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Comment by kaibee | Hacker News Reader

> From what I've seen I more associate the issue with Democrats than Republicans, especially in the COVID lockdown days.

Can you explain the chain of logic here? During the pandemic I "did my own research" which amounted to basically masking when other people did and getting the vaccines as they came out. At the time my SO was a nurse working on a hospital covid floor, so it seemed prudent. So, I'm not really sure how you see Democrats as being less science based? No snark intended, I'm truly curious.

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My interpretation of their comment is that it's the other way around. Democrats tend to use "science" to justify political decisions. Because people don't like those political decisions, and/or because pop science is allegedly used vs "real science", it devalues "real science" and causes people not to trust it as much

> Democrats tend to use "science" to justify political decisions.

I'd much rather politicians use science to justify political decisions instead of just doing whatever is popular, or would make them and their friends the most money.

The left also tends to use higher education in their political positions. Which is why the right now seems to really have a bone to pick with higher education.

What people should be asking is, why does science have a supposedly left-leaning bias? Why does education have a left-leaning bias? It feels like there's some obvious conclusions the republican can draw there, but they see those conclusions and draw something else instead.

I won't say "less science based" but I will say "mixes science and politics".

For example, there were covid lockdowns because "science" but then if anyone wanted to participate in the George Floyd protests and join a huge crowd of people that was A-OK, no pushback on that, no "scientific" worries about virus transmittal applied.

In that case "science" just becomes another tool to suppress the other side.

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I see your perspective, but I kinda just saw that sorta thing as like... fighting for civil rights has always been a dangerous activity?

And that specific talking point to me always read like:

"Oh I have to wear a mask in a grocery store and can't go to movies, but they're allowed to protest for their civil rights??"

I will add to this that a very common line among republicans during COVID was "it's no worse than the flu". I heard this from my family members even though I lost a few from COVID. I nearly lost a sister-in-law in her 20s from COVID (she came DAMN close) and she is still anti-vax/mask/etc.

We can also talk about misinformation about covid vaccines. I mean, it's really kind of depressing that one of the best decisions of the Trump administration (IMO) was project warp speed which got mRNA vaccines approved and on the shelves in record time. But now, he can't really talk about that as a positive thing because the entire republican party is against those very vaccines.

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