{"id":24477,"date":"2025-04-24T17:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T00:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=24477"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:21:00","slug":"conservative-intellectuals-and-the-wrong-way-to-do-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/04\/24\/conservative-intellectuals-and-the-wrong-way-to-do-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Intellectuals, and the Wrong Way to Do Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Robert Reich collects comments from conservative intellectuals about the Trump administration;<\/li>\n<li>Reich summarizes ten points that demonstrates Trump&#8217;s ineptitude and incompetence;<\/li>\n<li>Similarly, Salon&#8217;s Brian Karem on how Trump has turned the White House into a joke;<\/li>\n<li>How RFK Jr.&#8217;s approach is the opposite of how actual science works;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>So of course there are *some* conservative intellectuals. Even if they&#8217;re to the &#8216;left&#8217; of the MAGA base, if only because they think things through (rather than react simplistically) and they&#8217;re not driven by raw tribal hatred of The Other.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e71f9b-630c-43f0-9a84-760b34f714e9_3113x3500.jpeg\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 22 Apr 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/the-view-from-the-right\">The view from the right<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Conservative condemnation of the Trump regime is almost as vehement as is progressive condemnation. Will they give cover to business leaders who have so far remained silent?&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is an unfortunate tendency for those of us on the so-called \u201cleft\u201d to assume that thinkers and pundits on the \u201cright\u201d disagree with us about Trump.<\/p>\n<p>But what is occurring these days transcends left or right. It is now a matter of democracy or tyranny. More and more of those on the so-called \u201cright\u201d are condemning the Trump regime with almost as much vehemence as you and I condemn it.<\/p>\n<p>Will this give cover to business leaders who have so far remained silent?<\/p>\n<p>A recent sample of condemnation of Trump from the \u201cright.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Reich then quotes a bunch of them. More important than what they say, in the context of this blog, is who they are. I&#8217;ll list them with links to the articles Reich is quoting. I&#8217;m cleaning up some of the link redirects and including the titles of their articles.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>National Review\u2019s<\/em> Andrew McCarthy: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2025\/04\/jd-vance-pretends-due-process-is-beside-the-point\/\" rel=\"\">JD Vance Pretends Due Process Is Beside the Point<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Andrew Sullivan: <a href=\"https:\/\/andrewsullivan.substack.com\/p\/two-perfect-months-506?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\">&#8220;Two Perfect Months&#8221;<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;That&#8217;s how Trump sees his opening act. Believe him \u2014 or your own lying eyes.&#8221; [Sullivan is a gay Catholic writer whom I&#8217;ve read a couple books by];<\/li>\n<li><em>The New York Times\u2019s<\/em> Bret Stephens: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/17\/opinion\/trump-critic-conservatism.html\">Bret Stephens on What Trump Gets Right, Wrong and Really, Really Wrong<\/a><\/li>\n<li>American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Matthew Continetti: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/trump-is-the-policy-tariffs-iran-china\">Think You Can Guess Trump\u2019s Next Move? Think Again.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>The Wall Street Journal\u2019s <\/em> editorial board: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/donald-trump-abrego-garcia-deportation-el-salvador-nayib-bukele-supreme-court-5b3464f4\" rel=\"\">Trump, Abrego Garcia and the Courts<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The President may win this showdown, but by taunting the Supreme Court he is tempting fate later on cases of far greater consequence.<\/li>\n<li><i>The New York Times<\/i>&#8216;s David Brooks: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/17\/opinion\/trump-harvard-law-firms.html\">What\u2019s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reich concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I continue to disagree with much of what these people say and write and I suspect you do as well. But I also continue to be surprised by how much our views are converging when it comes to the Trump regime\u2019s dangerous drive toward dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re on the cusp of a national wave of outrage that transcends the old political labels. This hardly means that died-in-the-wool Trumpers will change their minds. But it does give America\u2019s business leaders who have so far remained silent or even supported Trump \u2014 the CEOs of America\u2019s biggest corporations, the captains of our largest financial institutions, the heads of media empires \u2014 enough cover to come out against this dangerous and despicable regime. Will they?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Today Reich has this:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefb53c1d-83f0-4c28-9fa1-b6ba2e14776e_2340x1560.webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 24 Apr 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/ineptitude-incompetence-stupidity\">Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That\u2019s the theme that unites everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll summarize his ten points: The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth disaster; The Harvard debacle; The tariff travesty; The attack on the Fed chair fiasco; The Kilmar Abrego Garcia calamity; ICE&#8217;s blunderbuss; Musk&#8217;s DOGE disaster; Measles mayhem; Student debt snafu; and Who&#8217;s in charge?<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t help but wonder if people who get their News from Fox have even heard of most of these stories.<\/p>\n<p>Reich concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All this ineptitude in just the last few weeks reveals that the Trump regime is coming apart. Incompetence is everywhere. The regime can\u2019t keep military secrets. It can\u2019t maintain financial stability. It can\u2019t protect children from measles. It cannot protect America.