried through the mud and the people in the
conversation were quick to bash on him (including people who were hearing
about it for the first time). I pointed out that while I do believe that rape
itself is a horrible crime, accusing somebody of it without proper knowledge
of the facts is unfair ("guilty until proven innocent"), and should all legal
and social matters be handled this way, we'd be back to something akin to the
Salem trials. The unanimous response was "but this is rape we're talking
about, why are you defending him?". At that point, I decided the best course
of action was to drop out of the conversation.

This sort of behaviour leads to self-censorship: scientists won't even touch
certain subjects for fear of retaliation and people in general will actively
opt out of conversations they fear will lead to non-PC arguments or
perspectives. This self-censorship therefore ends up reinforcing the "social
justice warriors", some of whom would go to any lengths to support their
points (including, as the article points out, lie and slander), which in any
other context would be considered bullying, or at the very least,
intimidation.

This is obviously not helping anybody, including the people who are under the
impression they are defending their cause, since no balanced conversation can
be had, and some of the people who may have rallied the cause in question
would now rather stay silent. To make matters worse, we have major media
outlets behaving like tabloids on steroids, dramatizing and muddling issues to
sometimes borderline criminal extents.

And finally, perhaps more importantly, there seems to be a general lack of
pragmatism when it comes to arguing about sensitive issues (or even in general
one might argue). A lot of people seem to take points they don't agree with as
signs of aggression and often retort in antagonizing ways, exacerbating
ideological gaps and driving away people whose minds they might have been able
to change otherwise.

