The journal Nature calls for “decolonization” of modern scienceThis is just an opinion, but where is the contrary opinion?That Nature published this long comment, written by eight indigenous authors from five countries, is a sure sign of its surrender to “progressive” views that aim to change science from an endeavor finding truth about nature to an endeavor that’s a lever for social justice. Surprisingly, though, Nature allowed the authors to use the “progressive” term of “decolonization,” arguing explicitly that the science is the result of colonization of knowledge by white men from the Global North — a situation that must be recitified, pronto.
The authors give eight ways to rectify the “colonization”, all of them involving sacrificing merit for ethnicity, replacing modern science with “other ways of knowing,” and demanding both professional, monetary, and territorial reparations, even from those who never oppressed anybody.
The article is filled with racist and false statemeents like:
Dominant science (sometimes referred to as Western science) is rooted in colonization, racism and white supremacy: it has been an active participant in the assimilation, marginalization and genocide of Indigenous people1,2. Black and Indigenous people have been exploited repeatedly by dominant science for monetary and educational gain3, and many institutions were funded by money acquired after stealing Indigenous lands.No, they have been huge beneficiaries of Western science. And most of them are not really capable of participating.
Ultimately they want Whites to supply better funding to non-white scholars.
The article keeps referring to Aotearoa, which is some sort of anti-colonialist name for New Zealand. They complain that they need to write in English, in order for anyone to read their papers.
They obviously have science envy. They come from cultures and races that have never accomplished anything, and they wonder why their bogus voodoo science is not taken seriously.
A comment:
You could just replace “indigenous” with “religious” and the arguments would be the same. After all, it was mainly white males who created the Enlightenment and destroyed religion’s control over what was considered true about the natural world.No, this is also nutty. Those White males were Christians, and Christians never had much control over what was considered true about the natural world.
When a scientist thinks themselves qualified to tell you who to vote for and what to think and how to live, they are no longer a scientist, they are a demagogue and should be stripped of any government funding. This would give incentive for scientists to keep their noses clean and remember scientific methodology, as they are just as prone to corruption as any other human.
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