As seen in our latest presidential election, there has been a recent rise in distrust of not only the media but more disturbingly, scientists and science itself. Why has this happened, and what can we do to understand and stop it?

I would argue that this movement began in the 1960’s with the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, and the Civil Rights Movement which grew distrust in the government on both sides, and profoundly impacted Baby Boomers. This distrust was expanded and spread by a number of companies who ran disinformation campaigns, most notably claiming that cigarettes didn’t cause cancer or that leaded gasoline wasn’t harmful. Later, this was and is repeated by oil companies campaigning against climate change. Not all of these campaigns claimed that the science was wrong either, all they needed to say was that “the jury was still out” or show that scientists didn’t all agree to sow the seeds of doubt in the populous.

There was also the rise of fundamentalism, which vehemently rejected many established scientific principles such as evolution, the benefits of birth control, and certain medicinal practices. Not to mention the infamous study that “showed” that vaccines can cause autism which, although thoroughly disproved and disowned by many who worked on it, threw fuel on this fire.

At this point I should mention the loosening of election laws which occurred throughout the 80’s (continuing to present day) which gave corporations and interest groups tremendous power in government on both sides. In this case we’re going to focus on the right, as it is more notable and overt there. Combine these corporate politicians with religious fanatics and you have a terrible combination with incentive to actively work against science.

On the other side, scientists and engineers aren’t doing themselves any favors. Many of these issues are very complex, and hard to explain to the public. Instead, they focus on the parts of science that gain the most attention (rising sea levels for example) instead of those that are the most important to teach (acidification of the oceans and change of air currents).

While all of this is terrible, it didn’t become widespread to the degree it is today until recently because most popular and respected media still listened to unbiased studies and didn’t try to actively dupe their audience. Everything changed when the internet because an integral part of modern news. Blogs and websites that weren’t obliged to fact-check or accountable to advertisers began to pop up, many of which pushed a specific agenda. Some of these were spread through social media circles on websites like Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter creating bubbles which reinforced the same talking points and isolated people from those who could show they were wrong.

This all leads to today’s growing Flat Earth Society, children who are dying from easily preventable diseases in the US, and our president who believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. Hopefully we can change this dire state of affairs, before it is too late.