Michael Shermer: How Scientific American Got Woke
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- The science writer and journalists talks identity politics, wokeness, trans athletes, and why his goal is to find out what is true rather than to "be right."
reason.com/vid...
"I think the second-wave feminists I've talked to are very worried about the kind of woke, gender-identity movement because it's reducing women to just body parts," says Michael Shermer. "A guy can say, 'Well, if I just get breast implants [and] then I can have a vaginal plastic made out of a piece of my skin, I'm in. I'm a woman, right?' Well, no, because women are not just tits and ass. There's more to it than that, a lot more."
For decades, Shermer has been one of the most popular-and provocative-explicators of science to popular audiences, having authored bestselling books such as Why People Believe Weird Things, Why Darwin Matters, The Moral Arc, and The Mind of the Market. He founded Skeptic magazine in 1992 and hosts a video podcast with leading activists and intellectuals. For nearly 20 years, he authored a widely read column for Scientific American in which he debunked beliefs in UFOs and other paranormal phenomena, explained the rise of the "new atheism," and showed how evolution systematically informs human behavior. Shermer's work is deeply and explicitly rooted in libertarian and Enlightenment ideas about individual responsibility, free market economics, rationality, and the search for something approaching objective truth.
In 2019, Scientific American cut him loose, a move he ascribes to the publication's suffocating embrace of the sort of identity politics and wokeness that he says dominates academic and intellectual circles and, increasingly, the culture at large.
Last fall, Shermer, who holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and teaches a class called Skepticism 101 at Chapman University, started a weekly Substack where he posts podcasts and the columns he would have written for Scientific American. The 67-year-old former competitive cyclist talked with Reason during FreedomFest, an annual gathering in Las Vegas, about what he sees as the fundamental clash between wokeness and scientific inquiry, how hard it is to overcome the cognitive biases we all have, why he thinks trans athletes should be banned from most women's sports, why we have so much trouble acknowledging moral and technological progress, and why he now identifies as a classical liberal rather than a libertarian.
Shermer has sat down with Reason a number of times since 2008, speaking about the future of science, how evolution formed the modern economy, and his "Google theory of peace." He's also spoken to us about the history of modern skepticism, why everyone wants to believe in Heaven, and why self-help gurus aren't the key to happiness.
Photo Credits: Willie J. Allen Jr./ZUMApress/Newscom; Loxton, via Wikimedia Commons; Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Fronteiras do Pensamento, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Fronteiras do Pensamento, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Fronteiras do Pensamento, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Sports Press Photo/Daniela Porcelli / SPP/Sipa USA/Newscom; Jose Perez / SplashNews/Newscom; Tristanb at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Kenneth Martin/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Glasshouse Images Glasshouse Images/Newscom; RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom.
Music Credits: "Just Make It Fun," by Custommelody via Artlist.
Interview by Nick Gillespie. Video by Regan Taylor and Adam Czarnecki.
I used to read Scientific American until I graduated from college in the 1980's. I found it to be a an excellent magazine with many excellent and rigorously written articles. I picked a copy of it recently and I was shocked at how it has turned into total crap!! Another example of the dumbing down of America. I really fear for this country's future and luckily I will not be around to see it.
It's more insidious than a mere dumbing down. It literally reads like something from a Jim Jones' Peoples Temple or Symbionese Liberation Army pamphlet from the early 70s.
Weird ass radical identity politics etc.
@@b.g.5869 I agree. It is actually very dangerous since this type of behavior seems to be everywhere.
It is a matter of perception. Everyone has their own version of fact and truth. Everyone is a judge. Everyone is a chief. Everyone is Right as Rain about their own opinion, which is often just an adoption of someone else's opinion. I would like to see a conversation between 2 people of opposing views on the results of a scientific study in which they focus strictly on the results without adding in a purpose, such as trying to reach a particular conclusion to prove a thesis.
And to think that so many people want to live longer! What for? To see how bad it gets and how much deeper in resignation about humanity? Cynical people like us really don't want to live longer. I think we're happy to kick off any day.
Science is the opposite of ideology, if Scientific America adopts leftist ideology then they aren't a legitimate scientific journal.
I consumed Scientific American as a kid in the 70's. I grew into an Engineer, building interpreters, compilers, embedded systems, children's software, rules engines used by some states even today, and now blockchain technology. Innovation, science, creativity, technology and more were the life blood and ethos of Scientific American.
How sad for them to lose their way.
I'm so glad you got to become an engineer before all this woke rubbish!
I think every Biology student in the late 1980s & 1990s was assigned one of Scientific American's center piece articles detailing how DNA & protein synthesis works.
The diagrams and writing were brilliant for an introduction to basic genetics.
What a shame to see them get captured by these woke activist types.
I saw a Scientific American video with an editor called Tulika Bose about the trans issue - it was just awful! What a shame.
19:51 - Desantis isn't "slapping Disney with regulation," he's revoking a company's ability to run their own private kingdom complete as a tax haven and he's doing it so DISNEY doesn't tacitly dictate state policy.
Revoking special government privileges for favored companies should be a libertarian value. Instantly soured my opinion of this guy. Grossly reductive and false.
Agreed. That immediately struck me as dishonest. Hitting a company with regulations is very different from taking away special privileges that no one else gets.
I didn't care for him much the more he droned on. He has a way of taking an issue, applying an overly simplistic position on those he disagrees with, then giving his bias and generally uninteresting feelings on the subject. I feel like if I knew him in person and we were "friends" and hung out, I'd be calling him on his BS more than he's comfortable with.
I try to like Michael Shermer. But he's so frustrating. As soon as he get's near a sublime position on something he says something frustrating just to be contrarian. He's so slavishly centrist he never really takes a firm position on anything.
@@SK-hj8ss absolutely correct. Exactly right
Better late than never.
I let my subscription lapse about 20 years ago because it was getting obnoxiously politically biased and sensationalist even then. Compared with the absolute irredeemable trash it's become today it was practically Nature or Zeitschrift für Physik back then. I have a huge bound and hard covered 1887 year in review edition on my coffee table that a relative gave me as a gift and it was truly an amazing resource of clearly explained cutting edge scientific information. What an absolute disgrace they've become in just the last few years alone.
Agreed.
Same. He’s just an exploiter of workers and a chud now. All these idiots self reported when Trump ran. None of them can be trusted now. They’re all bias af.
Maybe I'm conflating Shermer's advent with the general decline of the magazine, but my first reaction to the title of this video was: "YOUstarted it!!" Compare SciAm from this guy's time to the 1960s and 70s, when scientists wrote the articles (instead of staff), and one can easily conclude that activists replaced scientists, with Shermer carrying the banner of the activists.
@@Ralph64 I don't know if I'd agree that Shermer was one of the activists but it's certain that no one can deny SciAm was fucking AMAZING from the 50s through the 80s when scientists regularly wrote articles. In fact I think the heyday was clearly that era in the 70s when columns like the "the amateur scientist" were at their best.
I came here to write something very similar. In the late 90's and early 00's I noticed it was getting more political. After one particularly horrible article and an editor's nasty response to a reader, I'd had enough. I wrote them a letter and canceled my subscription. That was about 20 years ago...
DeSantis didn't slap Disney with higher taxes, he removed some EXTREMELY beneficial tax breaks that nobody else was getting.
He was balancing it out, making it equal for everyone. THAT is a libertarian belief.
I was going to comment this exact thing!
This guy is a walking contradiction.
"I believe in knowing all the facts and making informed decisions of both sides without unconscious bias or cognitive dissonance"
"Now I'm going to recite incredibly inaccurate information about what happened to Disney and about Ron DeSantis"
Disney lost tax breaks and (limited) territorial autonomy that they never should have had in the first place.
