Donald Trump vs science: Why the road to hell beckons if we let him win
Scientists built the modern world. Populists like Donald Trump could bring it crashing down
Donald Trump’s self-aggrandising lecture to world leaders at the United Nations covered much ground, including the suggestion that the US was experiencing a “golden age” while countries in Europe were “going to hell”.
Referring to the UK, the US President falsely claimed there was a plan to introduce sharia law in London; insisted the North Sea had “tremendous oil that hasn't even been found yet”; and described climate change as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated in the world”. Despite this extraordinary feat, he suggested “stupid people” were behind it and claimed that he, unlike climate scientists, was “really good at predicting things”.
Trump had a similar view of his expertise in medical matters during the Covid pandemic, recklessly suggest injecting disinfectant as a treatment – advice which, if followed, could lead to a particularly agonising death.
‘Dangerous’ and ‘anti-science’
Shortly before his UN speech, he spuriously claimed there was a link between paracetamol and autism in remarks condemned by various medical experts, including the UK's National Autism Society which said they were “dangerous”, “anti-science” and “irresponsible”. Trump also reheated debunked claims about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.
A defining characteristic of populists like Trump is that they confuse their opinions with fact. If they believe something, it must be true and they are seemingly impervious to evidence that conflicts with their views. The same delusion existed among the political elites of the former Soviet Union, where scientists had to avoid discovering anything that went against communist ideology.
Speaking to supporters at about the same time as Trump, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey sought to position his party as leaders of the fight against Reform UK, warning they would turn Britain into “Trump’s America”.
But perhaps the biggest threat posed by populists is their denial of reality as documented and described by the scientific community, whose members, over many generations, built the modern world.
Scientists are not perfect but they, more than anyone else, created the real “golden era” of human civilisation. And if we choose to arrogantly dismiss their knowledge and expertise, we may well find ourselves on our way to hell on Earth.
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