> why should normal people trust at all that any touted science is anything more than bullshit spouted by highly-motivated sophists?
In the current climate, frankly I think it's absurd that we're putting so much trust in science, or rather what it has become.
The fundamental problem is that science as in the method is absolutely worth putting your trust in, but a lot of what's sold as Science^TM has diverged from it far enough to be worthless. However, it still bears the same name and borrows its credibility. There are countless examples even from the places one would think to be the most trustworthy.
What science as in the method hinges on as opposed to Science^TM is verifiability. Disciplines that aren't easily verified suffer from the replication crisis to the point where it's basically synonymous. I would go as far as arguing that unless something has been verified several times it should be nothing more than a hypothesis. Note how popular science media are basically living off doing the opposite (though I don't think much better can be expected from the media honestly.)
Math and social sciences form the two ends of the verifiability (and reproducibility) scale. CS is close enough to math that it's not a dumpster fire like psychology but I would say we're still suffering a lot of BS research. To fix this we need actual rigor, more openness about the methods, and frankly, motivation to reproduce results.
I would just add that science and the scientific method are designed to be used in good faith. Science doesn't really withstand political manipulation. If you're a researcher interested in learning more about the universe, science provides a framework for questioning and testing ideas, and for using established ideas as a jumping off point for further advances. As soon as there are other motivations than learning, the answers that "science" provides basically become unknowable because the whole process, from what to study to how to interpret and report findings, becomes corrupted.
We need good politicians to negotiate a consensus on how we move forward in light of human desires and modern thinking about cause and effect. Pretending that "science" provides us with a way forward is abusing science for something it is not designed to do nor capable of doing.
In the current climate, frankly I think it's absurd that we're putting so much trust in science, or rather what it has become.
The fundamental problem is that science as in the method is absolutely worth putting your trust in, but a lot of what's sold as Science^TM has diverged from it far enough to be worthless. However, it still bears the same name and borrows its credibility. There are countless examples even from the places one would think to be the most trustworthy.
What science as in the method hinges on as opposed to Science^TM is verifiability. Disciplines that aren't easily verified suffer from the replication crisis to the point where it's basically synonymous. I would go as far as arguing that unless something has been verified several times it should be nothing more than a hypothesis. Note how popular science media are basically living off doing the opposite (though I don't think much better can be expected from the media honestly.)
Math and social sciences form the two ends of the verifiability (and reproducibility) scale. CS is close enough to math that it's not a dumpster fire like psychology but I would say we're still suffering a lot of BS research. To fix this we need actual rigor, more openness about the methods, and frankly, motivation to reproduce results.