[zimablue]

I agree that non-STEM fields are less credible, but the "X% of field X are conservatives" argument seems totally pointless to me. Your political leanings shouldn't matter, otherwise it's not truth-seeking. And most of these fields don't seem truth-seeking to me, but that's a consequence of them being harder to do test-and-iteration that's the core of finding out truth about stuff, and also they're not valued in society so they don't get the cream of the crop.

So political distribution is 1. Not that cause of the problem, 2. Probably not even a symptom, it's more to do with the fact that most science is state-funded and right wing ideology broadly seeks to diminish the state. The right are also anti-science in broader ways (religious, climate change etc etc). It's a trend across science, not just in bs subjects: http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-...

I just think whenever you're having this discussion, which is important, throwing political distributions in muddies the water and polarizes it for no upside.