Neo-Obscurantism Unmasked

Science (educative) vs State Pseudoscience (manipulative)

Science repudiates propaganda as a means of self-promotion; rationality is a necessary requirement of the scientific method, and the employment of psychological trickery is inherently antithetical to this requirement. Science never demands from its followers a mere "belief" in its tenets, but rather a deep understanting of the reasons behind them; therefore the main way to promote itself to the public is by giving them the intellectual tools and critical information required to achieve this understanding.
In comparison, State Pseudoscience is - by definition - entirely about propaganda and emotional manipulation; its alleged "rigor" and "evidence" rather than being displayed, are instead merely implied by a game of smoke and mirrors, involving constant lip service, imperious appeals to science, sciencey-looking aesthetics or sciencey-sounding language, simplistic slogans, periodic flaunting of its alleged successes, cult of personality around important authority figures, and more. Actually informative content is seldom presented, and when it is, it's only as a mean to an end, which is to impress the audience, and increase its own reputation.
The main essence State Pseudoscience however, is not in the way it promotes itself, but rather in the way it smears its opposition: this is where the majority of its propaganda war machine's efforts go, and its weapons include (but are not limited to): ad-personams, defamation, ridiculization, guilt-by-association, character assassination, appeals to politics, etc.; all these tactics are aimed at eliciting an emotional reaction from an audience, training them to automatically dismiss any objection before they're ever rationally addressed.

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