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by zozbot234 2425 days ago
> the left wing tends to be more science based

Sorry, but the left wing is not "science based" at all when it comes to the social sciences - their attitude to social issues is very much religious in nature (see any mention of "socialism" and "wealth taxes" as perhaps the clearest and least controversial example) and "the antithesis of the enlightenment". Both sides are playing this game.
1 comments
confidantlake 2425 days ago
Agreed, but in my personal view social sciences are not really sciences at all. They have a largely ideological component. I expect there to be disagreements there. On the other hand denying hard sciences seems much worse.
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zozbot234 2425 days ago
> Agreed, but in my personal view social sciences are not really sciences at all.

That's quite wrong. Even as we speak, hundreds of millions of people are being lifted out of poverty, thanks in no small part to the gradual adoption of saner policies based in the social sciences. That's not "ideology", it's real results.

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confidantlake 2425 days ago
Agree, I am having trouble expressing my thoughts correctly here. Maybe what I mean to say is describing a physical properties of our universe is much simpler than understanding social systems. Therefore these ideas tend to get simplified and you hear things like "communism is good" or "capitalism is good". It becomes more about tribal identity than scientific inquiry.

But I concede that in other instances better policies based on social sciences are helping us tremendously.

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