And I don’t just mean in the bumper sticker and yard sign sense.
I recently watched a Tiktok by a comedian who joked that the world doesn’t need more people in STEM (I know, I know, most of Tiktok is brainrot, don’t judge me, this is a safe space) and here’s the thing:
It reminded me that while progressives consider themselves to be advocates for science and hold education as one of their values, those things aren’t inherently good.
Obviously, I’m not going to tell you to skip this year’s flu vaccine. I’m not anti-science when it comes to matters of public health.
But, just as much as science can help, science can also harm.
My partner recently reminded me that the Studio Ghibli films do a beautiful job of drawing attention to the dark side of science.
From Castle in the Sky, which highlights the connections between technology and how it is weaponized for power and mass destruction, to films like Pom Poko that emphasize how modern-day engineering destroys natural wildlife, it becomes increasingly clear that science is not innocent, and never has been.
Not only is science what made light bulbs, it’s what made bombs. Science is why we have surveillance devices. Science is why biological warfare exists and why AI is now making viruses.
Then, when you get into the social sciences, there are things like psychologists. Not the ones that offer therapy and mental health services* but the ones that go into marketing and advertising.
*Though those are admittedly pretty dicey too when it comes to ethics, because why are we teaching people how to live or “cope” with horrible life situations instead of trying to change the system entirely? And why is most mental health theory taught in the States solely based on Western understandings of mind, self, community, boundaries, and relationships?
Honestly, I might hate these ones (the marketing and advertising people) the most, though.
Because they manipulate centuries worth of what we know about the human mind to prey on your fears and insecurities. To create new ones. To perpetuate power dynamics that benefit rich men. To eat your attention. To make propaganda that feeds our culture and the way we live and interact with one another.
Watching Sut Jhally’s film The Codes of Gender: identity & performance in popular culture (2009) in college was one of the most disturbing pieces of media I’ve ever consumed, mostly because it was all real. (and for context, I love Stephen King novels.)
It reminded me that there are truly invisible people pulling strings that shape the way in which we live and exist in the world.
Some people say that mental health conditions are more common in younger generations because we’re soft. We’ve never experienced real hardship. I think it’s for a few reasons:
- mental health conditions have always existed; it’s just becoming less taboo and stigmatized to talk about now
- we’re privy to media (including social media and advertising) access unlike anything previous generations have ever experienced
And it pains me that psychologists’ role in manufacturing kids’ fears, shames, insecurities, and future eating disorders can be bought.
PSA: In a way, they’ve turned us all into the kids being tortured in a dark hole in Omelas.
(And yes, Cooper, if you’re reading this – all roads do lead to the short story that completely changed my worldview – “The Ones that Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. LeGuin. It’s been haunting my thoughts and daily existence since I was in high school. I hope you’re prepared of a lifetime of me bringing up this story at every possible opportunity.)
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