Utility customers in California are being exploited by a special class of grifters. Those who live in apartment buildings or rental homes or live in poor neighborhoods are forced by law to subsidize million-dollar solar installations on homes in Malibu.

The poor are exploited in the form of a direct rebate which depletes funds that could be used for social services for all Californians, plus a special tax levied on their utility bills. It not only pays wealthy people to install solar panels, it pays them to sell any electricity back to the power company on bright days for the same price they buy it at night.

Implicit Racism tests say you are a bigot, it is only a question of how much. Social justice warriors and others in the humanities insist that even a field like astronomy is inevitably a reflex of the power of the socially privileged.

Given that science is always under fire from all sides, is there a way for science to guide technology on ways to help the public find trustworthy sources without 'Who Watches The Watchmen' and 'Follow The Money' claims polluting the discourse?

Last year, when CNN journalist Chris Cuomo was recovering from COVID-19, he endorsed all sorts of homeopathy and alternatives to medicine. It's no surprise, he is married to an influencer who just happens to sell those placebos to other wealthy, white elites. He's not alone. A surprising number of celebrities have spouses that promote nonsense.(1)

Epidemiology pushes out a lot of dumb papers. Not as many as social psychology per capita but in volume a whole lot more. It's easy to see why the public believes horse de-wormer cures COVID-19, it was in an epidemiology paper, and that methodology was just as valid as a paper this week 'linking' olive oil to longer life. 

Prior to 2021, if you found an anti-vaxxer, it was also going to be someone who bought organic food and thought cell phones cause cancer. While some kooky Republicans have taken over for some of the wacky left-wing people that deny vaccines, organic food and 5G conspiracy theories are thankfully still only one party and thus don't get much media attention from their political tribe in corporate journalism.

If you believe solar power is ready for mass usage, you are likely an activist, in the industry, or one of the customers who really believes they are selling electricity back to the utility at the same price they are paying when they need it and it isn't being paid for by people in the apartments that we get told are better for the environment than single-family homes.

Without mandates and subsidies, plus fees tacked onto every non-solar-using customer, the industry would go back to the niche it was prior to 2010. Since 2010, the share of conventional energy needed has not moved while the world spent trillions underwriting alternatives.(1)