You’ve probably noticed how science feels both more powerful and less authoritative than ever: shaping public life, yet no longer settling arguments. That’s the tension you’re pointing at here.
One way to read it is the way you suggest: collapse as corruption, where standards erode and credibility dissolves. But another way is to see collapse as containment. In that view, science isn’t failing so much as being absorbed into larger coordination systems: its infrastructure persists, but its old authority rituals stop working.
After all, peer review was always more performance than guarantee, and methods only work when applied to questions they’re capable of answering. When those rituals are stretched beyond their limits, they look like failure—though it’s really a shift in what we ask science to do.
The difference matters. If collapse is corruption, the task is restoration. If collapse is containment, the task is adaptation—learning to coordinate in a world where science persists, but no longer rules.
I was a clinical researcher at University of Maryland school of medicine for 21 years. December 2019 I lost my job (my career, my reputation, my income and my sanity) Because I refused to put clinical research subjects and patients in harms way and violate their rights. I will never regain what I have lost even though I filed a lawsuit. Let me say, I believe strongly in clinical research. It saves lives And, the majority of researchers only want to help people. I have tried every possible way to have my story told and bring to light the atrocities that were occurring at my institution and I assume others. I was seduced by my narcissistic, controlling supervisor in order to underhandedly line his pockets at the expense of critically, ill patients. When I did not succumb to his attempts at seduction I was tortured. I endured three years of threats and finally the loss of everything I had worked for. I had begged the governor in Maryland, a US senator from Maryland and the university administration for help. I was ignored. I was told that I was crazy and if I went into therapy everything would be fine. Other people have experienced the same treatment, even though their circumstances may be different. I finally had to report the violations of federal research regulations (Based on the Nuremberg trials and the Tuskegee studies). The FDA and HHS investigated and found multiple violations in the University of Maryland system. However, the US senator from Maryland (Chris Van Hollen) blocked any access to the reports through the freedom of information act. I’m not trying to make this political. I actually voted for Chris Van Hollen.
I have sent my story to multiple news outlets and I was either ignored or laughed at. You can’t get anyone to help….
The self anointed social justice warriors have moved on to colonizing science , along with anthropology, archaeology ,and any other discipline they can wheedle their way into. They have become modern day augurers and soothsayers.
You’ve probably noticed how science feels both more powerful and less authoritative than ever: shaping public life, yet no longer settling arguments. That’s the tension you’re pointing at here.
One way to read it is the way you suggest: collapse as corruption, where standards erode and credibility dissolves. But another way is to see collapse as containment. In that view, science isn’t failing so much as being absorbed into larger coordination systems: its infrastructure persists, but its old authority rituals stop working.
After all, peer review was always more performance than guarantee, and methods only work when applied to questions they’re capable of answering. When those rituals are stretched beyond their limits, they look like failure—though it’s really a shift in what we ask science to do.
The difference matters. If collapse is corruption, the task is restoration. If collapse is containment, the task is adaptation—learning to coordinate in a world where science persists, but no longer rules.
I explored a related angle in The Collapse of Dominant Stories (https://open.substack.com/pub/thepuzzleanditspieces/p/the-collapse-of-dominant-stories) which frames collapse less as failure and more as adaptation.
I was a clinical researcher at University of Maryland school of medicine for 21 years. December 2019 I lost my job (my career, my reputation, my income and my sanity) Because I refused to put clinical research subjects and patients in harms way and violate their rights. I will never regain what I have lost even though I filed a lawsuit. Let me say, I believe strongly in clinical research. It saves lives And, the majority of researchers only want to help people. I have tried every possible way to have my story told and bring to light the atrocities that were occurring at my institution and I assume others. I was seduced by my narcissistic, controlling supervisor in order to underhandedly line his pockets at the expense of critically, ill patients. When I did not succumb to his attempts at seduction I was tortured. I endured three years of threats and finally the loss of everything I had worked for. I had begged the governor in Maryland, a US senator from Maryland and the university administration for help. I was ignored. I was told that I was crazy and if I went into therapy everything would be fine. Other people have experienced the same treatment, even though their circumstances may be different. I finally had to report the violations of federal research regulations (Based on the Nuremberg trials and the Tuskegee studies). The FDA and HHS investigated and found multiple violations in the University of Maryland system. However, the US senator from Maryland (Chris Van Hollen) blocked any access to the reports through the freedom of information act. I’m not trying to make this political. I actually voted for Chris Van Hollen.
I have sent my story to multiple news outlets and I was either ignored or laughed at. You can’t get anyone to help….
This also is the reason for defunding. How else do you purge the system of infected thinking?
The self anointed social justice warriors have moved on to colonizing science , along with anthropology, archaeology ,and any other discipline they can wheedle their way into. They have become modern day augurers and soothsayers.