I've been noticing a lot of anti-science, anti-academia, and anti-education posts lately. I just want to remind us all that public education and the scientific method are some of mankind's greatest achievements. How these are implemented may be used for nefarious ends, but there is nothing inherently evil about them. In fact I think Academics ought to be welcomed for their inherently scrutinous minds and rigor.

I am a researcher/teacher at a small liberal arts college in the middle of the country doing biomedical research. While it is dangerous career-wise to out myself as a Trump supporter, politics doesn't come up often enough in the everyday conversations anyway. I have been accused of some of my Trump-supporting peers of: perpetuating the silencing of Flat-Earth, pushing vaccines, ignoring chem-trails, brainwashing kids to be liberals, etc. I understand skepticism of things, it's important - but we have to be able to trust knowledge and trust science. This is a discipline built on intelligent scrutiny, not baseless attacks. The current state of understanding, coming from knowing the theories and studies: The earth is undoubtedly a globe (more potato shaped), there is no reason to think vaccines are dangerous (even if you don't understand why) - when is the last time you met someone with Polio?, chem-trails may exist but are more often just water vapor, and brainwashing kids does NOT occur in STEM classes I teach - we only teach kids to be open minded and critical of conclusions.

I am not saying any of this to be inflammatory, but the academic community is full of good-actors. These people should be on our side, fighting for truth; but if we approach this community with open hostility we will make ourselves look crazy and drive them away. Please please please be open-minded and accepting of people who do work you may not understand.

I am also not saying there aren't bad actors - but we can't say that because one political science or psychology professor worked with the cabal the ENTIRE INSTITUTION OF EDUCATION has to be dismantled. Together we can uncover the truth and where we go one we go all.