# Opinions on The War on Science, edited by Lawrence M. Krauss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241 "2026-06-28T02:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/21 "2026-06-30T14:49:38Z")
Nailed it! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/22 "2026-06-30T17:39:44Z")
Last year when the book came out, [_Pharyngula_ atheism/science blogger PZ Myers linked to a vlog post about it by Rebecca Watson (Skepchick)](https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/04/24/krauss-smashed/). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/23 "2026-06-30T17:55:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > > > Krauss is a credibly accused sex abuser, who’s jumped into the right wing pipeline. He’s an Epstein associate. T > > So, there are good and bad reasons to reject a book. Either- Content, or Ad Hominem. I prefer content. You seem to be a bit mixed up about what an _ad hominem_ argument is. It’s when somebody references the personal characteristics of an adversary _in order to discredit their position on an **unrelated** subject._ That’s not the situation here. The ideological alliances formed by a scientific public figure of, to say the very least, extremely questionable personal ethics are entirely relevant to his editorship of **a book that’s all about ethics and ideology in the practice of science**. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/24 "2026-06-30T17:58:27Z")
Rebecca Watson is an excellent and funny source for anyone who wants to be informed on the comings and goings of the anti-woke, right-wing, grifter community. It was Dawkins obsessive hatred of her retelling how inapropriate it was for an unnamed Skeptic member to sexually proposition himself to her when she was trapped in an elevator with him (at a convention many years ago), that firmly made me break all respect with Dawkins. PZ Myers had a similar reaction at the turning of the septic community too (if I remember correctly). Won a lot of respect from me there. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/25 "2026-06-30T17:59:39Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > PZ Myers had a similar reaction at the turning of the septic community too (if I remember correctly). Won a lot of respect from me there. Same, although LOL “septic” typo 😁 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/26 "2026-06-30T18:42:22Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > So…it’s only just the actual topic of the thread. Yes, opinions on the BOOK, not the personal problems the author has. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/27 "2026-07-01T01:39:59Z")
Like I said upthread, in this case the author’s “personal problems” regarding ethics and ideology are extremely relevant to his editorship of a book addressing the subject of ethics and ideology in the practice of science. If someone were dunking on Krauss’s book because he’s balding or wears glasses or something like that, **that** would be a fallacious _ad hominem_ attack that you’d be right to criticize. But pointing out his ideological embrace of “the right wing pipeline” once he was widely discredited as a public figure due to his abuse of his academic position and his apologetics for sleazy criminals such as Epstein? Entirely appropriate in the context of his shilling for an anti-“woke” propaganda whinefest and claiming it’s some kind of defense of “science”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/28 "2026-07-01T02:01:39Z")
Nothing wrong with reading a book that treats “DEI programs, wokeness, and cancel culture” as big-time threats to science. But it seems at the very least quaint to focus on those issues, in the face of massive recent government cutbacks to research funding, nomination of cranks to oversee public health policy and ideologically motivated government officials pressuring scientific journals over their retractions of methodologically poor, deeply flawed articles, while administration hacks block publication of research validating effectiveness of Covid vaccines. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241/29 "2026-07-01T18:19:53Z")
Also, AFAICT nobody has yet made any persuasive evidence-supported case that “DEI programs, wokeness, and cancel culture” actually **are** impeding the practice of science. A few right-wing propaganda grifters, and occasionally some naive suits in the sciences establishment, periodically make a fuss about this or that “woke” initiative. Somebody’s revamping a curriculum to use inclusive mathematics pedagagy, or discussing matauranga Maori in science classes in New Zealand, or something like that. And the grifters start shrieking that _OMG the whole foundation of rationality and objective knowledge in science is being destroyed_, blah blah blah. However, the allegedly destructive activity doesn’t seem to hinder science in continuing to make and disseminate new discoveries and train new scientists effectively, so the squawking dies down until the next “controversial” “woke” initiative becomes the _scandale du jour_. What **does** seriously hinder science in continuing to make and disseminate new discoveries and train new scientists effectively, as you note, is the Republican/MAGA anti-expertise pro-igorance sabotage agenda of censorship, funding withdrawal, denialism, persecution and lying. Of course, as you say, if people still want to write or read a book complaining about “wokeness” allegedly damaging science, they’re free to do that. But it’s a bit like ignoring a deadly epidemic to focus on whether vaccines cause autism: no evidence for it, highly suspect ideological agendas claiming it, and anyway don’t we have way more crucial issues to deal with at the moment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-the-war-on-science-edited-by-lawrence-m-krauss/1031241.md?page=1)