[hprotagonist]

"If It'S nOt ScIeNcE iT's A lIE" is an exceptionally common trope, especially among the people in my social strata. I'm not entirely sure that people espousing that belief set are even doing so explicitly, i think it's so implicit as to have become an unconsidered axiom.

I (see upthread), a scientist myself, think it's absolute hogwash, and i'm certainly not abnormal among my peers in that.

There's something about being the person who not only watches how the sausage is made but has spent (ack) 14 years at this point making sausages of several kinds that kind of strips away overly idealistic expectations about How Pure And Right This Thing Must Be. If you're lucky, and i think i am, you learn enough humility to acknowledge the value of other people's sausage-makings. And, often, have the right state of mind to see and acknowledge the intellectual power and meaningful contributions of people well outside my field.