If it's a topic that interests you, I suggest you check out Harriet Hall's latest post at Science Based Medicine about progressive mythology in science. Lots of "natural is always better" type fallacies.
Some people in the comments are noting that libertarians and lefties can frequently wind up on the same side of some of these issues (like with water fluoridation), but I think it's slightly different for the libertarians. At least the ones that I know don't so much think water fluoridation is bad, as that the government should be letting individuals choose. That's annoying to public health people, but it's a political opinion, not a scientific one.
I will repeat my usual observation that it is a largely cultural battle about who one believes. Few of us could prove the earth goes around the sun. It sure doesn't look that way. But that belief fits with other things we have learned, so we believe it. I couldn't prove evolution to you, but I believe it because it fits with what I know from other fields.
ReplyDeleteWith medicine, there is resentment because some people make lots of money doing things people think should be holy and noble and free, so that no children will ever be sad again. It becomes easy to believe that those already morally suspect people are dismissing simpler and cheaper treatments mostly out of self-interest. Narrative trumps science - again.