<\/p>\n<p>While we need to continue to resist Trump\u2019s authoritarianism, we also need to highlight his utter inability to govern America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Along the same lines.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediaproxy.salon.com\/width\/1200\/https:\/\/media2.salon.com\/2022\/01\/peter-navarro-donald-trump-0104221.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Salon, Brian Karem, 24 Apr 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/04\/24\/two-beautiful-poles-turns-the-into-a-joke\/\">&#8220;Two beautiful poles\u201d: President Trump turns the White House into a joke<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;If you can\u2019t use a hook to yank the bad comic off the stage, then there is only one way left to end the show&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At first I thought it was satire.<\/p>\n<p>On Earth Day, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/donald_trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trump administration<\/a> published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/articles\/2025\/04\/on-earth-day-we-finally-have-a-president-who-follows-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> with the headline, \u201cOn Earth Day, we finally have a president who follows science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stifled a laugh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And so on, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>This the essence of conservative thinking, and why you can&#8217;t trust them when they claim to &#8220;follow science.&#8221; They already know what they want to conclude. That is not science; that&#8217;s ideology.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/btcFTZHs-pybnkeoWq0JcXtklN0=\/0x0:2700x1519\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2025\/04\/2025_04_22_rfk_az\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Katherine J. Wu, 24 Apr 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2025\/04\/-trump-kennedy-science-government-propaganda\/682569\/\">\u2018This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever\u2019<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One of the most notable things about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2014the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a federal agency tasked with \u201cimproving the health, safety, and well-being of America\u201d\u2014is how confidently he distorts the basics of health, safety, and well-being.<\/p>\n<p>In his short stint as health secretary, Kennedy has touted cod-liver oil as a valid measles treatment (it\u2019s not), said that Americans are being \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2025\/jan\/13\/robert-f-kennedy-jr-claims-seed-oils-are-poisoning-us-heres-why-hes-wrong\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"120097\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">poisoned<\/a>\u201d by seed oils (they\u2019re not), and claimed that \u201cmany\u201d vaccines are not adequately safety-tested (they are). And he has readily cherry-picked and exaggerated findings to suit his own needs: \u201cThere\u2019s a scientist at Harvard now who is curing schizophrenia with a carnivore diet,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=1173104027614825\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"120633\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">said at a press conference in March (it\u2019s not a carnivore diet, and it\u2019s not a cure<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The secretary also seems to think he knows what causes autism, a topic that scientists have been looking into for decades without producing a simple, clear-cut result, M. Daniele Fallin, a genetic epidemiologist at Emory University, told me. Kennedy, however, is <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/atrupar.com\/post\/3lmhzzlotzb2e\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"121048\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">adamant<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/news-conference\/health-and-human-services-secretary-kennedy-news-conference-on-autism-rates\/658669\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"121065\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">a series of new investigations<\/a> by his department will reveal at least \u201csome of the answers\u201d by September. \u201cAnd we will be able to eliminate those exposures,\u201d he said at a recent Cabinet meeting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Once again, conservatives want clear, simple answers to everything, in a world that is apparently complex beyond their comprehension.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Among scientists who study and treat autism, the consensus has long been that \u201cthere is no \u2018one cause\u2019\u201d of autism, Neelkamal Soares, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician in Michigan, told me. Genetics are likely to play a role; researchers have also explored the possible contributions of factors such as parental age; labor and delivery conditions; and exposures to certain chemicals, medications, or infections during pregnancy. Experts also generally agree that much of the growing prevalence of autism can be attributed to increased awareness and diagnosis\u2014an explanation that the CDC, an agency Kennedy oversees, cited in its report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And much more.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Quickly noted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Guardian, Melody Schreiber, 24 Apr 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/apr\/24\/rfk-jr-autism-disability-services-cuts\">Autistic people and experts voice alarm at RFK\u2019s \u2018terrible\u2019 approach to condition<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Health secretary is planning wide-ranging monitoring of autistic people\u2019s health record and cuts to disability services&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Reich collects comments from conservative intellectuals about the Trump administration; Reich summarizes ten points that demonstrates Trump&#8217;s ineptitude and incompetence; Similarly, Salon&#8217;s Brian Karem on how Trump has turned the White House into a joke; How RFK Jr.&#8217;s approach &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/04\/24\/conservative-intellectuals-and-the-wrong-way-to-do-science\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,18,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-lunacy","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24558,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24477\/revisions\/24558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}