An Existential Threat to Doing Good Science
We have a lazy tendency to judge complex phenomena by superficial external features. It&#x27;s a mental shortcut.<p>The word &quot;tyranny&quot; evokes images of mid 20th century fascist soldiers marching through streets, in shiny black leather boots. Tyranny is seen as instigated by the known set of motivations that were in play at that specific time and place: hate, racist bigotry, intolerance, a sense of superiority.<p>We then fail to identify tyranny, even when it&#x27;s the same phenomenon at its core, because superficially it looks different. It looks the opposite: where the fascist tyranny was instigated by racism, this apparently new and different phenomena is motivated by an extremely strong reaction to racism.<p>We fail to acknowledge that sometimes the reaction can be just as bad, and lead to the same pathology, as the problem that initially provoked it.<p>We ended up in a very similar position of hatred, intolerance, and sense of superiority. We just fail to realize it, because the flag-bearers of this new form of tyranny are entirely convinced they are &quot;the good guys&quot;, and are only correcting the faults of the &quot;bad guys&quot;: the fascists and bigots of yore.<p>Come to think of it: the fascists ideologues were probably certain of being &quot;the good guys&quot;, themselves.