They're just trying to balance out the truth with what people want to think! Is that so wrong??? I hate when the fact believers gang up on my irrational but staunchly held beliefs. But then I remind myself that they're all going to hell and the rage settles.
;)

Good Morning Charles,
Ah, a most interesting observation on Mr. Mirowski's part and yours. Correct me if I am mistaken, but isn't this a variation of Chomsky's 'Manufacturing Consent' idea? 'Whoever owns the narrative...' etc.

Look, I'm fairly well-informed. I believe there is climate change based on science and I believe I live a modest life style accordingly. There are some things I don't understand about it but I get it. I may not be as intelligent as Mirowski, Piketty or you. However, I believe that the masses of humanity most definitely aren't. And, that is NOT to say the masses are asses. They simply have far more pressing issues than to read or listen to learned men and women of science on something they might not even understand.

Ask youself this, 'Have you ever read Einstein's "Special Theory of Relativity"?' I haven't. I believe it, the theory to be true but that's only because it is 114 years old and has been scrutinzed much:

http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/mayju…

I've read very little physics & economics texts. Some of them are major tomes and from what I've heard quite complex & dry. I believe efforts have been made to 'ease' the understanding of such complex stuff. I find that constructive.

On the other hand, I ask myself from time to time 'Are the masses necessarily to believe ALL scientists? Aren't they, the scientists human? Don't they have agendas? Yes, they are peer reviewed but what does that mean to some? In America, the Academy can be somewhat insular. And, I'm fairly certain that the masses have some disdain for that. I believe the Ivory Tower can and does serve a purpose, most of the time. I just think all information coming from it must be unbiased. I think 'doubt' can be manufactured by all sides of a political equation.

One footnote. I wish the masses at least would read more and watch less television. We would be better informed than just entertained.

Charles, if you haven't read it, you might be interested in Bruno Latour's article, "Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?" It covers some of the same ground as We Have Never Been Modern, but he says in reference to global warming:

"In which case the danger would no longer be coming from an excessive confidence in ideological arguments posturing as matters of fact--as we have learned to combat so efficiently in the past--but from an excessive distrust of good matters of fact disguised as bad ideological biases! While we spent years trying to detect the real prejudices hidden behind the appearance of objective statements, do we now have to reveal the real objective and incontrovertible facts hidden behind the illusion of prejudice?"

For good reasons, that's not the position he ends with (although it probably reflects the positions of most of the commenters on here who rage against science studies) but it gets at the same problem you're talking about here.

This is typically called F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).

I've documented how it has been used about hydrogen as an alternative energy source in my own personal blog:

Unmasking Astroturfers
http://you-read-it-here-first.com/viewto…

Here's a study on attempts to modify anti vaccine beliefs, and how hard it is to change those that are emotionally invested in misinformation.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ma…

Hamlet's soliloquy.

…Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action…

Happens all the time in discussing public education and ed reform.

Why, go ask the Gates Foundation who fund a ton of so-called objective news sources like the Seattle Times and NPR.

I blame the Fairness Doctrine for setting the US, especially, along this course.

My man Mirowski. We must bring him to Seattle, Charles.