First, Orac has a great post up, "The anti-vaccine movement, cranks and 'pseudo-expertise' " which once again reminds us that a little knowledge brush with not-validated information is a dangerous thing:
In the case of the anti-vaccine movement, what drives this arrogance of ignorance is an old-fashioned American distrust of authority (often good, but not always) combined with a democratic tradition in which every person is assumed to be equal. The problem is that equal under the law and possessing equal rights (which is he American ideal) does not mean equal abilities or knowledge. We as a people seem to conflate the two and assume all too often that, if Paul Offit can pontificate about vaccines, so can we, even though we don't have any special expertise in the relevant sciences. Too many of us assume that several hours (or even much, much less) spent in front of a computer studying at the University of Google renders our understanding equal to that of scientists and experts who have spent their entire lives studying a problem.
Second, it's time to party like it'll never be 1999 (or 2005) again! Kansas Citizens for Science celebrates its 10th anniversary and the 150th of "On the Origin of Species" tonight at KU's Museum of Natural History. Josh Rosenau, of "Thoughts from Kansas" (and points west) fame will lead the celebrations. More details at "The Pitch."
As we celebrate, we must keep in mind that ignorance and arrogance masquerading as expertise may be temporarily dampened in Kansas, but anti-science hasn't gone away:
Fifty-three percent said they favored teaching both evolution and creationism in public schools. Polling data from 4/28 - 9/8, 2009, of Kansans, by FHSU's Docking Institute
But tonight, at least we can rejoice in how far we've come since 1999!
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
