Stratagems of the Right

In a recent commercial for Microsoft, a young ethnic minority female medical student discussing cancer research, likely placed to virtue signal the ideal of more women in science and technology, etc. (STEM), made a revealing statement: "Half of science is about convincing the world that what you're working on matters." [*1] What a fascinating addendum to what we all thought science was [*2]. A shocking pivot from empiricism. Not only is it putting the cart before the horse, faith in a conclusion before the data is in, but it conflates an "is" with an "ought." Even if the cart pulls the horse, what "matters" is an independent determination from what science finds "is." Imagine a judge saying, "Half of deciding cases is about convincing the world that the cases you're deciding matter." The facts matter about 50%; the other half is finding people to support you. Many judges unwittingly believe this and disguise this