In these uncertain times, I think it is very important that we look at pseudoscience as a whole, even before we tackle the subject at hand. We are in a pandemic, and people already believe strange things. Let is define pseudoscience. According to the Webster dictionary,
“Pseudoscience can be defined as a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific fact”
Looking at this closely, I think it came about because of marketing, Marketing I will say is responsible for this, this is why we have quack doctors. Pseudoscience usually flourishes because of belief. Another reason for the rise of pseudoscience is the internet. The Internet makes people believe that they can be experts overnight, and then somehow all the time specialists and experts spent to perfect their craft is just a waste of time. For example, a person might read a few things about physics and think they can be a physicist overnight, based on one topic, the same goes for most of the sciences. I will blame pseudoscience on a few things, let us start with something very common.
Not too long ago, the news was just the news, All of a sudden the news networks changed, they did this to make more money and one of the ways they did that was to create a brand. People identify with brands that is why there is a thriving fashion industry. This gave birth to identity politics as we know it. The media is very powerful to society and people identify with who they support. For example, someone said COVID-19 was named COVID 19 because it is the 19th version of that(SARS) virus which was untrue, but his listeners believed him. Another story also talks about 5G, and that was responsible for the coronavirus. Since this person is a celebrity a lot of people believed he knew something they didn’t. This celebrity has over 2 million followers. Another reason we believe celebrities is they are just like a “brand”, which is what we as people attach ourselves to. This is why politicians use celebrities to get their message across, A lot of grown women, girls, love Cardi B, so I wasn’t surprised when Cardi B was talking about politics and was actually having a conversation with Bernie Sanders about the pandemic, Cardi B is no expert in anything, yet people believed what she had to say or agreed with her for that matter.
In this world of today, because of media, the herd mentality is very much alive in our society. it’s easy to spread a lie and repeat that lie so many times people will start believing it. ( Media doesn’t have to work that hard anymore, it would be reposted by individuals on social media )
Now I don’t know about anyone but I don’t believe the story of someone eating a bat and infected this many people with the coronavirus, there has to be some other explanation to the spread of this virus. I don’t think the authorities know how the virus got out of hand. The most important thing is to contain it. Since there are a lot of myths about the virus, a lot of people feel one of two ways, either they are very scared or they feel like revolting because the government is keeping some truths from them ( I’m the first to say they have a point to believe that, there is a reason why governments have secret service)
So far all the conspiracies about the COVID virus are a bit far fetched, a few of them are
1. The viruses can’t survive in heat ( President Trump is guilty of this) well if that were true tropical Africa(West Africa) shouldn’t have the cases they are having now,
2. I heard this today, some people believe microwaving everything will kill the virus which is not true, As someone said microwave is for food, and not for viruses
3. Face masks protect against the virus, which is not true, it protects against the spread of the virus, it doesn’t protect the individual wearing the mask
4. The virus doesn’t affect black people, which again is not true, never heard of virus discrimination
The truth is people are going to believe what they are going to believe, Rahm Emanuel said one time that in every crisis there is an opportunity,(not in those words but close) so governments can have a field day or are having a field day with this. The sad thing is pseudoscience affects us all.
Nature is science, and explaining nature can be a daunting task, most people will rather do something else than to try and understand science or the science behind a certain theory. There is a big stigma about mathematics. Most of the sciences are expressed in mathematics. For example, the science that goes into going to space is complicated, so it is easier to believe that it never happened rather than go through all the physics and mathematics that explains and surrounds that event. Scientists among themselves believe that nothing is impossible so they are working on a lot of possibilities. A few years ago, things like cell phones and microwave ovens were only seen in science fiction movies, today everyone has a cell phone and there is a microwave oven in almost every household. A lot of what we are told on the news is also subject to research especially when it comes to science. Some just believe the government is lying about everything, others believe the government is lying about some things. The truth is that the government does keep secrets from its people, they the “government” always claim they have a good reason to do that. This makes more people believe in these silly conspiracies. One of the most interesting group is The flat earth society, they believe the earth is flat, and the government has lied to us, for no absolute reason. They can’t prove scientifically the earth is flat though, they just come up with “hear, say” theories. The thing about science is that if something is not true, we can disprove it scientifically. Pseudoscience doesn’t. It just says a bunch of theories. The funny thing about pseudoscience is that some people believe in it because of racism. Usually, the pro blacks believe authorities are lying to the public and that their reason for lying to the public is racially motivated meanwhile they fail to acknowledge the contributions of black people when it comes to space exploration.
Black women in those days worked as mathematicians to help the country with space exploration. That story wasn’t told because of racism back in those days.
Pro blacks don’t believe in space exploration but yet would say that the racist government undermines the achievements of black people. It cannot be both, it is either the space exploration never happened or it happened with the help of black people. This is one of the greatest achievements of black people, and to deny space exploration as a hoax, means to deny the achievement of every black person that has worked on space exploration and gone through NASA. There was a movie in 2014 to tell the story of space exploration and the women who made it possible. These women were Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. Pro blacks are not willing to acknowledge that the most scientifically advanced experiment couldn’t have been possible had it not been for black women, the reason is they don’t understand the science behind it so they rather, dismiss the whole thing.
This is what I can say about pseudoscience, (I think) a little of it is healthy because everything has a level of corruption. It actually helps us to question everything, and this is what science is based on, How? and why? but too much of it is bad because it makes people reject the very thing they asked for because it sounds far too complicated. we do have to re-educate ourselves and not think that we are all experts and scientists are wrong we might have an idea about a particular subject but we can’t be experts overnight.
Here are some women of color who did exceptional work in mathematics and engineering, one of them by the name of Dr. Gladys West was responsible for the mathematical modeling of the earth’s shape, if she hadn’t done that, space exploration wouldn’t be possible. She is known for a process called Satellite geodesy, according to Wikipedia Satellite geodesy is geodes by means of artificial satellites — the measurement of the form and dimensions of Earth, the location of objects on its surface and the figure of Earth’s gravity field by means of artificial satellite techniques. It belongs to the broader field of space geodesy. It is safe to say, without a doubt that Dr. Gladys West invented Global Positioning System (GPS) without her , we wouldn’t have google maps , waze, etc but of course some Pro black conscious person will tell you the EARTH IS FLAT!!!!!!!!!
1.Katherine Johnson- Orbital Mechanics
2. Dorothy Vaughan- Human Computer & Aeronautics
3. Mary Jackson- Aerospace Engineer
4. Dr. Gladys West- Satellite geodesy
5. Ann Easley- Computer Science
The most important question for the pro blacks is , Are these ladies part of the “big lie “?