Since I joined this website almost 1 and 1/2 decades ago, I have never seen science so politicized. In 2021, if you ask a perfectly reasonable scientific question, there's a good chance that it's somehow gotten associated with political party X or political party Y, and this question is treated with the same semantics as an armband, a bumper sticker, or a flag. This is madness!<p>This is not how it's supposed to work, if we are supposed to be reasoning, thinking beings. Ideas are supposed to be <i>ideas</i> not tokens of affiliation!<p>I brought up Lysenkoism here a few years back. One notable reaction, upon hearing of this for the first time, was for that commenter to declare that "Lysenkoism" was then to be pattern matched as a talking point of political party W. No intellectual curiosity. No discussion on the philosophical or practical implications. Just knee-jerk us versus them.<p><pre><code> I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
</code></pre>
In 2021, we're taught to fear each other. We're taught to fear the "wrong" questions. We're taught to fear the "wrong" affiliation, the "wrong" ideas. Fear is the mind-killer. That is what certain manipulators want -- for people to react, instead of listening and then truly thinking.