Tucker: The left uses partisan politics posing as science
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host examines how the left uses 'science' to push their agenda
At some point, though it’s hard to imagine now, the current revolution will end. Ultimately all revolutions do end, they can’t be sustained. And when ours does We’ll wake up one morning in a country where we don’t have to lie about everything all the time, where math is allowed, where we can acknowledge the profound and inherent differences between men and women without being fired for it. That day is coming. The question is, when it does come, what will be left of our society? We can’t know the answer in detail, but here’s what we’re hoping: we hope that reason remains. Reason: logic, the ability to think clearly and rationally — that’s the one thing we can’t lose. We’re going to need it to rebuild.
That’s why, of all the moral atrocities being committed at the moment in the name of equity and inclusion, it’s the relentless attacks on science should command our special attention.
When the coronavirus first arrived in our country last winter, most Americans uncritically accepted what the authorities said about it, they thought they could trust the people in charge. Few imagined that our leaders would leverage a public health emergency for their own political gain. That seemed like the one line that even politicians wouldn’t cross. Yet almost immediately, they did cross it.
Around the country, Democratic governors used quarantine restrictions to reward their allies and punish their opponents. Abortion mills stayed open, but the police kept churches closed. You could buy weed but you couldn’t get your knee replaced. Demonstrations against the lockdowns were banned. Riots against Donald Trump were encouraged. Watch the governor of Michigan shamelessly explain the difference:
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, April 30, 2020: It is probably not going to be safe to congregate in masses for quite a while and it is heartbreaking, but we know Michigan is not alone in this moment, this is what is happening all across the country, these big gatherings can't safely happen right now // WHITMER, June 1, 2020: The death of George Floyd has once again shown a light on the systematic cycle of injustice in our country. To the overwhelming majority who have taken to the streets and protested peacefully, protesting, historic inequities, black Michiganders, and those across the country are facing, I hear you. I see you. I respect you, and I support your efforts to enact real structural change in America.
So, you’re no longer allowed to exercise your Constitutional right of assembly unless it’s to support the Democratic Party. It wasn’t just the governor of Michigan. Gavin Newsom did the same thing in California. Phil Murphy did it in New Jersey. It was partisan politics posing as science, but this was the most amazing part, it was endorsed by actual scientists and that’s the part that should worry you. Doctors like Jennifer Nuzzo at Johns Hopkins University told us that structural racism was a bigger health threat than the coronavirus. So go ahead and loot Macy’s. It’s an important part of public health.
For those who still believed that American science was on the level, this was a shocking moment. When did the people who are paid to be rational, become corrupt religious zealots? When did their scientists become ayatollahs? That happened years ago, it turns out. The rest of us just weren’t noticing.
In February of 2019, an article was published in the journal, "Neurology," which is one of the preeminent peer-reviewed publications in all of medicine. The piece was called "Lucky and the Root Doctor." It described a physician's experience with a man in the Deep South called Reggie. Reggie was suffering from a severe neuromuscular disorder, which had left him blind.
Modern science might have helped Reggie, but he didn’t want the help. Reggie believed he was blind because he’d been cursed by a voodoo spell. That’s what he told his doctor. He refused treatment and left the office for good.
The doctor who wrote the piece about Reggie was a man called William Campbell. Campbell believes in western science. He does not believe voodoo is the cause of blindness. His piece was designed to help other doctors communicate with patients like Reggie, so those patients could receive effective medical treatment. Unfortunately, American medical journals are no longer allowed to criticize witchcraft. Criticizing witchcraft is racist.
So the editor of Neurology, a man called Robert Gross, began a purge of his publication. He fired the humanities editor, then suspended the entire humanities section. To further atone, he hired what he described as a "deputy editor for equity, diversity and inclusion." Then Robert Gross, as if that wasn’t enough, wrote a groveling apology letter, calling Campbell’s article "racist" and acknowledging it had caused "anguish." Nowhere in the letter did Robert Gross explain any of this. Why exactly is it racist to prefer western medicine to witchcraft? Isn’t that the whole point of our system? Gross never explained. He just declared it and moved on. So that’s now the official policy of this country’s top neurology journal—that witchcraft is the same as western medicine and how dare you say otherwise. Where does this leave you? If you were nervous about brain surgery before, this isn’t comforting news. How long before your doctor is sacrificing a chicken in the operating room? That’s a serious question. We can no longer say that science is better than voodoo—that’s racist.
Something similar happened this month in the world of economic research. One of the top business journals in the world, the Strategic Management Journal, deleted a paper from the Internet without any explanation. The key thing to know is that all the numbers in that paper were accurate—the data were right; no one claimed otherwise. The piece went through peer-review process and was published.
The piece was published because it was called this, "Examining investor reactions to appointments of Black top management executives and CEOs." We don’t know what those reactions were. It might be an interesting to know. But you can’t know because the original version of the piece is gone, disappeared into the remote cave where we hide uncomfortable facts. It's been replaced by a heavily revised version. So what’s the truth? We can’t know.
This is the definition of corruption, but it has spread through science. Take a look at the jobs postings at Nature Magazine, once the foremost science publication on the planet. What Nature is looking for now in its employees has nothing whatsoever to do with science. In fact, it’s anti-science. Here’s one recent job posting from Twitter.
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Quote: "As part of our commitment to foster diversity and inclusion, we are looking for a Black candidate with a passion for science communication based in the UK for a full-time, paid news internship."
So the thing that jumps out is that no Whites or Asians or Hispanics are allowed. Is that legal? Of course not. But that’s not really the point. The bigger problem, and it is bigger than civil rights law, is that the people we trust to make the most important decisions in our society — what kind of medical research do we fund? Who gets treatment and who doesn’t? In the end, who lives and who dies? The people who make those decisions are no longer rational. They’ve lost the ability to think empirically. Equity is now their god. They no longer believe in science. That’s a real problem for the civilization.
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the May 28, 2021, edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
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