How about DeSantis telling companies they are not free to decide how to manage their employees with respect to vaccine mandates? Why aren't these companies free to do as they see fit? Or how about DeSantis wanting to fine social media companies that deplatform policiticians? THOSE are NOT libertarian acts, much less beliefs.
@@SonOfLiberty82 Yeah, definitely pushing back from the wokeness, but still just spooning in the mainstream media narrative.
You're overlooking the human rights aspect of De Santis's actions. It seems consistent with libertarian principles to me to constrain business actions that infringe on human rights/liberties. Vaccine mandates are based on the false notion that being unvaccinated poses a threat to a vaccinated person. That notion certainly deserves skepticism.
(Edit: Mandates claim justification on the basis of protection, but they're based on the desire for control.)
Shermer is for gun control, vaccine mandates and massive tax breaks for certain corporations. How exactly is he a libertarian or classical liberal?
That is a fine question.
He's against fossil fuels too, and absolutely refuses to address Alex Epsteins arguments.
And the idea that its somehow "inconsistent" for Libertarians to say we shouldn't invade other countries "to help people under suppression of civil liberties". I mean for chrissakes, what Libertarian principle does he think "humanitarian" wars fall under? Of all the things to fault Libertarians for, he chooses opposition to war? Unbelievable.
Obvious answer:
Shermer is simply as unprincipled as the one he accuses of being unprincipled.
@@RedBricksTraffic One really wonders why Freedom Fest would have him and Reason to interview him?
Desantis didn't "sic the government on Disney" He (and his congress) simply decided to not continue providing special protections and privileges to a company that went out of its way to show that it was no longer fostering the kind of community they want to incentivize in Florida.
So instead of letting the corporation that opposes his policies be an entity separate from Florida, he further incorporates it... sounds pretty poorly thought out on DeSantis' part.
"simply decided"... I suspect even you don't think that's an honest response.
Well said.
@@peaceflower8302 no, it is now subject to Florida's laws, regulations, and taxes. I'm not a fan of this outcome but cronyism doesn't help anyone.
@@vapecatt And because it is subject to those laws, regulations, and taxes, it will now work to influence those laws, regulations, and taxes through lobbying. Because Disney can’t be it’s own entity, it will try to shape Florida to benefit itself.
Discovering Scientific American in high school in the seventies changed my life. I hardly ever made it all the way to the end of any paper - they were published papers then, not articles - but what I learned from reading as much as I could follow was immense. Sci Am taught me to think like a scientist, be rationally skeptical, and showed me what REAL science looks like.
I recently got a subscription for my son who just started high school, but it is nothing like the eye opening journal that I remember.
What a tragic loss.
Science mixed with the certainties of politics or religion often yields a sloppy and sour stew.
The cleanness of Scientific American’s articles relatively free of political taint prior to 25 years ago was a celebration of the nature of science and actually one of my joys in life. It is sadly missed.
Where do we find it today?
@@proaktivhalsaab2644 UA-cam, I'm afraid
"certainties of politics"
You'll have a hard time convincing anyone of this.
I saw the same happening in Australia at the same time
The Sciences, published by the New York Academy of Sciences, comes closest.
Scientic American doesn't really seem to be either scientific or American....
It's German. And not particularly scientific.
@@thomasmaughan4798 Sounds about right.
Although nothing is more American than a company with American in the title owned by foreign nationals.
I had quit reading SA about 10 years ago when it became more political than scientific. It had been trending for some time and the time to read it became more valuable than the science in it.
That was about the stone end for me. I fell out of love with it about 20 years ago.
I only know its value due to the old issues my dad kept. It was once a great resource.
In 2013, they were bit less objective than let's say 2008, but they recovered from it.
One of the strongest memories I have of my father, a physicist, was him in his chair reading SciAm of an evening ... he'd be rolling over in his grave seeing the rag that it has become.
I always got to The SciAm before my Dad. He got to watch me read it first.
Also, every libertarian AND every legitimate scientist, specifically every biologist, should be pro-LIFE, NOT pro choice, because, again, the science is clear on this issue: life begins at conception. One study found the 95 percent biologists surveyed in the study admitted life begins at conception. The zygote has historically been the mile marker as the beginning of human development during the gestation cycle, and by 6 weeks the infant has a heartbeat. The zygote is formed as soon as the sperm cell(a living piece of matter) is fused with the egg cell(a living piece of matter). Thus, no matter when an abortion is being performed, according to biology, a living being is being murdered, intentionally with premeditation, which, in any other context would be classified as capital murder. If abortion was applied to a 5 month post-birth child, it would universally be considered a heinous crime, but when it is applied to a 5 month old pre-birth, people like Shermer pretend it is acceptable? This is where the argument falls through: the "pro choice" crowd pretends to be standing for and defending the" rights" of the mother and protecting her bodily autonomy, but what they pretend not to notice is that by protecting the mother's "right" which is not a right at all because no one has a right to commit murder, you are simultaneously depriving someone else of their rights and their bodily autonomy(the unborn child). Libertarians always say people should be allowed to do and live however they want as long as it is within reason, the confines of the law, and does not harm a third party. Well, abortion does actively harm a third party(the unborn child) by depriving him or her of their most basic right(life) and it is unreasonable to do this because the SCIENCE contradicts the baseless and vacuous "pro choice" argument because it indicates that a fetus IS human life. Let's not pretend that the pro choice argument and movement is based on anything but politics and convenience.
Too right!
The straw for me was their article saying sex is a spectrum. I couldn’t believe they published it. Utter nonsense and non-science.
Was that article about sex or gender? Any source or hints for me to find said article?
@@brechtkuppens Sex it's on yt. Paradox institute and ColinWright biologist
One of the most disturbing aspects of woke ideology for me is its attack on meritocracy-or academic standards of merit such as standardized tests and tests for professions.
Definitely not defending woke ideology, nor attacking meritocracy, but as a public school teacher, I can attest to the fact that we have gone too far in the past 20 years on standardized testing. In many cases teachers were simply teaching to the test, while critical thinking was out the window for lack of time. Things are definitely getting better, but I assume that is part of the attack on standardized testing. That, and the fact that the very standardization of the test makes them often unreliable, as many students do not have the academic background that the tests assume they have. Again, I’m not advocating getting rid of meritocracy, but a balanced and more nuanced approach sure would be nice, at least from a teacher’s point of view.
@@SuperManning11 We need to do more to help disadvantaged young people to stay up with their peers. (whatever happened to Head Start?) I'm not an expert on education or a teacher, but if we don't have some kind of academic standards, I fear our society will be dumbed down.
@@SuperManning11 But that is not the genesis of the attack on meritocracy. The attack stems from the CRT belief that whites design the tests for whites to pass, and that upper class people design the tests to perpetuate their dominance. Of course, this is neomarxist nonsense.
I would be fine with them saying we can make better tests the current ones are not cutting it but they don't want to replace them with anything better or even worse they just want to burn them to the ground and pray something rises from the ashes.
@@katansi This might be among the best arguments in favor of standardized testing I’ve ever seen. I agree with almost all of it.
I think it’s not necessarily a problem with the differences in the utility of standardized testing, but the differences in the methodology of schooling itself.
We must first ask ourselves, “Why do we have school?” and agree upon the answer. The answer, in my mind, is to give young people the basic tools they need to be useful adults.
Which tools apply, and the definition of useful can certainly vary, but you do have constants across all cultures. And it’s within those constants, that standardized testing makes perfect logical sense.
