Scientists Explain Why They're Running for Political Office

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/why-scientists-are-running-for-office

About 100 scientists met in Washington, DC Thursday to learn how to win an election.

Ahead of the March for Science Saturday, about 100 scientists met at American University in Washington, DC for a training session to learn how they can run for office to bring science, reason, and logical thinking back to politics.

"It shows a level of seriousness to show up here," Shaughnessy Naughton, executive director of 314 Action, the group that will support many of these candidates. "It's scary taking that step from being a private citizen to putting your name out there to run for office."

I caught up with eight potential candidates—some of them already have seats in mind and have announced their candidacies, others are simply testing the waters—about why they want to leave the lab bench for the bully pulpit.

Scientists, academics, teachers and assorted pro-science supporters have been conducting meetings, forums and demonstrations/expo's down here this week, as well...

No doubt there have been similar shows in Europe and Asia, also..

The Trump administration didn't create the current anti-science, non-reasoning, "alternative facts" universe.  Theirs is simply the latest incarnation in the anti-science/anti-truth atmosphere that has been building over decades..  Often starting at primary school or even earlier, fed by peer pressure, sometimes worsened by parental attitudes.

Largely promoted and pushed along by big business interests (e.g. tobacco, asbestos, coal mining, big oil, big pharma'), their supplicant politicians and bastard-minded  lobbyists, and assorted nutbag (e.g. "anti-vaxxers"..), reactionary and redneck groups..

Well represented by familiar denialists and revisionists, (the likes of Tommy and a couple of his idiot backers), right here on NewsFix...          

In honor of this, I've switched back to the first avatar I had on this site

And I will share this mind-numbingly horrible thing:

Ben Reilly wrote:In honor of this, I've switched back to the first avatar I had on this site

And I will share this mind-numbingly horrible thing:

Ignorant idiots brainwashing kids into idiots. That's how we ended up with Trump.

No, it's subtler than that.  Lack of funding for education, plus alcoholic parents, spousal violence, unemployment and criminal justice recidivism all make rednecks...and rednecks voted Trump in.

Ben Reilly wrote:In honor of this, I've switched back to the first avatar I had on this site

And I will share this mind-numbingly horrible thing:

I knew this picture would make it on to the forum!