Tom is the only person on this platform brave enough to talk about deeply controversial topics like this. We desperately need to get more public figures literally talking about rocks, even for just 3 minutes.,(reply>), @Matthew Reynolds Actually humans are apes, right?,(reply>), @Wayfarer-Sailing It's a common misconception many people have based on some extremely shoddy and questionable science in which the researchers allowed their bias to sway their results.  In point of fact, it's likely no ape has ever possessed anything like the language skills attributed to them.  You can research this if you like.,(reply>), @Matthew Reynolds Apes <b>can</b> perform sign language, right?,(reply>), @Matthew Reynolds  Obviously science as a whole is not immune to corruption of various kinds and obviously it has been misused. But let's not be immature by saying that rigorous defence of the scientific method equates to a quasi-religious fanaticism. This is my whole point; if you allow scientific facts to give way to absurdities and falsehoods, then it leads to a general distrust in science which is very harmful. Yes, the vaccine hesitancy is in part due to mistakes in peer publication and the like. This is more understandable in a global emergency. But you cherry pick this while ignoring the massive dangers of Trump and Qanon and such, which make bare assertions, not backed by any evidence, and pass it off as fact. This, too, is a kind of affront to the scientific integrity. Misinformation in short is much more to blame for vaccine hesitancy than the odd scientific mistep. And what fuels misinformation? A distrust in scientific rigour.,(reply>), @Matthew Reynolds That's true - it's rude and unhelpful.