Now, if you’re offering elective classes which also serve the general purpose of fostering usefulness, like say, a multimedia class. Then the edges of standardized testing begin to break down a bit, because to be successful in a lot of forms of media, one _must_ be creative, and entertaining. And this would be a very relevant modern class, I think.
But in terms of arithmetic, language, history, etc., nothing _but_ standardized tests and well-defined expectations makes sense to me.
It’s not that the 2nd Amendment is a argument that we live in a failed state. It’s an argument that all states will fail.
Gun lovers are not so much representing the defense against tyranny as they are representing the threat of tryanny.
@@tom-kz9pbGun lovers are a category, as is criminal, and more importantly tyrannical states. In addition; we are in a room filled with guns, by all means pick one up or don’t.
@@jeremyogrizovich3247 We are in a room filled with kerosene and a lot of people throwing matches. The real tyranny of America has been decidedly right-wing. The FBI for decades harassed the Left, obsessively and almost exclusively: black groups, Martin Luther King, women activists, gays. The CIA trained, installed and supported numerous right-wing dictators who murdered and tortured thousands, pretty much anyone left of center or otherwise impeding corporate interests, like human rights or environmental activists. To hear conservatives whining about "Deep Stats" shows only their disconnect from reality and their profound ignorance of history, like Trump praising the unquestioned loyalty of Hitler's generals, and needing to be reminded that Hitler's generals tried to assassinate him, three times.
3 replies and i see none. Shocker
Shermer says he no longer considers himself a libertarian because he doesn't believe that we should be able to do whatever we want, which is why he now calls himself a Classical Liberal. Yet earlier in his remarks, he said he's hardcore pro-choice, which I have to assume means to take a life for any reason and at any time during the pregnancy. He states he's no longer a libertarian as it conveys an attitude unconstrained. He defies the new position he set for himself on just this issue alone.
Yes his obliviousness is quite obvious
Before I was born, I believe my mom (she believed it as well) was given hormones supposedly to prevent miscarriage, but also caused masculinization of the female fetus. Now, I don't know if she knew that at the time, but it may have affected many of the behaviors I had
(And still have) as a teenager.
I would probably be begging my mom to let me get spayed and get a double mastectomy at 13 because I was a tomboy and I hated becoming a woman, who was doomed to a life of misery and child-bearing, as opposed to the true happiness having children, wanted children, can bring. Much more than my working life ever did....
He seems like a smart guy but his argument about guns is not even remotely intelligent. He first states that there are more guns death than car related deaths. While technically true the number averages about the same over the years. Nick rightly then points out that over half and typically it's like 2/3 of gun deaths are suicide, which Michael concedes the point. Which means if you exclude suicides from the gun deaths far more people are killed in auto accidents than homicides with a gun.
If you look at injuries with a vehicle and gun the vehicle again has far more with and estimated 4.4 million per year, and those are only the ones that require medical attention. Injuries with a firearm are estimated at 73K and this is according to Everytown so you know they count them all.
Of course he then throws out the tired solution, which solves nothing.
Better background checks....means what. As he points out there are already laws in place for most cases they just need to be enforced.
He of course blows over the suicide rate like all guns control advocates do, when if they could tackle that problem meaningfully it would have a major impact on gun deaths.
He then throws out the tired old stat of X number of guns in the country, enough for every person. Well, that doesn't mean shit. The number of guns is irrelevant. What is relevant is WHO HAS THE GUNS.
He of course finishes off with the old trope of "somebody just needs to something" and finishes us with cars are safer because of things. Well here's the thing Mr. Shermer. If there could be laws passed that would hinder or prohibit people that are not allowed by law to have a firearm or somehow magically know when a person was going to use that firearm for ill intent.....almost every 2A supporter would be behind you, but all of the laws suggested only hinder or prohibit the lawful gun owner and not the criminals.
It's not about the numbers. #McNamaraFallacy
@@hrbattenfeld But it should be.
@@reddirtwalker8041 Wishful thinking and an overreliance on metrics is exactly what makes the McNamara (Quantitative) Fallacy a fallacy.
When you make it all about the numbers, you *assume* that qualitative factors don't matter or possibly don't even exist.
Counting corpses and comparing body counts is easy.
However, 160 years ago 600,000 young men died because settling the question whether it was OK to own another person or not, was more important than living for as long as possible.
Don't count lives, make lives count.
@@hrbattenfeld If you don't look at numbers then your working on emotion, which is never a good place to make hugely impact for decisions from as emotion clouds judgement.
@@reddirtwalker8041lol, in this case it's precisely counting the number of deaths that are creating the emotions. That's why the do it. Crime is up 37%!!!!! 15000 coronavirus deaths in one day! 12345 gun violence deaths in the last year!
It's not about the numbers. It doesn't matter how many people get shot. Americans don't give the government their guns. Sticking to principles cannot be expressed with numbers.
I always labored under the assumption that Shermer was a pretty intelligent human. This interview exposes mediocrity.
Every second thing he says is wrong. Eg claiming DeSantis imposed higher taxes on Disney as 'punishment'. DeSantis removed their generous tax breaks
It really does. I don't think they lost much when they shed him
Too bad , was interesting stuff with no politics. Everything woke turns to shit.
This guy lost a lot of credibility with me when he said the covid shots work. I don't know when this was recorded, but is released after even the CDC said there's no difference in protocol between people having had the shots or not.
That's where he Lost and so many others. What the Hell, Dr.Toni Elf Faucet got it Twice now, Boe Jiden got it Twice or More. Time for Booster #53 cause 2 is Not Enough for Thee . Dam ,All have been Mind-ucked in the Socalled Sceptics minds Now Septic Community.🤤💩
UA-cam would probably have censored the interview had he told the truth about the present efficacy of covid vaccinations. The likelihood of getting covid now is pretty much independent of whether you're vaccinated or how many boosters you've gotten (with some evidence suggesting that multiple booster shots make you more susceptible). It is therefore now a personal decision. One cannot claim any longer that you're obliged to get vaccinated to prevent spreading covid to others. In the face of this hard truth, I now hear vax fanatics argue that people should be forced to get vaccinated because they'll be more of a burden on hospitals and contribute to rising health care costs if they don't. Of course, they'd never say that overweight people who refuse to lose weight should be fired for the same reason.
@@tekharthazenyatta2310
It's always been a personal decision, it's just that for some, there were consequences.
I don't have "health care'", or what I call medical care insurance. To me health care is what I do to avoid needing medical care. I haven't been to a doctor in coming up on ten years. It's not that I wouldn't if I really had to, but only for a serious injury. I'm in control of my internal state. I just can't bring myself to pay for something I don't use, so that I can pay for people who refuse to take care of themselves. I know there are people who really care, but the system is totally corrupt. The food industry pushes toxic crap to maximize profits causing people to spend billions supporting the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Wow, are there any vacancies on the Fantasy Island where you''re living?
Easy answer: They promoted a woman to Editor in Chief and then appointed more women to other key editorial positions. This trend of feminizing science leads to avoiding publishing controversial topics that could be upsetting some people and a general aversion to promoting controversial ideas that can challenge popular social narratives - and science is loaded with those. Women prefer to avoid upsetting others and more often imbibe current popular dogmas to signal their allegiance to the group...they do not like rocking the boat.
And such a trend could doom civilization.
