Since 2021, journalists and their political allies have been acting like Republicans are anti-vaccine and Democrats have always been the party of science.

Just the opposite was true. Prior to politicization of COVID-19, right-wing religious states like Alabama and Mississippi had nearly 100 percent vaccine uptake while cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, and Los Angeles had so much denial that California had more unvaccinated kids than the rest of America combined. After years of pressure because of the issue, Governor Jerry Brown was forced to sign a law removing those arbitrary exemptions.

Things have now flipped, at least for one vaccine. But the other issues where there is a clear political divide of science remain. California Democrats have been cheering that once Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo closes, and four more natural gas plants also being banned, President Clinton's (and all progressive Baby Boomers') war against energy science would be complete. They had even duped themselves into believing solar power could take its place.(1)

And supplements, based on belief that Science Is A Vast Corporate Conspiracy. That is unchanged. Uptake among the left is huge, just like chakras and psychics. Steve Jobs is only one example of how endemic belief in folk medicine (traditional medicine, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, integrative medicine, insert the next re-branding term here) as a replacement for actual medicine is, and now an entire generation is at risk since President Clinton exempted supplements from real FDA oversight for his constituents.

California is, predictably, ground zero for that also. Cardiologist Dr. Danielle Belardo says she has seen an alarming number of heart arrhythmias in young people, and the common denominator is herbal supplements like bitter orange and ephedra.

The grifters who run these placebo companies deny the consensus, as conspiracy theorists do, and will rightly note that anyone who believes them likely believes in a lot of crazy things - no snowflake in an avalanche of the alternative can take the blame. And that is true, if you believe in ghosts, you believe in UFO abductions, and you are also far more likely to believe supplements replace medication and live in a county that has a Whole Foods.

And alternatives to science boomed during COVID-19. Among the left. The same political party that claims to be more pro-science because of mask mandates and forced vaccines. It is a giant business, exactly what President Clinton, the guy who gave us the Official Supplement Huckster of the US in Mark Hyman, set out to do in his landmark signing of the law that created a huge windfall for "wellness" exploitation.

Science education is not the answer. American adults are more scientifically literate than any other country in the world, it's just still under a third.(2) We instead need to force companies to obey the same standards in advertising that cheese has to have. Real cheese, not alternatives that get a free pass on marketing, including being allowed to call themselves cheese.

We need a stronger FDA when it comes to supplements. Sadly, unless the White House flips in 2024, we aren't going to get it.

NOTES:

(1) It can't. The percentage of energy provided by conventional energy is the same, the state just forced poor people to subsidize solar installations for the 1% and, worse, pay extra fees on their utility bills so wealthy owners could 'sell electricity back' to utilities at full retail cost.

Reality has set in. Just 6 days after passing a bill that will ban conventional cars in the state, forcing the poor to buy electric cars (average cost: $65,000) the state's energy agency told residents not to charge electric cars because of strain on the grid. The problem is of their own making. State utilities are so heavily politicized they are not allowed by law to buy energy on the spot market without approval from the state, so rolling blackouts are an annual event. Last year, during the Governor's recall vote, the state even asked EPA to allow California to be exempt from all emissions standards so they could run remaining natural gas plants non-stop. Energy blackouts and other politically-motivated mismanagement issues are what caused the recall of Gov. Gray Davis to succeed.

(2) Which tells you how truly wacky and pseudoscientific Asia and Europe are.