Donald Trump says that “no one knows what magnets are” during a strange Oval Office press conference. During the swearing in of a new ambassador to India on Monday (10 November), the President launched into a rant about China, whilst discussing their recent agreement to start easing rare earth export rules. “China was going to hit us with rare-earth. Now, everybody says, ‘Oh, what does that mean?’ Magnets. If China refused to give magnets, because they have a monopoly on magnets… there wouldn’t be a car made in the entire world.” He then claimed that “nobody knows what magnets are”, before going on to praise the “great deal” the two nations made in October. Whilst the talks did not end in a formal agreement, Mr Trump agreed to reduce tariffs on some Chinese goods entering the US, whilst Beijing agreed to suspend export control measures it had placed on rare earths.
Why is this notion that science is some great scam so prominent in American culture? Where does it come from? Is it just that people don’t understand it and want to feel better about their ignorance?
Yeah, you pretty much get it. Although it’s not about feeling better about their ignorance exactly. It’s that scientists keep telling them to stop doing things that they want to do, and they don’t like being told what to do. Stop beating your kids, stop burning so much gas, stop depleting the biome in your farm soil, stop torturing animals because they have feelings, stop treating women like they are intellectually stunted, etc.
Isaac Asimov said this almost fifty years ago. It still doesn’t answer the “why” but it shows how long (at least) this has been going on.