Such a huge overgeneralization about women, set forth as an “easy answer.” As with easy answers in general it’s way too simplistic. Certainly does not apply to me or to a great many other women. I know plenty of gratingly conformist far left “woke” men as well. I hope this new trend you’re spewing doesn’t continue to spread. Such a lack of nuance and overgeneralized easy answers, setting women in such an awful light, reflect and stoke sexist biases. Also fails to acknowledge ways that women have helped to identify foolish biases in science and contribute to improved standards, as by recognizing ways that significant variables were inadequately heeded (as with testing a safety device entirely on a standard adult male form). Rachel Carson and Ruth Harrison also did innovative and pioneering work from outside academia that has helped to show the need to teach and approach science in ways that are attentive to ethics and to the broader context. Mary Midgley likewise was right to call for attention to the bigger picture and to challenge scientism. If you’re going to throw about stereotypes how about also include ways that stereotypically masculine approaches to science have been utterly disastrous and have led us towards many Darwin awards? Bacon would not approve. His New Atlantis was big on character and on openness to criticism and to changes if they prove called for. He was also big on an eye on the whole and on intelligently orchestrated efforts rather than the foolish cacophony that so often misgoverns contemporary research efforts. Much of what he would support is standard fare from a traditional conception of philosophy as the love of learning and wisdom, and is presently often associated with femininity. Socrates’ final words were to tell his friends that “we owe a debt to Asclepius,” the god of healing and medicine, and to advise them to see to it that it is paid / to not be careless. He is shown by Plato taking Diotima (possibly Aspasia) as a major influence upon him, and that, as someone who taught him about love. We continue to trivialize the importance of care and love and concern for justice and for wisdom at our ongoing peril.
@@reconstructingphilosophy women are easily manipulated. White, post-grad women are the ones who push this horse shit the most.
As I have read, Shermer has had his own problems with accusations of sexual harassment. I get a sick feeling that the bellyaching about Scientific American being "woke" has more to do with a lot of men's bad attitudes toward the female gender than anything wrong with the magazine. Maybe it is just as well- the kinds of right-wingers and Trump loyalists who use the word "woke" as a cuss word seem not really cut out for such things as science, facts or logic.
Women per se aren’t a problem only those who have been brainwashed by bull shit
Shermer stating the vaccines work? At what level and in what capacity? They were originally heralded by the manufacturers and the relevant government health bodies as preventing one from getting sick and thusly making the vaccinated unable to spread the virus. Neither which has proven true. You cannot keep changing the extent and quality of their efficacy as subsequent pronouncements of their merits also not obtaining over time and continue to say they work. Talking about scientific integrity Michael, where’s your’s?
They are not vaccines in any sense of what _anyone_ thought of as a 'vaccine' until 5 minutes ago. Much like other gems over the last couple of years like 'woman', 'recession', 'racist', 'sexual preference'...
31:46 Matt Walsh is a “right wing troll” 🤣 That’s what we call people speaking rationally against illogical and damaging woke ideology now?
It's accurate tho. His most effective/popular content is him trolling people.
@@EclecticBuddha Shermer defends the “What is a Woman” work as legit scientific critical skeptical analysis of the “other side” of the argument. I do not see “critique / criticism” as “trolling” since trolling typically is making inflammatory and false/straw-man counter arguments… rather than objectively based and rational criticism of outrageous ideas/agendas… just like Shermer attacks conspiracy theorists arguments.
His fundraiser tô save AOC Abuella was one of his bests trollings ever. Because even If It was a mockery, the end result would bê beneficial either way tô her Abuella, só even If they Go against, It would look bad for progressives either way
What is a woman , film is genius.
@@crockmans1386
Nije, autor ne kapira "sta je zena" ...
I agree with some of this, but Ron DeSantis was completely right to revoke Disney's special tax privileges. Additionally, I don't get how you can be pro-abortion and pro-vaccine mandate. And finally, one would think we would have enough historical examples of what governments do to unarmed minority groups to make it clear why the 2nd ammendment is important.
Yeeeeah but someone "smart" said otherwise soooo why think for ourselves?
It depends WHY they were revoked. "Because I don't like their movies' is a pretty stupid and outrightly fascist reason. That they had special tax concessions in the first place is the bigger issue. That kind of reminds of Breitbart where suddenly some people are all for breaking apart google and facebook, not because they have monopolies, but because they don't like their politics. So its ok for corporations to have complete control over industries....as long as t hey have the same politics as me.
Not to be insulting if you don't see the difference in abortion and vaccines you aren't thinking much. Employers have a legal obligation to the safety of workers, meaning they can get sued if they didn't demand a vaccine. Nobody gives a shit what you do in your home, but when you are going to be around other people, thats when ALL laws come into play.
as a floridian I agree with you and DeSantis....why the hell was disney getting this privilege to begin with. even if they weren't woke garbage I would want that shit to end.
"... enough historical examples of what governments do to unarmed minority groups...". So true josh.
1. In Turkey, Armenians were first asked to hand over their arms, for 'their own safety'.
2. When India and Pakistan split (in 1947), many Hindus decided to stay back in Pakistan, because the Government assured them that they will not be discriminated against. Just a couple of months after the split, Pakistan Government issued an order that Hindus will have to surrender any arms they had 'for their own safety'. My family saw the writing on the wall and decided there and then to shift out of Pakistan. Many unfortunate Hindu families did not.
3. I don't remember the details, but something similar happened to the Jews in Germany during or before Hitler's time.
Not coincidentally, these events preceded the three bloodiest genocidal events of the 20th century. There are other examples too...
@@mikearchibald744 Alright, I accept the logic behind that. The reason for the revocation should matter, but I still stand by that revoking the tax privileges is something that needed to be done regardless.
No offense, but if you find yourself in favor of government medical mandates, you're probably a lot closer to fascism than you want to admit. I oppose government mandates in all cases. I think maybe employers should be allowed to discriminate in some cases, but the government should NEVER have the power to force people into a medical procedure.
Pink was never associated with men. That's a myth. It was a suggestion in one industry magazine. Consumers, which are mostly women, decided the question.
Bret The Hitman Hart always wore pink and black. But he's more the exception than the rule. He was exceptional in a lot of ways.
@@theboombody 😄
19:30 WRONG on De Santos & Disney
De Santos did exactly the "old conservative" way: he did NOT slapped them with higher taxes, he stopped investing in Disney by taking away their special tax status! ...
Anyway I've been listening to some of his interviews and I must say: in my opinion he is one of the guys who is responsible for what's going on culturally, then he understood the bullshit he's done but he's still reluctant to admit mistakes distance himself.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT'S HAPPENING NOWADAYS!!!
And this has got NOTHING to do with women or "people of colour" ...
All these "identities" are just social-political instruments for some PSYCHOPATS to get and keep "POWER" ...
He must know it!!!
And so do you, ReasonTV!!!
This conversation - as good as it may be - is a WASTE OF TIME!!!
Spot on.... it's a rice cake conversation tastes bland but supposed to be good for you and in the end has no nutritional value.
" in my opinion he is one of the guys who is responsible for what's going on culturally, then he understood the bullshit he's done but he's still reluctant to admit mistakes distance himself."
A self-understanding that Shermer came to apparently only after being given the boot by Scientific American. Instead of admitting his own contributions (by his silence if nothing else) to the wokeness plague, he's trying to reposition himself as one of its victims.
@@tekharthazenyatta2310he’s no longer useful to them and if this was Stallins America they take him out back and off him, to make room for “new” progressives.
It is shocking to me that people see the removal of special privileges like Disney has via the Bueno Vista incorporated township or via section 230 protection reform or abolition as imposing special laws or taxes when they are just putting mega corps on the same level as everyone else.
Yeah. I'm going to give Shermer the benefit of the doubt and assume he's just uninformed about the specifics here. Maybe he'll see your comment, or someone else will set him straight.
