If you’re a news junkie, last week was a coke-fueled Charlie Sheen-esque bender. Between the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Narnia…I mean Palestine, hackers halting production and causing a gas shortage on the East Coast, and Caitlyn Jenner being, well, Caitlyn Jenner, one man rose to the top of my list of topics to cover: Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Fauci is a divisive figure in the field of medicine, but with the Left he is a golden boy who can do no wrong. (I’ll get into the reason why later, so stay tuned.) Sure, he has his critics, but the Left is able to excuse the alleged transgressions and treat him as the most credible person on Earth regarding COVID-19. Whether the rest of us should put as much faith in him…well, let’s just say there’s enough material to craft a Leftist Lexicon entry.
Dr. Anthony Fauci
What the Left thinks it means – a world-renowned infectious disease expert, a man of science
What it really means – an indecisive medical expert who loves the limelight more than the science
I know I’m speaking heresy here, but I’ve been following Dr. Fauci’s advice about COVID-19 from the start. As a fan of science myself, I paid attention to his briefings and really tried to digest what he said. That is, of course, until the advice he gave started flying in the face, or rather mask, of common sense. At first, he said masks weren’t effective. Then, he said they were. Now, he’s even suggesting wearing double masks. As much as I like to follow the science, it’s hard when the science careens in wild directions like a drunk Super Ball.
Of course, the Left chalks this up to the science changing rapidly. They have a point, but only to a point. With something as tricky as COVID-19, the science is bound to change rapidly as new data become available. Having said that, these changes typically don’t happen from one speech to the next…in the same day…and without alerting people (namely, the audience) to the change. An inflexible boilerplate speech regarding a global pandemic isn’t a good look.
That’s where the Left comes in. No matter what Dr. Fauci says that contradicts himself or other scientific sources, the Left treats it as gospel. Ironic, given how hostile the Left is to organized religion…or is it?
Ever since global warming became a thing back in the 1990s thanks to Al Gore, the Left has deified science to the point it cannot be challenged without being called a non-believer. What do they call people who question the “science” of global climate change? Aside from “people who didn’t flunk science like the climate change cultists did,” they’re called “science-deniers.” Now, I’ve always found this to be a misnomer because I know of very few people who deny science. Maybe they have a different opinion or place a different value on it, but not too many people out-and-out deny science.
By the same token, though, it’s also a pretty big tell that the Left has turned science into a religion, if not a cult that would make L. Ron Hubbard salivate. You know, if he were alive and stuff. But it’s funny to me to watch Leftists mock people of faith for believing what they consider to be silly and unfounded ideas while these same Leftists hang on every word Dr. Fauci says like it’s manna from Heaven.
And that’s where the “Party of Science” goes off the rails. The major problem with putting science on a pedestal is the fact…now hear me out here…it can be wrong and/or corrupted. Science at its best is bound by human understanding, and a lot of the time our understanding lags well behind the science, causing a lot of bad ideas under the guise of scientific fact. World history and more than a few graveyards are full of examples of what can happen if we’re not putting on our thinking caps and our morality pants before trying something we think will be cool.
And I think we’re on the verge of making that mistake again. Not that I think Dr. Fauci is a quack, mind you. The problem I have is putting so much faith (and, yes, it is faith, possibly of the blind variety) in what he says that we stop thinking for ourselves and questioning ideas that don’t seem to make sense. At worst, we raise questions that get answered honestly and factually, which pretty much eliminates much of the “Party of Science.” Anything beyond that is gravy. Hard science is built on the foundation of challenging ideas and finding a better understanding of the world around us. Anyone who professes love for science but hates to have it questioned when it doesn’t make sense may be entrenched in the Cult of Science or covering up for mistakes they know they’ve made.
I’m looking right at you, Michael “Hockey Stick Graph” Mann.
But let’s give Dr. Fauci the benefit of the doubt and not paint him with the same brush as Al Gore’s number-fudging buddy. Let’s look at his track record with COVID-19.
On second thought, I’m sure his acolytes and he would appreciate that we not do that because it shows he wasn’t always following the science. Instead, it seemed like he was following the politics. When the Left said we didn’t need to wear masks, he said we didn’t need to wear masks. When the Left said COVID-19 wasn’t that big a deal, Fauci agreed. Once the Left’s tune changed (i.e. when they figured out how to blame Donald Trump for their incompetence while trying to memory-hole their own statements), Fauci’s did, too. And let’s be clear, the Left wasn’t following the science; they were following their typical political mantra, “Orange Man Bad.” We can criticize the way President Trump handled the COVID-19 situation, but we will be doing a grave disservice if we don’t include those who contributed to the lack of trust in the science.
And that includes Dr. Fauci.
The fact such a prominent medical figure can be so publicly contradictory without his credibility taking a bigger hit than the aforementioned Mr. Sheen at the aforementioned coke binge is a mystery to me, but remember the Left doesn’t think about the long term, just what they can get away with in the short term. With Dr. Fauci, they got a walking contradiction that they could spin into an appeal to authority complete with a doctor’s coat and a semi-impressive CV. The fact he could be turned into an anti-Trump cudgel was a bonus. And with grown adults fawning over him like teenagers at a BTS concert, I’m guessing the good doctor doesn’t mind the attention because he typically works under thankless conditions.
At what cost, however? Sure, the action figures and the “Fauci Ouchie” Twitter posts are neat, but at some point, that attention is going to fade and Dr. Fauci will become just another old white man in a lab coat that the Left will pretend not to know. If you’re reading this, Dr. Fauci (and I know you are because, why not), remember Cindy Sheehan? That could be you in a few months.
I hope you like ditches, Doc…
