Why are medical journals full of fashionable nonsense?

Big Think ^ | October 24, 2021 | Alex Berezow

[BlueStateRightist]

Medical journals are increasingly and dangerously kowtowing to academia’s political zeitgeist. From manipulating public health data to using Orwellian language, the publication of “fashionable nonsense” has contributed to a credibility crisis. If the public comes to believe that it cannot trust medical journals on the easy stuff, then why would we expect people to trust them on anything?

[BlueStateRightist]

Many of the big name medical journals’ editors have gone rogue with an over-emphasis on political topics — losing sight of science for the sake of being acceptable to the leftist cocktail/New England crowd, and proving their bona fides in academia.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Not just medical journals. Look at Scientific American and MIT’s Technology Review among others.

[Huskrrrr]

Follow the money.

[Boogieman]

“And if the public comes to believe that it cannot trust medical journals on the easy stuff — like advice on alcohol consumption — then why would we expect people to trust them on anything, like the safety of MMR and COVID vaccines?”

Well, we know they have been lying about COVID from day one as well, and it is also for the same kinds of political reasons that they lied about all the other topics the article delves into.

[cymbeline]

“Look at Scientific American and MIT’s Technology Review”

Throw in National Geographic.

[GBA]

I believe this is a form of ‘reaping what we sow’.

We are experiencing the consequences of listening to and following the wrong voices while ignoring and then later ridiculing the right voices.

For many decades now, we have been tearing down our foundations previously built upon rock and have been rebuilding them upon sand and now we’re experiencing the consequences.

This is what those spiritual truths look like in our reality and it’s probably going to get a LOT worse if we don’t get back to the main road.

[kaktuskid]

NG hasn’t been the same since they got rid of the nekkid native photos.

[aquila48]

Great article!

Postmodernism is a poison for society. It denies reality, logic, common sense, semantics...

Any society that is successful in avoiding this scourge will be the dominant one.

[Bassfisher2022]

Define right or wrong voices...and what you think the main road should be.

[GBA]

I think the main road is one of scientific integrity, not false advertising, where we don’t change the definition of words like ‘vaccine’, for example, to be able to call your new, experimental drug a “vaccine” and use the emotional credibility that word conveys to sell this new thing as something it isn’t.

You just are honest about the drug or whatever “as is” and call it what it is and honest about the data explaining why.

Not sure I can add much to how right and wrong are defined in Scripture, but when applied to our “settled science”, we’re found wanting.

The covid vaxx experience so far is not the main road, but instead reminds me of this from the book Jurassic Park:

“ “You know what's wrong with scientific power?" Malcolm said.
“”It’’s a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are. It never fails."

Hammond said, "What is he talking about?””
Harding made a sign indicating delirium.
Malcolm cocked his eye.

“”I will tell you what I am talking about," he said.
"Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power.
There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years.
Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru.
Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort.
You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you.
And once you have attained it, it’s your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you.
It is literally the result of your discipline.

Now what is interesting about this process is that,
by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands,
he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely.
So that kind of power has a built-in control.
The discipline of getting the you so that you won't abuse it.

But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline.

You read what others have done, and you take the next step.
You can do it very young. You can make progress very fast.

There is no discipline lasting many decades.
There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored.
There is no humility before nature.
There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy.
Cheat, lie, falsify--it doesn't matter.
Not to you, or to your colleagues.
No one will criticize you. No one has any standards.
They all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast.”

“And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly.
You don't even-know exactly what you have done,
but already you have reported it; patented it, and sold it.”

“And the buyer will have even less discipline than you.
The buyer simply purchases the power, like any commodity.
The buyer doesn’t even conceive that any discipline might be necessary.””

Hammond said, "Do you know what he is talking about?"
Ellie nodded.
““I haven't a clue”,” Hammond said.

“I’’ll make it simple,” Malcolm said.
"A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands.
He does not lose his temper and kill his wife.

The person who kills is the person who has no discipline no restraint,
and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special.”

“And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits.
And that is why you think that to build a place like this is simple."

"It was simple," Hammond insisted.

“Then why did it go wrong?"

--from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. New York: Ballantine Books, 1990, pp.305-307.

I like Malcolm. He seems like a good map reader/navigator for finding the main road.