This is the second comment that already said what I wanted to say on two different subjects. This is the best chat I’ve seen on yt in a long time. Anyway, yeah he completely swallowed the media’s take on the Disney battle. To me, it boils down to this: if I’m a governor of a state with a huge corporation operating in it with special privelages, and that corp begins to openly oppose legislation we just passed with popular support, going so far as to say that they will do whatever they can to undo it, I feel it’s justified to strip them of the privilege that they are brazenly taking for granted.
@@strnbrg59
All people are uninformed or misinformed about most topics simply by the fact that even three human lifetimes are not long enough to get informed about everything.
Was thinking the same thing .
Not just people, influential/highly regarded ppl.
American Scientist is more like what SciAm used to be--actually intellectual and scientific.
Generally, yes. But I am seeing wokeness starting to pervade it as well. Not to mention the nonstop climate articles.
@@alienmoonstalker Ugh, I haven't actually subscribed in a few years; what a disappointment. That was a looming nightmare. ☹😡
@@alienmoonstalker the “covering climate now” journalist initiative subverts journalists worldwide by adding climate change to most articles and omitting any objective challenges to data ensuring the “average” modelling and predictions are much more extreme than reality which impacts on current and future credibility amongst those that understand flaws in data gathering and statistical analysis.
I finally had enough when most of the material focused on environmental issues rather than the rest of the physical sciences.
if you don't like the planet that gives you life, you are free to leave it. sooner would be better.
I cancelled my Scientific American subscription about 6 months ago because it was just obnoxiously leftist. It became practically unreadable.
It’s been propaganda for a long time. Especially on climate change
Next do The Economist magazine…
29:20 "On the consistency issue..." There's nothing inconsistent there. Actual life and quality of life are two very different things. And I'm not a pro-lifer.
I agree, introducing distinctions are an important way to keep our principles reasonably consistent. However, I believe that our moral intuitions, being subjective, are different from one another, and so you might not convince a pro-lifer that quality of life really matters when dealing with abortion.
His column was my favorite part of that magazine for years. It's a shame politics have tainted even something that is supposed to be a scientific publication. This "woke" thing is truly insidious.
Indeed, it's insidious and dangerous. I"m a liberal who has been railing against this Leftist mind virus for years.
Trans should not be discriminated against, Nor should any disadvantaged minority be. I doubt anyone would disagree.
But if you, as a leader, do not want a narcissistic self-obsessed terrible person in your group, one who has no value for other's feelings or time, is perpetually ready to see insult and micro-aggressions where there is none, is perpetually annoying because of his/her permanent state of victimhood, one who brings the group's productivity crashing down, I think you would be very very justified.
What has _'a leader who does not want a narcissistic self-obsessed terrible (etc. etc.) person in its group"_ got to do with _"trans should not be discriminated against"_ ? Or: How is a leader, removing said narcissist, an act of _"justified discrimination against a trans person"_ ?
I want men in women's sports if the owner of the competition says so.
@@BorisNoiseChannel The implication is that one or more trans persons fulfil the list of reasons for which discrimination seems appropriate. In other words, discriminating not solely because "trans" but because "asshole" in some form.
You just described second wave feminism. Somehow shermer still defending second wave feminism. Figures.
@@BNK2442 A lot of people don’t realize that within second wave feminism was filled with just as much vitriol. In their defense they had a little more to complain about, but certainly not to the extent that they often took it.
When my dad was 16, he held the door open for a woman who scolded him that “She doesn’t need a man to hold doors open for her”. That was 1978. This dialectical mindset has been brewing in U.S. public consciousness since at least the 60s, and perhaps earlier, but certainly _by_ that decade.
Historically you could feel relatively confident that the science in Scientific American would be correct. Over time, they have hired more non-scientists graduates of "scientific writing" programs who apparently are taught that being click-worthy is more important than being correct. I have given up writing authors who got facts wrong in stories, sending annotated lists of publications and lists of scientists with the credentials and expertise to inform their mistakes. When they did respond, they would be defensive and drop the attitude that as science writers they knew what was really true, even in areas where I am an expert. Scientific American has become CNN, desperately trying to hold on to some kind of market share, and watching their revenue and reach shrink.
"Scientific American has become CNN"
COL (Chuckled Out Loud)
this sherman clown is the one to whine... his twitter feed is filled with copypastings of every msm propaganda line in the book... his brain is fried
I don't think what DeSantis did to Disney was slapping them with extra higher taxes and regulations. Disney was given special status years ago. Autonomy, self regulation,...so they were practically like a state within a state. So certain privileges were revoked, which is not the same as slapping them with extra fine.
Disney was not just making woke entertainment that Floridians could simply ignore -chose not to watch their program. They were not just supporting -pushing activism. They were getting involved in politics, which is not illegal, but when you're trying to change laws and your actions amount to subversion....a state is not obligated to grant you special status /privileges.
I was going to make the same point -- Disney got the political blowback not because of "wokeness" in their art, it was because as a corporation they started throwing their weight around in Florida politics. So Florida went, "well, that sword cuts both ways."
The Time Magazine article about the election is a very poignant example of why people have concerns. I can't even post a link without getting the comment scrubbed.
The reason we have so many problems is because you can't even have a rational discussion without your comment getting deleted. Like mine was. Censorship is the biggest problem these days. Hrghrhgrb!
I will say, around 2019, the magazine became blatantly political, even outright endorsing a candidate for the first time ever (Biden of course). That was when I decided not to renew. They were trending toward woke idiotism even before that, but that was the last straw. I had a couple of years worth of issues pre-paid, and I'm lazy, so didn't cancel, but it has gotten even worse since. Are they even still doing science? What a shame to watch it wither away into Marxist wokism stupidity instead of science
Same here, endorsing Biden was the last straw for me, I didn't renew. I didn't send the a letter to the editor chastisement either, what would be the use?
The reason for endorsing Biden was because they wanted the anti-science, climate science denying, science-politicizing Trump out of office.
You sound blatantly political, yourself. For a science magazine to endorse a candidate is an unusual step, but for a man so anti-science as Trump, it is the only principled thing to do, in a situation so grave. We don't need a sleazy clown in the White House who thinks that global warming is a hoax, or that covid should be treated by spraying disinfectant in the lungs, or that the Colonial army took over airports.
I carried on an aproximately 70 plus yr old family subscription until 5 yrs or so ago--for me the final straw was the climate change religion.
(still get solicitations for renewal)
@@Mrbfgray The climate change science, you mean. Religion is what treats Donald ("climate change is a hoax") Trump, the perpetual liar, as their God-sent messiah.
One has to wonder why conservative cranks ever bothered to read anything science-oriented, in the first place.
The British magazine New Scientist explicitly announced its Wokeness too.... Well, perhaps not its Wokeness - but that it would take explicit political positions on various issues and subjects (which it was doing anyway). That is, there were various New Scientist articles saying that it's a good thing that it has explicitly taken political positions (all of a certain kind, of course) on various issues. ("Tell it like it is. If science becomes politics, then so be it. We will only get one chance at the experiment of dealing with this.")
Another once respectable science mag lost to the feminization of science - take a look at who their key editors are nowadays. "Science" isn't a systematic method to help discover the truth or the workings of things, for these new woke female status-seeking types it's a tool that can be used when it's useful for an agenda and hidden when it's not.
That reminds me of how there's this weird new paradigm in journalism where they believe that it's morally irresponsible to not try to be biased and influence the viewer. It's so arrogant I can't handle it. These people feel that they were able to take all of the information and forms a "correct" position but they don't feel the public would be able to do the same thing.
Shermer was the start of this mess. He helped create the atmosphere in where people started attacking the family and religion. People may not like religion but holds society to a standard that is outside of government authority.
