From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

Shawn Lawrence Otto

Start date: January 1, 2012

Finish date: January 31, 2012

Discussion: Book Club 2012

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Book Club 2012

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What Members Thought

Nov 26, 2011 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, politics

This is an excellent book about the attitude toward science in America. Both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin strongly believed that science and knowledge are important to democracy, and Timothy Ferris, in his book The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature showed how important democracy is to the development of science. However, more and more in our society, science is either ignored or even assaulted on many fronts.

The media do not do a good job in presenting the f This is an excellent book about the attitude toward science in America. Both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin strongly believed that science and knowledge are important to democracy, and Timothy Ferris, in his book The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature showed how important democracy is to the development of science. However, more and more in our society, science is either ignored or even assaulted on many fronts.

The media do not do a good job in presenting the facts. Journalists believe that their job is to "present both sides of a story", even when there really is but one side. Any dissenter, it is believed, no matter how small a minority he represents, must get his share of time arguing "his side". This is particularly true for science-related issues. The reason is that science is generally inductive, and therefore it doesn't "prove" anything, it just points the way toward probable explanations.

Shawn Otto does a good job at explaining the so-called "climate-gate" email scandal in the UK. The relevant e-mail is perfectly innocuous. People have taken the so-called data "trick" (that actually helps to make the findings more objective, in light of the poor correlation since 1980 between tree-ring data and temperature) and made it into a subversive hiding of the truth.

The book covers many of the contemporary political issues that are informed by science. Global warming is a big issue, discussed at length in the book. He shows that when it comes to this issue, the popular book by Levitt and Dubner, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, is pure drivel. And their purported solution for global warming--injecting the stratosphere with sulfur dioxide aerosol--is a disaster waiting to happen.

The book would be helped if the author included some graphics; at times, Otto describes things in words that a diagram would have made clearer. The last several chapters of the book become somewhat preachy, but this may be a good thing. We need more voices like Otto's, to show how we ignore science at our own risk. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2022 bup rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, our-dying-planet, 2021

Oh, but this book was hard to finish. Every page made me angry. Published 10 years ago, the situation has only gotten worse.

I hate people.

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2012 Steve Van Slyke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, skepticism, science, current-events

This is an important book for anyone who loves science. As one who shudders when he hears beliefs put forth as facts, and scientific theories described as unproven alternatives to equally viable answers, it is comforting to read such a well-reasoned and clearly written defense of the scientific process and the knowledge that it provides.

But at the same time it is depressing because it is hard to argue the author's conclusion that the USA is, and has been for some time, on a downward slide from t This is an important book for anyone who loves science. As one who shudders when he hears beliefs put forth as facts, and scientific theories described as unproven alternatives to equally viable answers, it is comforting to read such a well-reasoned and clearly written defense of the scientific process and the knowledge that it provides.

But at the same time it is depressing because it is hard to argue the author's conclusion that the USA is, and has been for some time, on a downward slide from the top rank of countries in terms of its leadership in science education, respect for scientists, and its trust in reason over faith and opinion.

He discusses how journalists over the last several decades have dropped the ball in their responsibility to inform the public based on knowledge rather than opinion. Perhaps it's a generation-gap issue for me, but I somehow missed the whole post-modernist idea that it is only fair to give competing ideas equal weight even if one is based on hard-won, experimentally determined facts while the other is nothing more than the opinion of an ideology. Maybe that's why it seems to me that journalists today, particularly the mainstream variety, are afraid to really tackle sensitive but hugely important topics such as human population growth and its effects.

Here's one of many great quotes:

“If knowledge does not have primacy in public decision-making, then no truth can be said to be self-evident and we are left with the tyranny of ideology enforced by might.”

I found enlightening his description of why Al Gore's documentary/book, “An Inconvenient Truth,” not only failed to sway conservatives, it hardened their positions. The author says, “If you want to get people to vote against something, particularly Republicans, you need to get them angry about it, not scared of it, and if you want them to vote for something, you sell them hope and freedom.” He adds that you need to make science the answer, not the messenger, and avoid using a partisan political figure as the spokesperson.

His discussion of Garrett Hardin's concept the, “tragedy of the commons” was similarly instructive. We are no longer in an age where one more smokestack or one more high-tech tuna boat won't make an impact on the “common property of humankind.” I am appalled at the stupidity and/or greed of politicians and those who voted for them who fail to understand this.

“In a capitalistic and democratic system, my freedom to do as I wish is moral and just to the degree that it does not reduce your freedom to do the same.”

Perhaps I should not care because in one sense I have no dog in this hunt (no children), and yet I do care and this book only increased that feeling. ...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Sandra rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, religion-philosopy

I found this book of enormous personal help since I have been grappling with why, why, why Americans have become so rejecting of science and scientists and what this bodes for our future. Over-population, fuel depletion, global warming, environmental degradation and the takeover of our country (and other countries) by fundamental religious fanatics of various stripes is of enormous concern to me, and Shawn Otto does a phenomenal job of explaining exactly how and why that has happened, no holds b ...more

2 likes · Like · see review