Here’s How They Say Conservatives Are Destroying Science

My favorite headline of late is from Stat, which I’ll reveal in a brief moment. First, as I was discovering that headline, I saw the site’s top crawl, which asked us to buy their stunning new report “See how top drug companies rank in fighting climate change.”

Only $499! United State dollars. There is no typo. Four hundred ninety nine. Dollars. To learn how drug companies are “fighting climate change.”

Drug companies? Fighting “climate change”? You mean there’s a pill for that? Ask your doctor if Kimaatstop&tm; is right for you?

To the main event. Or main headline: “As conservative views collide with science, doctors find themselves navigating political landmines.”

Conservatives colliding with Science. Again! What are those rascally crusty old so-and-sos doing now. Vicious endless disrespectful denial of Science, no doubt. Let’s see.

It started with a tweet: A year-old, 43-second clip of Kevin Wang talking about how parents and teachers can help affirm and support a child’s gender identity, encouraging children to explore.

The vitriolic tweets were swift, and they snowballed. Right-wing influencers accused Wang, an unassuming Seattle physician, of “mutilating” and “destroying” children, though he did not discuss surgery in the clip. They made fun of his name and eventually even posted his workplace and contact details online, setting off enough red flags to convince his hospital’s security department to pull down his employee page.

Come now. Making fun of Wang? How juvenile can you get. I mean, it’s not like his nurse said, “Dr Wang, your patient is here for his surname removal.”

To which the science-minded Dr Wang surely never replied, “Is he young? I like ’em young. The flesh cuts best young.” Which he never said right after he never said, “A new patient? Call my stock broker.”

“They are butchers not doctors,” tweeted Elizabeth Economou, a Seattle-based reporter for sites like Fox News.

The viral moment reverberated through the family physician and pediatrician community, as doctors across the country increasingly find their medical advice at odds with Republican political leaders across the nation. What was most baffling, Wang said, was that only other doctors who attended the event had access to the clip.

“It is definitely a dangerous time for many of my friends who provide care, especially in places which are more hostile,” Wang said.

Do people really questions medical advice? From doctors? Doctors are Experts. There is no way people can know as much as doctoral Experts at medicine. I am not being facetious. I will prove it to you.

Young girl, say 11, pre-menarchal, or even just post pre, if you like. She comes to you, this little girl, you, a non-Expert non-doctor, and says, “The girls in my class want to become boys. I do, too. Teacher said it is a wonderful idea.”

Now, I ask you, Mr Conservative Non-Expert Non-Doctor, just where would you begin the incision to slice this girl’s breasts off? Well—where? I’m asking. Come on. Don’t Google it. Tell me.

You have no answer. You would start cutting (pardon me) at random, and the goodness knows what organs you’d have left over after the operation is over.

So it’s right Experts like Wang worry. You don’t know even Science to do the job properly. As an aside, I suggest he hide his scalpels from anybody wearing a MAGA hat.

Scores of practicing physicians and the national groups that represent them are increasingly at the center of a widening cleave between conservative America and science writ large. The gap has doctors young and old questioning how to navigate political landmines and limits in their communities — or whether they should at all.

The challenges only show signs of worsening as 2024 Republican presidential candidates make health care restrictions — and a deep distrust of science — tent poles in their campaigns. Limits and outright bans on abortion, and the very existence of gender-affirming care are already heated talking points in primary debates.

I wonder if Wang’s mother ever said, “I wish I had an abortion”? I wonder if readers are thinking it. I mean, doctors are the real Experts. Can they now look inside women and see which lives growing in there are best slaughtered and which should be allowed to live? I mean, maybe they have the technology. I’m not an Expert.

I also not one to question affirming surgeries. Our culture is all about affirming desires. I need to affirm my desire to fly. Wings, dammit. And now. You bigots.

Subscribe or donate to support this site and its wholly independent host using credit card click here. Or use the paid subscription at Substack. Cash App: $WilliamMBriggs. For Zelle, use my email: matt@wmbriggs.com, and please include yours so I know who to thank.