I blame it on women. I was a huge SciAm reader until a woman became the editor. It had decayed a bit over the years, but it really became junk after a woman took over. Same in IT, all the problems I had during my career involved women. So glad I'm retired. I believe in women's equality, but boy some of them are just insane.
Lol don't blame women, blame the one(s) responsible. I'm guessing some women don't like what it has become either, surely u don't blame them.
This goify channel brings out the worse in men. Competing with Faux News was a bad idea.
@@kyleebrock GFY
@@arcguardian Look up the facts about USSR propaganda in the 1900s causing western ideological and cultural subversion into leftwingery, just like the Putin web troll factories aimed to extremize the american Right today.
Youri Byezmenov's interview about this in the 80s documenting well his past as an agent in India should be obligatory for everyone to watch. One of the articles he mentions in the full interview series (totally 3-4 hrs in 3 places) that was supposed to rosewash the communist Kremlin regime for the western audience was called Russia today. We know why that name then was used for the russian channel after the 2000s aiming to create the western extreme christian Right.
The whole point of such subversion is to unmount the stability of the western world and its numerous benefits to the nonwestern. Creating polarities in politics is a major part of that. This is the cause of wokeism as well as the cause of the fundamentalist Right and the Trump supporters and the conspiracy theories.
@@arcguardian He does. He's a sexist pig who still posseses the whole "a woman's place is in the kitchen" mentality. Screw him
“Most of us really should get vaccinated, they work.”
You’re fired.
no discussion of the huge number of people made SICK by these shots.. AND the change of the definition of VACCINE…. THESE SHOTS ARE NOT VACCINES! This is so obvious but WOKE fake news & truth propagandists seem to BLOCK information about these facts…. EVEN THESE TWO “open minded scientific” people…. Come on Man… I mean, Person!
The response to this post is not visible.
@@itsallalie2 I wrote nothing that indicated what kind of thing, and to what degree, I am aware of.
Thank you for the effort, though.
@@itsallalie2 I see. Kind of you to explain further. No explanation was necessary, and nothing (as I see it) in my post indicated that it was. It seemed very presumptuous on your part. Never mind. Text-based communication very often stifles the kind of understanding that is often understood without words (from context and body language etc), and leads to these misunderstands. In addition to which, many people, including myself, are often "on guard" when in other (ideal) circumstances, they would not be.
It may further aid understanding, though I usually refrain from saying so, that I am not remotely inclined to what is now called (though that is not the same as I grew up understanding it to be) "the left."
I will not venture as to whether the (currently understood) "right" or its equivalent "left" are more guilty of propaganda, but I can say (without fear of knowing myself to be a liar) that each of the two contains its fair share of lies.
In fact, I am almost entirely certain "the left" and "the right", as they are nowadays portrayed, are overly simplistic constructs used by the few who truly rule over the many who unknowingly obey, and should be abandoned and called-out as muddying the waters.
I am inclined to believe that you will not find my last comment too disagreeable.
Today’s Scientific American isn’t.
I remember Michael Shermer from way back in the 90's from his appearances on Unsolved Mysteries. Really got me thinking about what what I actually believed.
Also, every libertarian AND every legitimate scientist, specifically every biologist, should be pro-LIFE, NOT pro choice, because, again, the science is clear on this issue: life begins at conception. One study found the 95 percent biologists surveyed in the study admitted life begins at conception. The zygote has historically been the mile marker as the beginning of human development during the gestation cycle, and by 6 weeks the infant has a heartbeat. The zygote is formed as soon as the sperm cell(a living piece of matter) is fused with the egg cell(a living piece of matter). Thus, no matter when an abortion is being performed, according to biology, a living being is being murdered, intentionally with premeditation, which, in any other context would be classified as capital murder. If abortion was applied to a 5 month post-birth child, it would universally be considered a heinous crime, but when it is applied to a 5 month old pre-birth, people like Shermer pretend it is acceptable? This is where the argument falls through: the "pro choice" crowd pretends to be standing for and defending the" rights" of the mother and protecting her bodily autonomy, but what they pretend not to notice is that by protecting the mother's "right" which is not a right at all because no one has a right to commit murder, you are simultaneously depriving someone else of their rights and their bodily autonomy(the unborn child). Libertarians always say people should be allowed to do and live however they want as long as it is within reason, the confines of the law, and does not harm a third party. Well, abortion does actively harm a third party(the unborn child) by depriving him or her of their most basic right(life) and it is unreasonable to do this because the SCIENCE contradicts the baseless and vacuous "pro choice" argument because it indicates that a fetus IS human life. Let's not pretend that the pro choice argument and movement is based on anything but politics and convenience.
I never subscribed to SA. But over the years, I've dropped subscriptions to Harper's, Atlantic, New Republic. All of which I started reading way back when I was in college (I'm 66). But it just got to be a waste of time (and money).
22:10 He stepped on his own “classical Liberalism” when he chuckled into saying “the vaccines work” and people should follow Science. Dude, you need to catch up with reality.
I started getting SciAm in the 1970s. I could not renew it in 2016.
Everything became poison around that time.
Desantis didn't raise taxes on Disney. He removed privileges that Disney had for reduced taxes. Not the same thing.
Why does no one mention the role or influence of media companies' capital structure, i.e. owners/financiers? Clearly the big money is behind woke-ism. Grassroots initiatives would never build this kind of steam for so long.
Big money is 'behind woke-ism' because It sells. That's it.
It's the same reason other Big Money is behind various righty causes.
There's money to be made in outrage in anger.
@@arbitrarysequence that's absurd. There are infinite things that would sell that do not pit the population against each other in such a scientific fashion. What we are experiencing is something like communo-fascism and cultural revolution.
16:02 - I laughed too when first heard that, but no one should be laughing anymore in 2022. This stuff basically all happened. It's important to realize when you're wrong. I was wrong to laugh at that and so are you.
That’s right. They claimed they won’t come for the kids. Five minutes after gay marriage, they came for the kids. It has nothing to do with waterfowl, and everything to do with my kids.
This guys is good in some places but does not acknowledge his own biases very well
He has many.
This is rampant nowadays. Just look at the Triggernometry interview with Sam Harris.
What biases are those?
Comparing guns to cars.. one major difference: driving is a privilege. Owning a gun for self preservation is a God given right!
FYI, an imaginary friend is not a good premise for argument.
And all the regulations on cars only apply on public (government-owned) roads. Treating guns like cars would be a significant deregulation of guns: no restrictions on who can buy what (for use on one's own property), a shall-issue license that most people can get and is good in all 50 states to use in public.
Prettending that I should care about female sports is the most woke nonsense that one could do.
It's sad that Scientific American has basically destroyed itself, I still have my large collection of the magazine which I love every issue, I have issues dating back from when my father was alive over thirty years ago, and when he passed away, I started collecting, but in recent years that has come to an end, and today I don't even both looking at it on the news stand anymore.
You just perfectly described my relationship with National Geographic. I subscribed for over 40 years (since 1980) and inherited my dad's collection back to the early '60s when he died, but I let my subscription lapse last year for the same reason.
On the Disney thing: Far as I'm aware all he really did was strip Disney of special privileges that they shouldn't have had to begin with.
Exactly! This guy did not impress me.
As a first time viewer and a Christian I really enjoyed this interview. What an excellent opportunity to hear Michael Shermer’s views and thought processes. I agree completely with Michael about principles. I’m regularly finding just how self-unaware people are; they can’t see how hypocritical and inconsistent their views are being applied. If only we were prepared to listen to each other, especially when holding opposing views.
