Mental health scientists will surely add a new term the next time they gather: Trumpophobia, the fear of all things pertaining to America’s new president.
Trumpophobia is not confined to the usual set of social justice warriors, either. Supposedly reasoned and experienced scientists have become unhinged over the past week, as Trump vigorously began fulfilling campaign promises.
For example, USA Today reports that a nonprofit group of “scientists” moved the hands of the the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight on Thursday amid increasing worries over nuclear weapons and climate change.
Each year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit that sets the clock, decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer or further from destruction. The symbolic clock is now two-and-a-half minutes from midnight, the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953, when the hydrogen bomb was first tested. Scientists blamed a cocktail of threats ranging from dangerous political rhetoric to the potential of nuclear threat as the catalyst for moving the clock closer towards doomsday.“This year’s Clock deliberations felt more urgent than usual…as trusted sources of information came under attack, fake news was on the rise, and words were used by a President-elect of the United States in cavalier and often reckless ways to address the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change,” Rachel Bronson, the executive director and publisher of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in a statement.
Typically, I avoid using “scare quotes” around words. However, I was curious about the actual scientific degrees possessed by Bronson. In my quest for her biography, I uncovered that she is a long-time environmental justice warrior (as denoted in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists).
Her scientific degrees are in….Political Science and history, as specified in her LinkedIn profile.
Her experience includes: Director – Middle East Studies (Council on Foreign Relations), Cochair – Producer’s Guild (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), and Adjunct Professor – Global Energy (Kellogg School of Management).
Where is the real science? I have multiple degrees in geology and chemistry. I have spent countless hours in laboratories, published papers on research that generated hard data, and have had to use the scientific theory to defend my hypotheses. This is the type of activity associated with scientists.
I am angry that the elite media, so keen to keep with their narratives about President Trump, failed to do some basic background research on a key organizer.
The article notes that “The decision is made by the board of the nonprofit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ along with input from a board of sponsors which includes 15 Nobel Laureates.” Given that Obama now holds a Nobel Peace Prize, the term “Nobel Laureate” holds a bit less prestige.
Furthermore, award-winning scientists I personally know are directly advising Trump. So there is no consensus.
Dr. Martin Fricke, a real nuclear physicist who has been active in fighting eco-activism, states:
“It shames all honest science when politicized science is promoted as real.”
During the Obama Presidency, North Korea’s nuclear capabilities increased to the point they threatened to launch a nuclear capable ICBM. And the Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran made the world substantially less safe. I do not recall news of Doomsday Clock resets being touted during the past 8 years.
Now it is being reported that there is a Scientists March on Washington being planned.
March organizers, on the event’s website, said it serves as “a starting point to take a stand for science in politics.” Organizers launched a Facebook page on Tuesday that’s already compiled 123,000 likes while its Twitter account amassed more than 150,000 followers.The event’s date, organizers said, will be announced in the coming days. Marches in other parts of the country and Europe also are being planned. The group’s mission statement is set to come out on Monday.
As a scientist, I offer these queries for further study, in relationship to this event:
As I don’t trust our elite press to do the investigation, I am going to have to do the research it no longer wants to do. The data collected will be….fascinating.
I suspect detailed research will prove my hypothesis correct: The number of real scientists with Trumpophobia will be substantially fewer than that recorded in the press.
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