Fool Me Twice

Starred review from September 19, 2011
In this incredible book, Otto explores the devaluation of science in America. His exhaustively researched text explains the three-pronged attack on science: how right-wing Christian fervor discredits evolution; how post-modernism and cultural sensitivity makes people believe that objective truth doesn't exist; and how corporations discredit scientists in order to further economic agendas. Otto also shows how Christian beliefs aren't traditionally anti-science, and how America went from a nation that valued scientific achievement to one suspicious of it. By attacking science, America diminishes its capacity to compete in the global marketplace, and endangers the world for future generations. The accessible book will inform scientists about what has happened to their field, provide an overview for laypeople, and allow educators to equip themselves to address these issues for the next generation and reverse this troubling trend.

Starred review from September 1, 2011

The public's perception of the role of science in culture and medicine has changed amid an increasingly anti-intellectual movement in politics and religion, and unless scientific literacy increases among citizens and lawmakers, environmental and other crises will exacerbate and threaten the United States' role as a global superpower.

Fueled partly by right-wing politicians and lobbyists and partly by a scientific community that has lost its engagement with the general public, scientific facts are suddenly vulnerable to being "subjective" and even "partisan." Important issues like vaccinations (see Paul Offit's Deadly Choices) and global warming have become heated debates in the media and in election cycles, and science in general is mistakenly perceived as just another "way of knowing" and can be "debunked" by an articulate (if inaccurate) counter-argument. The result is often public policy that is disastrous for the long term but benefits a few powerful people in the short term. Otto, co-founder and CEO of Science Debate 2008 and writer and producer of the film House of Sand and Fog, argues that an uninformed, or misinformed, country, including members of Congress, may be ill-equipped to make the enormous decisions that will affect future generations. The members of the incoming GOP class almost unanimously agree that climate change is a hoax, despite the fact that the U.S. stands alone among all other developed nations in this opinion. Combined with a loyalty to free-market economic policies that no longer make sense in a rapidly growing population, this could spell ecological and economic disaster. Only by competing with other countries to find renewable energy and by committing to science education and unbiased reporting can the U.S. remain a global leader. Otto writes that "there is no greater moral, economic, or political question" at stake, but that our legacy of freedom and leadership can guide us to make the right decisions.

A gripping analysis of America's anti-science crisis.

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