"they can’t see how hypocritical and inconsistent their views are being applied."
This is true of Michael Shermer but you'd have to have followed his work 20 years ago to see that this leopard has only outwardly changed his spots. When did he actually become skeptical? He isn't; only skeptical of certain things and that was his income stream. Embrace other things that he ought to have been skeptical of, but that too is related to income stream.
@@thomasmaughan4798 Understood. Obviously we’re all biased but atheists do have a particularly strong bias against God, Christianity and religion in general, which heavily censors open and honest discussion.
" Self Elimination" is the ultimate act of body autonomy. "My body; my choice."
Driving on the designated side of the road isn't a reduction in liberty. Individuals do cooperate, but they do so voluntarily and under clear agreement (like a contract). For example, it is fine for someone to create a private road and set the rule to drive on the other side of the road. People are free so long as their actions don't cause aggression on another, and cooperation isn't aggression, isn't how all contracts and voluntary society operate.
Yes it is a reduction in liberty, it's just a reduction that is compensated for by a larger increase in liberty elsewhere (i.e. efficient roads and less accidents).
So... what are you going to do when someone drives on the wrong side of your private road?
Hard-core libertarians are an inherent contradiction. They get mad when any sort of rule is imposed on anything, yep they don't believe that the world should be legit anarchy. You have to have some rules in a society. You can't have zero rules or nothing functions. It's about where that line in the sand is.
I cancelled Sci Am after reading for 30 y. They wouldn't tolerate Phillip Morrison if he was alive today either. It is sad what happened.
45:00 the only thing not horribly unfair to women is for trans to have their own categories. And we already know what the podiums would look like:
Gold: Males who think they're women
Silver: Males with Y-DSD issues
Bronze: Females who think they're men doped on testosterone
Consolation prize: females with DSD issues.
Semenya does not have "elevated testosterone". Semenya has NORMAL male testosterone levels but reduced processing capacity. Still much more influence than women.
This guy is a walking contradiction.
"I believe in knowing all the facts and making informed decisions of both sides without unconscious bias or cognitive dissonance"
"Now I'm going to recite incredibly inaccurate information about what happened to Disney and about Ron DeSantis"
"I'm for personal responsibility of the individual"
:30 seconds later:
"I've always been strongly pro-choice"
Yup, he fully lost me on the abortion thing when he said it was just evangelicals and that he weighs it as a compromise. I'm not religious and I still think it's ethically wrong. This guy is an inconsistent, out of touch asshole. Lots of comments on here also point out other issues. I feel like his understanding of politics is that he doesn't like the Republican party of George Bush and he doesn't like Democrats as they are today.
Ever stop to think that a woman engaging in an abortion is indeed an act of personal responsibility? The people who are not are your SCOTUS justices and Republican politicians who take down Roe and then walk away from the situation, not even recognizing the gigantic foster care, Medicaid, food stamp, welfare, and unwanted children situation they just exacerbated. They just run off to the country club or evangelical church and pat themselves on the back for the great moral action they accomplished.
Ironic, in my opinion, considering Michael Shermer was himself pre-Woke, or Woke Version 1.0 before "woke" was a thing. He is not even skeptical of his own skepticism.
I was in high school in the late 60's. During my freshman year I had an hour in study hall every day. My mom made me do 2 hours of homework every night so I didn't need to do that in study hall and I would read Scientific American and Science magazine. They were great. I learned a lot about science and wound up with a full scholarship to college. About 20 years ago I was at a library and picked up a copy of SA. Oh my GOD! They should change there name to Superstitious American.
disney wasnt taxed. their tax break was taken away
In spite of any criticism that I may have brought forward here I have to give Mr. Shermer props for his honesty and willingness to describe the situation now
One of the reasons we don't live in Somalia is because we are allowed guns . Nobody is saying EVERYBODY has to have a gun ... Come on
Interestingly enough, a 1992 UN embargo prohibits importation of firearms except for security forces and the Somali government doesn't license civilian gun shops. Effectively there is a ban on guns except for security personnel.
21:50 and 22:44 “Maybe covid19 is not that case” but “vaccine mandates are right of the state”!?!? 🤦♂️😳 No, that is inconsistent… every individual has the right to their body and liberty. Everyone has the right to vaccinate themselves, but not others. (Just like picking your nose 👃)
Need to listen to Brett Weinstein on all of the requirements for possible state mandate on vaccines.. basically impossible (no conflicts of interest, safe, effective, great risk of death)
I do have not seen ANY libertarian argument “against vaccines / science”. There is none, another false argument trying to taint libertarianism.
At 46:50, talking about Caster Semenya as "a woman who needs to lower her testosterone," that's incorrect. This is a 46, XY male person, who has all the male advantages of bigger heart and lungs, more haemoglobin and oxygen in the blood, more efficient Q-angle between hips and knees because his hips aren't wider to allow for childbirth, stronger bones, and a lot of other male "bigger, stronger, faster" advantages. Lowering testosterone after puberty does very little to reduce male physical advantage over women.
And at 47.10, talking about "overlapping testosterone bell curves," wrong again. The highest normal women's T-level is about 2.4 nmol/L. The lowest normal men's T-level is about 7.0. That is not overlapping at all. Women having to compete against men is like racing poodles against greyhounds.
Jemarius Jachin Harbor emerged into the world at 21 weeks, weighing 13 ounces, smaller than the size of a hand on Friday December 20. 2019. He's looking forward to his 3rd birthday this December. Science moves the dividing point, and the law should follow.
Gender critical and second wave feminists aren’t much better than the woke feminists. A few years ago JK Rowling and Graham Lineham were trying to cancel comedians like the rest of them.
It’s been woke a long ass time.
I am all the way pro life in my personal life but I do don't think government should be outlawing it at all. But can we all agree that we should have consequences for profit of body parts and promoting abortion in any way. Because the reason conservatives are on it so hard is our government is buying baby parts for science. This seems like a path none of us should take.
Why in your personal life?
@@tann_man I raise my children to have all the conservative beliefs ex: against abortion, no same sex marriage etc. But I'm for limited government and think they shouldn't have much to do with health care or who gets married. They use these issues as platforms and and create huge division among citizens who should be finding common ground. As well as using big tech to push narratives and censorship of opposing views.
@@leannakennedy2567 Why would you be against abortion personally if it’s healthcare?
@@tann_man your right it is more of reproduction. I guess we call it health care because a doctor in some instances oversees some births. But I can say the same for reproductive health. One of the antonyms for reproduce is abort. As you can see they have used certain key words that make it hard for us all to communicate.
@@leannakennedy2567 Why are you opposed to abortion personally?
As a many year SA magazine subscriber I stopped when the magazine became un-scientific, more like a Psychology Today, well
before the latest move to Wokism, but I hope I would have resigned all over again. The magazine has long list it's lustre. That is a great shame.
55:10 “Libertarian” and for gun control!?! 😳🤨 Logical and Principle Consistency be dammed! 🤷♂️🤯
Does not understand the 2A at all… it’s to protect the “right of the people” to “control their government”.
1:00:16 Car Regulation analogy… misses the point that beyond car safety (crash testing), preventing accidents (traffic, increased age limit, seat belts, no texting/drinking) LOWERED the accident death rate… especially among young people. How do we LOWER the Suicide rate in USA? Gun deaths are a “choice” and not an “accident” as guns are very dangerous yet SAFE.
Guys like him opened the door to wokeness by helping tear down traditions 20 years ago. Time to sleep in the bed you helped make.
