Gaah!
Why is this even an issue on Physics Forums?!
Of all places.
One of the march's principle goals is to celebrate and promote the "... use of peer-reviewed evidence and scientific consensus, not personal whims and decrees." [Source: https://www.marchforscience.com/mission-and-vision/]
Consider the goal of "... to learn and discuss science as it is currently generally understood and practiced by the professional scientific community." That quote was not actually taken from the march's materials. Rather that is a quote from Physics Forums' Global Guidelines. [Source:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/physics-forums-global-guidelines.414380/]
If a PF member were to continually spout demonstrable falsehoods with total disregard for the truth, and without tether to verifiable evidence (or without any evidence whatsoever), and were to even attempt to change and sway the PF community at large based on said falsehoods and personal theories, that member would probably receive infractions and eventually be banned. And rightly so.
Although this is a wonderful age in which we live, where vast amounts of information lie at our fingertips, it comes with an unfortunate side effect: there are also available vast amounts of misinformation. People just don't know what to believe. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the population is being gaslit into confusion. Many people place astronomy and astrology on equal footing. There are several predominant athletes in the spotlight who believe that the
earth is flat. People honestly don't know where their smartphones came from, but suspect that the invention was created through prayer [or aliens] (I don't have a source for this one besides personal experience -- yes, I've met people who actually believe that all technological innovation was merely handed down to faithful human worshipers from the divine powers above).
The solution to this mess is to promote science and scientific principles, and that includes critical thinking. That's
why PF is such a great website and a great community: We support these principles. That's what this march is purportedly about too, and in my opinion that's reason enough to go.
In the last couple of years, there's been a growing movement promoting relative truth: the idea that there is no absolute truth in anything, and therefore science's version of the Big Bang and cosmology are no more credible than creationism. It's the idea that climate change won't happen so long as we don't think about it. If you disagree with this trend and think that there is absolute truth that can be found by evidence based science, then get off your butt and go to the march.
There's also the perception that scientists are all reclusive hermits that shuffle around laboratories in white lab coats. The perception that being a scientist is out of reach for the common persons. Scientists are somebody else, somebody different, somebody separated from society. And science is just something that scientists do. Science isn't anything that a common person could understand, so there's no point in learning it or even appreciating it. -- If you are uncomfortable with this perception and instead think that children should get involved with science at an early age and appreciate it throughout life then get off your butt and go to the march.
If the newly appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denies that carbon dioxide is the/a predominate greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, ironically contradicting the
EPA's own website based on evidence based science, then get off your butt and go to the march.
If the man in the most influential position of power in the nation continually spouts demonstrable falsehoods with total disregard for the truth, and without tether to verifiable evidence (or without any evidence whatsoever), and attempts to change and sway the community at large with policy based on said falsehoods and personal theories, we unfortunately don't get to ban him. But we can get off our butts and go to the march.
