“The science is settled” is self-contradictory, as the whole point of science is to test, dissect, work through, and re-evaluate in an ongoing effort to gain ever more knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Such a contradiction is a red flag revealing biased science. Settled science, which is a thought-terminating cliche meant to end all attempts at meaningful discussion, especially with topics such as vaccinations, global warming/climate change, overpopulation, and gravity, and it forgoes the process of dialogue and inquiry in favor of taking a course of action—usually one laced with political and/or financial motives and implications. Credible scientists wouldn’t dare use the cliche settled science to end rational discussion and scientific inquiry, but politicians, corporate monopolies, skilled & unskilled manipulators, sophists, narcissists, and anybody with something to gain or lose certainly might.
I very much appreciate science, but as a full time philosopher, my position on the thought-terminating cliche “settled science” is that the phrase is a means to an end, and a way to trick people into making the pre/trans fallacy, where they bypass the rational state for the trans rational state, or worse yet, become Machiavellian, where the ends justify the means. The scientific method is a product of the European and English Enlightenments, which makes it Logocentric in focus, and a necessity for maintaining Western culture.
pre rational → rational → trans rational
knowledge → understanding → wisdom
grammar → logic → rhetoric
input → processor → output
In historic mysticism, the right hand path decided that it was best to focus on the process, also known as the Logos in Stoicism and other mystical sects, which is rationality, understanding, etc; Jesus was even considered a metaphor for the Logos, aka Divine Reason and Natural Law. Over time, the right hand path morphed into the political right, which is best embodied by the philosophy underlying Classical Liberalism, as put forth by Thomas Paine, John Lock, John Stuart Mill, and Frederic Bastiat. Following the flow of pre rational, rational, and trans rational as a model is the hallmark of individualists and individualism.
In historic mysticism, the left hand path preferred rationalization over reason, therefore they would reason from a predetermined conclusion and work back from there. This led to what we now call a Machiavellian personality/character, where the ends justify the means, meaning that the process is not as important as the ends, and we can get to the ends by any means necessary as long as it gets us there; for this reason, all kinds of horrors have been committed in the name of the greater good. In a previous blog post, I mentioned that rationalization is an inversion of reason, and even stems from a different location in the brain when activated, and that the religion that most embodies this inversion is actually Satanism, as it is the religion of inversion with their upside down crosses, upside down stars, and other inverted symbology. Over time, the left hand path morphed into the political left, and since they reason from a desired conclusion, they start from the trans rational, go backwards to the rational, and then find the correct pre rational input that will justify their desired outcomes; following this pattern as a model is the hallmark of collectivists and collectivism.
The Wikipedia page on thought-terminating cliches also mentions that prominent authoritarian figures, those who obviously embody Machiavellian character traits, used such cliches to further their power hungry agendas:
A major criticism made by various journalists is that the use of the cliché tends to halt debate and restrict/censor freedom of speech, and it tends to be synonymous with language that would be utilized by totalitarian states as Lifton originally identified with Communist China. Dictator Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany is remarked to have employed such clichés and platitudes to justify his actions prior and during the events of World War II for example. Historical personalities listed to also have used such clichés include; Joseph Stalin of Soviet-Russia, Ruhollah Khomeini of the Iranian Revolution, Pol Pot of the former communist country Democratic Kampuchea and Mao Zedong of the Communist Party of China.
Anytime real dialogue and process/rationality is stifled for a desired pre-determined conclusion, either using force, intimidation, or through thought-terminating cliches such as “settled science” and other propaganda type terminology, then it is clear that we have a Machiavellian the ends justify the means inversion playing out, and this is intolerable for any Logocentric focused individual. This is where science becomes a weapon of control and subversion, warping the minds of people to reach pre-determined trans rational conclusions that were not arrived at via a Logocentric focus, but rather originated from a love of power, domination, and a zero-sum mindset, where to succeed, the resources of one must be reallocated to another.
Edward Bernays, the father of modern propaganda, actually thought it was in the best interests of civilization for a secretive elite class to manipulate and control society from behind the scenes, which he mentioned in his influential book “Propaganda“.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
Just as religion was often used as a means of controlling the masses with their priest classes who stated “because god said so”, we now have Scientism where the priests, errr, scientists, determine that “science says so”, and we are expected to bypass rational thought and obey their so-called consensus. Nope, and Hell nope—and arguing the science with a “settled science” believer is as fruitful as arguing with a religious adherent, because they are arguing from an Elite class’s pre-determined conclusion and biased rationale that was engineered to further their power hungry agenda, and not actually focused on the scientific method and the processes required to come to a rational, process based conclusion. Those reasoning from evidence cannot possibly hold a fairminded conversation with those who are reasoning from a conclusion, it just does not work, because reasoning from a conclusion is the antithesis of fairmindedness, as they already have a pre-determined conclusion.
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