People like him either don't see that or will not accept responsibility though.
agree！i am a woman scientist of color… when i experienced racism against my race，so many people so eagerly offended on my behalf… but for so many years，i was silenced/oppressed for my scientific disagreement，not one word of rebuttal….just administrative punishment…no one said a word… i was hopping those professional experts promoting inclusion can advocate a small scale internal seminar within my institution，only to find myself excluded by inclusion experts… as a woman scientist of color，independent thinking is not an allowed identity，despite “who you are matters” -- that only include my pigments and female parts…
The American Physical Society is all "woke" as well.
29:28 A failure to realize that being against murder does not, even imply, you must be in favor of social welfare state. That's an absurd statement by Shermer to even entertain as indicative of some truth.
SciAmer started getting political in the early 1990s, both in editorials and content selection. I've seen this same problem start to creep into American Scientist too.
I subscribed to SA for years but the writing was on the wall by the early 2000's. I remember one issue in which some columnist whose name I don't care to remember declared that the arch of history was complete and that socialism was clearly the best and dominate social system. I haven't read the magazine since.
Looking back, I think the decline began during the time of John Rennie as Chief Editor.
As a child, I enjoyed science projects featured in Scientific American but like National Geographic, they embraced the leftist faith with the fervor of Lysenko.
Conservatives would love it if people kept their practices in the privacy of their bedrooms. Unfortunately, they seem to prefer putting them on display in parades down main street, and demanding that the rest of us, including children, make it an ordinary part of daily life, which it isn't.
It's worse. Regular heterosexuals are discouraged from expressing themselves as such, and children are encouraged to see themselves as trans. So we can't really be OUR selves anymore in a public way.
I had the Vaccine as a matter of personal risk assessment, but when it became apparent that the vaccines didn't stop infection and transmission of Covid19 the argument for mandates evaporated. From a UK perspective it's weird how politically polarising this issue was in the US. Castor Semenya the South African runner has the 46XY DSD so although i sympathise with "her" problem, the assertion that she was born a biological female but has raised testosterone levels is inaccurate, this is an inter sex condition of incomplete foetal development of a male child.
1:18:00 "Liz Cheney is my hero" - can I have 1.5 hours of my life back please then?
Second wave feminism: We need to have as many female warmongers as we have male warmongers.
Indeed! She’s a dullard.
My grandfather had Various subscriptions I read all throughout the 70s growing up, Scientific American, Radio Electronics, 73, CQ (he was a radio ham), National Geographic... I used to devour all of them. Plus he had a full set of Encyclopedia Brittanica, so I'd look some things up in there and sometimes even read the surrounding articles...
Even up until his death in the 90s I would read them visiting at holidays. I remember meeting one of my ex's coworkers (PhD researcher at a big pharma company) and he was impressed at my ability to actually comprehend some if the things he talked about he was working with.
I look at things now and it scares me, everything has gone woke and I have to question everything even from places I would have seen as good information prior. I actually paid for a year or Scientific American a few years back and thought it was a mistake - nothing like I remember.
57:30 Gun control. Some people are nuts, others are not. Some people are too easily upset and emotional and prone to undue violence. In this debate mishaps are too easily done by permitting upset people to do whatever violence they feel like doing--moral absolutism says that no matter what or who caused the feelings and emotions upset, murdering for exciting someone else is extremely immoral. What if one intends to prevent a serious violent crime upon your innocent spouse who becomes the target of hedonistic behaviors of immoral tribal or animal like behavior by uncouthed mobs attacking your family and your life's work or all your wealth and property? If the potential violent individuals just would walk away and leave people in peace, that would be best, but if they persisted intent on violent troublemaking, then they get what is coming to them due to their lack of self and impulse control, discipline, and so on--self defense.
23:43 Abortion for libertarians… once you realize fetus/baby is NOT mother’s body (ie SCIENTIFIC not RELIGIOUS argument) then “my body my choice” does not apply.
19:05 Defines libertarianism on its merit of being “consistent in principles across issues”. Human rights are innate OR granted by the state??? 🧐🤨
No one’s saying the baby’s cells are her cells. That’s not what “ My body, my choice” means.
I think the reason they dropped Shermer is, his skepticism has the potential to see through their woke bs, so feeling threatened they cut him loose. What that means is, sciam has no self critical view, I.e. it is no longer scientific.
With the abortion issue the pro choice side is always arguing about the odd ball 2-4% like rape, incest and a dangerous pregnancy. It makes more sense to focus on the 96%, but who needs logic when emotional arguments produce more dopamine? The argument for abortion is so similar to the Holocaust. “Just an inferior clump of cells and so inconvenient”. We are all an inconvenient clump of cells. The difference is that we who are outside the womb have a chance to fright or run when someone wants us dead.
When the WWII liberators say the brutality at the death camps, many guards were overwhelmed and took vengeance. If they had been told in a sterile setting about the death camps their reaction would probably been more like ours, “ yeah how unfortunate”.
There’s a good amount of interesting and reasonable commentary here. Yet it’s a bit ironic that they mock the slippery slope about accepting same-sex marriage (only about 10 years ago) and then go on to discuss the ensuing madness surrounding transgenderism, transgender athletics, how LGBT identify is artificially spreading among children, and more.
I was thinking the same exact thing. When he said “cuz now we’re all married to ducks”, I was flabbergasted. How could they fail to see that the straw man he presented, is so much closer to being true than untrue. I guess the slippery slope is just invisible to some people. Even when it’s turning into a vertical cliff before our eyes.
I think you are failing to recognize a "don't care" about the slippery slope, with denial. Clearly, to the extent social norms are relaxed, the more people will push them. Some people care about that.
I was struck by that as well.
@@eventhisidistaken "social norms" don't get "relaxed", they get converted. Social norms are irrelevant compared to principles. That should be the focus.
@@arcguardian A principle is nothing more than a norm rooted in some ideal. In this case, objections to same sex marriage are pretty much universally rooted in religious dictates rather than some universal ideal.
Putting Muslim chants on par with Christian prayer in a Christian nation is absoluteky ridiculous.
Islam is not a religion; it's a military movement. It has nothing to do with an individual petsonal rekationship with God abd one's personal introsoection of self-improvement. Islam is socialist/collectivist rather than individualist.
The lack of understanding here, and putting the medieval militarism of Iskam on par with Christoanity is a massive problem that has led to some of the problems we are dealing with in our modern collectivist society.
I'm 15 minutes in and I don't know anything new except this guy changed his description of himself because the language around him changed. I could write his articles for him because all I have to do is stick my finger in the air with one hand and put a pen or keyboard in the other!
The UK doesn't have a police force from 500,000AD till 1829.
I mean if you look at the trajectory of society conservatives kinda called it... People just need to decide if thats a good or bad thing.
Not "kinda", they called it in the 1950's. Things that sounded like straw man arguments in the 50's are actually happening now. The slippery slope fallacy turned into the slippery slope reality.
3:25. I’m surprised he didn’t feel the uncomfortableness sooner. The ability to question one’s own position or study has been getting lost for years. Munich in the 1930s has shown just how nutty peer-reviewing academics can become.
Loved Scientific American when I was a kid (60's, 70's). Sad to hear they've gone woke, and more importantly: sounds like they've gone anti-scientific
Totally anti-science. I like you read it starting early '70's, carried old family subscription until 5 or so yrs ago. It was the politics and climate religion that finished it off for m.
@@Mrbfgray Keep sticking your head in the sand!
When you have to explain to someone that there are differences between males and females.
The “Gun show loophole” doesn’t exist!……If you’re going to argue restricting a constitutional right know your facts.
And the root cause of the mess we are currently in? Atheism. So pat yourself on the back Michael Shermer, you're one of the enablers.