Gaslighting Science

MGM’s Gaslight, Director George Cukor - 1944

Gaslighting has now become a popular term again based on telling people not to believe what their lying eyes are telling them. Based on the 1944 movie starring Charles Boyer as Gregory and Ingrid Bergman as Paula (you must say Pola with a French accent), Boyer steals her jewelry and causes the gas light to dim when he privately enters the attic. When she tells him about her missing jewelry and the gas, he says that she must be mentally ill. 

This is similar to the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels who said, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” It’s been happening in politics often enough but where it really becomes offensive, and dangerous, is when it happens with science. The clubby cacophony of media and influencers repetitiously sounding science alarms fills the airwaves with this mendacity.

I am not a global warming specialist but there may be some gaslighting about its effects. For example, news reports frequently talk about the increasing number and  intensity of hurricanes as a result of climate change.  And yet, recent mapping shows that we are not seeing any increase in number or intensity of hurricanes.

Another myth perpetuated over and over again is that being obese is a disease and is not an individual’s fault, it is because our modern environment bombards us with cues to over-consume.” So, blame it on greedy corporations who are selling you more food just because you demand it. In fact, since 1980, the average number of calories consumed has increased as we become fatter and sicker.  

Another example is pesticides which people are constantly told are dangerous. Each year the US Department of Agriculture surveys fruits and vegetables for pesticide residues. Here is the most recent summary of the amounts of pesticides on produce “More than 99 percent of the products sampled through PDP had residues below the established EPA tolerances.” Note that EPA tolerances are already far, far below any level that would cause harm.  Paying particular non-attention to the data, the director of Consumer Reports warns people, “We're exposed to a cocktail of chemicals from our food on a daily basis." He’s not alone, and the result is that pesticides are a concern for 85 percent of Americans, many of whom will pay 49 percent higher costs for organic produce that is subject to increased foodborne disease outbreaks.

Scientific American, a once valued source of science, now says that the “Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells.” In fact, with all other health agencies around the world testifying to its safety, only the notorious International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found that it poses a carcinogenic risk. Many states and counties have moved to ban it.

Then there is PFAS, cleverly called “forever chemicals.” PFAS chemicals have already been regulated by EPA down to 4 nanograms per liter. To put it in perspective, a grain of sugar weighs about 20,000 nanograms. In an op-ed with an excellent scientist, we wrote about the science associated with this infinitesimal level.

“Eighteen epidemiologic studies showed some statistically significant positive associations with cancer but were offset by negative findings that did not find an exposure-response relationship. They also didn’t find the same tumors found in studies of animals or more highly exposed workers. Unfortunately, the high doses of PFAS some groups have fed to animals cannot always show what low doses do to humans. For a number of reasons, humans are often more resilient, which has been necessary for us to survive and evolve.”

Finally, there is nuclear power. Fear of radiation and nuclear power “jeopardized our choices to address climate change, has hurt the nuclear industry, and caused us to unnecessarily spend billions of dollars protecting against radiation at levels that are quite safe.”

If you are mad about being politically gaslit, you should be furious about being gaslit by science. There is no reason for gaslighting other than to sell stories by preying on people’s natural fears of chemicals or chemical compounds (i.e., everything) and radiation, which, as everyone knows, created Godzilla.