OPINION:
Progressives frequently point fingers at those who disagree with them, calling them deplorables, Bible-thumping rubes and science deniers. Yet without fail, our accusers rarely provide any evidence to support their claims. The leftists’ call to “respect the science,” i.e., look at the obvious empirical evidence, almost always works against them rather than for them and their utopian schemes.
This is true across the spectrum of the current political debate. Be it inflation, foreign policy, immigration, racism, the efficacy of masks, climate change or gender identity, when we look at the empirical data relevant to any of these topics, the science screams that progressives are wrong and conservatives have been right all along.
For example, it is obvious to everyone who has even an elementary school understanding of genetics and physiology that gender is an obvious and biological fact. Frankly, there is little more that is observably real than the fact that a newborn baby is either a boy or a girl. Likewise, it is indisputably clear to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear that Lia Thomas is a man who has no business swimming against women, nor should he be permitted in their restrooms and locker rooms.
It is likewise an empirical fact that inflation in former President Donald Trump’s first 41 months in office was 5.4%, whereas it was approximately 20% under President Biden over the same period, according to the consumer price index. Electricity, gasoline, groceries and rent all cost more under the current administration. The numbers don’t lie. The science is clear. You are not better off today than you were four years ago.
It is an obvious empirical fact that climate alarmists’ apocalyptic predictions have been wrong for the past 50 years. The science is in. The polar ice caps are still there. Sea levels haven’t appreciably changed. Hurricane frequency hasn’t increased. And no, this isn’t the hottest summer we’ve had in recent history.
It is obvious that racist policies under the guise of “anti-racism” do not diminish racial animus but rather fuel it. The antisemitism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Black Lives Matter riots in Baltimore were not racially neutral.
It is obvious that masks did little to nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19.
It is obvious that natural immunity was and is superior to mRNA injections.
It is obvious that 10 million foreign nationals flooding across our borders illegally is not good for our national security.
It is obvious that elementary-age children do not benefit from sexually explicit indoctrination.
It is obvious that amputating healthy, functioning organs from adolescents is not good health care.
Likewise, it is empirically obvious that certain behaviors plainly compromise the design and purpose of the human body and that any sexual act other than one between a monogamous man and a monogamous woman predictably causes disease and dysfunction and should be avoided. This is simple science.
It is obvious that for at least 2,000 years, Western civilization has affirmed (to its obvious advantage) the ontologically obvious definition of marriage. It is, likewise, obvious that children do best when they have both a mother and a father bound to each other in such a marriage. It is obvious that a mother fares better when she is married to the father of her children. It is also obvious that our efforts at social engineering have resulted in untold poverty and dysfunction for these same women and their children. Again, the science is in on all of this. The numbers are clear. The evidence can’t be denied.
So many things are clear, observable and therefore, empirically obvious. For example, socialism works only until you run out of other people’s money. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is an empirical fact that liberty is always lost when licentiousness abounds, and it is obvious that women suffer most when men are without morals.
All of this is observable and scientifically confirmed. But there’s more.
It is also scientifically obvious that some absolutes cannot be tested in a tube, yet they must be affirmed. For example, surely even the most scientific among us must admit that rape is wrong and the Holocaust was evil. What thinking person would deny such empirical facts?
Even if such truths cannot be derived from a laboratory or a petri dish, we know what is true. And how about those who believe nature’s design has no designer? Are they not operating on “faith” much more than those who clearly see a painter behind the painting and a watchmaker behind the watch?
We live in a culture where we are constantly told to trust “the science.” So be it. When we do, the facts shout that the right was right all along and that progressives have a pathological habit of projecting their sins on others to the point where they are really little more than a pot calling the kettle black.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.
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