Why can't we have a seperation of Science and Politics?

I saw clips of Bill Nye saves the world and it made me cry...

What happened to the science?

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Science will almost always be tied to politics, sadly. Science and STEM will always hold extreme value in the public eye, and politicians want to have a slice of that power any way that they can. And if they can twist it to their own agenda, they most certainly will. Bill Nye is no different, and most certainly has his own agenda as well.

Because my sex junk.

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In the broad sense Science is a process of understanding our world, to provide facts and inform our decision making. Decision making such as politics should be based on pure science, but in our present world we have reversed the system, politics is increasingly the preferred method for influencing science and our understanding of the world (aka world view).

<rant>
It's not that they should be separated, that would be really bad. Uninformed politics is already the status quo.

What we should instead have is that science should first and foremost inform politics, and not the other way around.

Science if you will, is the foundational guiding light of true politics, of informed decision making as our forefathers understood and intended it. Only for its finely reasoned logic, truths and essence of self improvement to be forgotten and trampled under the influence of human emotion, greed, elitism and corporate economic dictatorship intended to establish a static world under which decision making and control is guided by the elite few rather than tested universal truths as uncovered by the scientific process.

</rant>

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Easy....it's all about money (or funding), science isn't self funding for the most part, some fields do self fund research but most rely on foundations and government...we all know what the government is full of, and when funding isn't the political issue it's control of the developments or breakthroughs that the governments want to dominate.

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Yeah and the funding issue is where the problem came in with politics being used to influence science.
That's a lot of control over what research does and doesn't get done.

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All the above a true. All of them.....

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B4 gov money:
transistor
Laser
Unix
After gov money:
1.5gal toilet that takes 3 flushes for a medium turd:)

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It's hard to keep science safe from anything when people on the left keep moving the goal posts.

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Some political theories are nothing more than thinly disguised religions. Since they have no factual foundations, they crave legitimacy and believe that by having "science" endorse their schemes, they will have persuasive propaganda which can deploy against an increasingly gullible public. They are perfectly happy to spend ridiculous amounts of money (AKA research grants) to achieve their goal, because after all it's the public's money they are spending, not their own. And, after all, their goal is power and control. They care not for truth, reason, or being a good steward of the public treasury.

It seems to me that there is a famous quote about government employing the public's money to subvert the public. IIRC, it was Alexis de Tocqueville.

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My thoughts are along with @Blanger's thoughts, but I'm in a hurry, so I'll keep it short. To add to Blanger's post, just look at the V-2 rocket (which led into the eventual Apollo missions for America and the Soviet equivalent). There are some counterexamples to be listed, but most were before 20th century (mainly WWII).

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Only dumbasses hate on Bill Nye. You have to avoid those people that dismisses him and his climate change position because his not a "real scientist", they tend to lower your IQ. If you work on a machine that make people fly for a living, you're a scientist.

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I see we have a thread to promote alternative facts... because OP saw a few clips of a show.

Separate science from policy?.. someone is not working with a full deck.

INB4 lock.

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There is also hate against intelligence, also the if I cant see it, touch it then I don't believe it. But yet I do believe anything on facebook schtick many have in my area.

Also to non tech people technology, computers and other things are mystical almost in how they work it seems. I like living in BFE for nice people and lower cost of living but it is trying at times, lol.

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People are hating on Bill because he's going on tv claiming to be an expert in climate science and any other science issue in the media.

No one doubts that he knows science and is in the community. But hes been given dozens of opportunities to give facts and reason and goes straight to make name calling and elitism.

Also making insane statements such as saying people skeptical of climate change should be JAILED.

Along with a few other issues that are known facts in science where he has just recently completely flipped on what he has said before.

Isn't that what we want from any person?? Consistency and belief in things they say?

I'm sorry if i sound crazy but that is not someone i think should have any respectable opinion anymore.

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Give me an example where he goes on media claiming to be an "expert" and not give "facts". Unlike, Neil Degrasse Tyson, who avoids confrontation, Bill Nye actively engages deniers, whether it be climate change or evolution, in debates so it's his jobs to know the facts and give evidence. He even called out one of these deniers live on TV on a bet about the continuing record breaking rise in global temperature but of course, they don't put their money where their mouth is.

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I didn't see the climate change one (no idea what his stance is on it these days). I did however see bits of some of his other ones. He didn't show any science and his claimed facts or at least portrayal of tham as facts were anything but. It wasn't based on science. It was highly disappointing.

I agree with the premises of the thread. For the most part science doesn't care about politics. what you end up seeing if people using science to push there politicians agenda. It happens a lot on the forum as well sometimes.

The method is always the same though, science is cherry picked and they never provide complete sources as it ends up not fully validating their opinion.

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The thing I like about science is that you can be wrong and that is actually a good thing, because that means you're learning something new and growing from it. As far as Bill Nye, I've only seen him in Star Talk Radio and he did talk about his GMO stance and how it changed overtime as he learned more about it. That's as far as I know about his changing stances. I think the reason why Science in general is so intertwined with Politics now is because of education and how the government treats it.

I don't hate Bill Nye. A lot of what he's talking about I can stand behind.
But I associate him with the "Big Think", and "Big Think", in my mind, is associated with the proposition of an indentured servitude (or sponsored education, or "Sell Your Future", as they called it) as a solution to student loans. "Tell me who your friends are..."

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Learning is good. Growing is good. But it's bad when you stop asking questions and proclaim yourself king of the hill, or in this case savior of the world. Because todays Bill Nye, as far as I can see would prefer not to have the Bill Nye of yesterday walk free in the streets. That's not very scientific. Nor is it progressive.