The bottom line is that they cannot pick the winner.
No the bottom line is that some of them didn't "pick the winner" in particular controversies.
In general, I find liberals more accepting of science in the areas of biology/ecology, and environmental issues
I don't. They just distort different issues, or the same issues in different directions.
But in general, ideology is a poor guide, so avoid those who use it.
Except for the strong ideologues withing each group, ideology isn't usually used as a guide for science. It doesn't mean there isn't bias, even systematic bias in particular directions but such bias doesn't mean that there is no honest attempt to use the science as a guide. You might be less biased than the typical ideologue on scientific issues. You might even be less biased than people in general, you could argue much less, but you are still subject to biases and your political and philosophical views are probably relevant to your biases. If you are less biased the difference is in degree not nature. That difference in degree can be very important, I'm not putting it down or slamming you, but you are almost certainly exaggerating the difference. And to the extent that you see such bias in others you might just be reflecting your own bias.
I understand that this same argument can be applied to my own claims of bias, such as the claim of liberal bias in the media, and esp. in academia. Determining bias is likely to always be at least partially subjective.
Point me to a prominent Libertarian who is not an ideologue
A prominent person, holding ideas that aren't widely accepted, and holding them strongly is likely to be seen as an ideologue. Also if you don't expound strong libertarian views your unlikely to be prominent as a libertarian. If your prominent for some other reason people might not know that you are actually a libertarian. I really don't want to labor over classification of particular people. I don't care to finally classify how much each individual is libertarian, prominent, and/or and ideologue. I'm concerned with the ideas, and your gross generalizations about the people who hold such ideas. There is no inherent or continual connection between libertarian ideas and a distrust of science or an overly biased distortion of science. I would submit that there also is no particularly strong level of bias about science among libertarians. Particularly I disagree with your claims that liberals are less biased in that area. |
