I'm starting to see anti-scientific method memes in the dark corners of the internet. I mean this literally: they suggest that the scientific method is a tool of the progressive left, and that the proper thing to do is reject it. They specifically call out the "I fucking love science" language used in insipid places like Facebook, and more broadly, must be referring to phrases when get cast about such as "follow the science."

Of course nearly everything is politicized currently, and science has certainly been politicized in the past, (Galileo, Scopes Monkey Trial, Creationism in schools, etc.) but that doesn't make this latest round any less troubling.

I want to be clear here that I'm not suggesting that science is "left" or "right," or that the left is blameless here. (they're definitely not blameless) That said, I do think it's very interesting to see a strict attack on the scientific method itself, which is at least to my eyes seems new. For example in the old Creationism debates of the 90s and early 2000s, the certainty of specific scientific evidence is what was brought into question. Perhaps that was only because the debates had to happen in the public eye, and have some air of validity though.