Round two of Senate confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took place today, and Trump’s pick to be the next Secretary of Health & Human Services managed to trigger Sen. Bernie Sanders with a Big Pharma self-awareness jab at the Vermont senator and many Democrats.
Kennedy also got a “settled science” lecture from Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and this one’s a doozy:
SEN. HASSAN: “Sometimes science is wrong … And when you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward.” 🤔 pic.twitter.com/rvVvTzefCw
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 30, 2025
That one belongs in the “Museum of WTF.”
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 30, 2025
A lot of things that we know are now wrong were once considered “settled science.”
“settled science”?
Tell me you don’t know what science is without saying you don’t know what science is.
Bonus points for then stating that the way to move forward is to not question ‘settled science’.
With that policy we’d still be trying to figure out how the aether works.
— GnarlyRedDwarf (@GnarlyRedDwarf) January 30, 2025
“Settled science” is the ultimate gaslight term of the left. They are 🤡 https://t.co/68aWD8BlsF
— Donna Rice (@drice59) January 30, 2025
It’s a term people like many Democrats in Congress, Al Gore, John Kerry, etc. use when they don’t want any debate on the topic and you’re considered a heretic for even daring to ask any questions.
There is no such thing as settled science unless you’re an ideologue. https://t.co/gkAQmHXqJ6
— Jason Stark (@jrstark3) January 30, 2025
We’ll close this out with the immortal words of Michael Crichton about “settled science.” Make sure Sen. Hassan gets a copy of this:
I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.
Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.
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“You’re being had” sums up what the Democrats have been trying to do with “settled science,” and if they want to know why so many people are skeptical all they need to do is go look in a mirror.
