Science is Riddled with Lies and Fraud, and Scepticism is Our Shield! By Brian Simpson

Here's my argument about the massive lies and fraud in science, drawing from "How Science Lies" by Lorene Leiter, published at the AmericanThinker.com, and expanding with broader reasoning and examples.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/how_science_lies.html

The case will highlight why scepticism is a healthy, protective mechanism against fraud driven by vested interests—think money, power, and Leftist ideology.

Science isn't the pure, noble pursuit we're sold—it's a battleground where vested interests twist truths for profit, prestige, and control. Leiter's piece in American Thinker nails this, arguing that what's peddled as "science" often masks bias and deception, especially when big money or political agendas are at stake. The evidence is overwhelming: from fudged data to suppressed dissent, the scientific establishment is less about discovery and more about protecting its paymasters. Scepticism isn't just healthy—it's a survival tool to cut through the garbage and guard against being duped by those with skin in the game.

Startingwith Leiter's core gripe: science gets hyped as infallible, but it's run by humans with wallets and egos. She points to the March 7, 2025, rallies for NIH funding—cheerleaders shouting "Stand up for science!" while ignoring how much of that cash fuels junk studies or corporate handouts. Take the Vioxx scandal—Merck's painkiller, approved in 1999, was linked to 50,000+ deaths from heart attacks by 2004. Studies downplaying risks were ghostwritten by company shills, published in top journals like The Lancet, while dissenting researchers got sidelined. The FDA, cozy with Big Pharma, let it slide until the body count was undeniable. That's not a glitch; it's a feature—$27 billion in sales trumped the truth.

Then there's climate science, a goldmine for vested interests. Leiter hints at this broader rot: billions in grants flow to researchers who toe the "crisis" line, while sceptics get defunded or smeared. Look at the Climategate emails (2009)—University of East Anglia scientists caught manipulating data, hiding declines in temperature proxies, and blackballing journals that published contrarians. The IPCC's models, driving trillion-dollar policies, consistently overestimate warming—yet dissenters like Judith Curry get ostracised, not refuted. Why? Follow the money: renewable energy firms, government contracts, and academic careers ride on the panic.

Medical science is another cesspool. The retraction of Andrew Wakefield's 1998 MMR-autism study was less about fraud (though he had conflicts) and more about crushing vaccine scepticism—Big Pharma's $50 billion annual jackpot depends on trust. Meanwhile, legit whistleblowers like Peter Gøtzsche, exposing overblown antidepressant efficacy, get booted from groups like Cochrane for rocking the boat. Journals rake in millions from drug ads; editors sit on corporate boards. A 2021 BMJ investigation found 35 percent of medical studies have undisclosed industry ties—yet we're told to "trust the science."

Who's behind this? Big Pharma, with $1.3 trillion in global revenue (2023), bankrolls studies to push pills—80 percent of NIH funding comes with strings attached. Governments weaponise science for control—think Covid lockdowns based on shaky Imperial College models (2020) predicting millions dead, later debunked as overblown. Academia's in on it too—tenure and grants hinge on pumping out papers, not truth. A 2015 PLoS study estimated 20 percent of published research is irreproducible—stats fudged, results cherry-picked—because careers depend on flashy headlines, not boring null findings.

Ideology's the kicker. Leiter notes conservatives see science as a tool gone rogue, while Leftists treat it as gospel—both miss the grift. DEI mandates in STEM (e.g., NSF's $300 million diversity push) prioritise politics over merit, skewing hiring and research. When a 2024 study on DEI's mental health harms got spiked by The New York Times, it wasn't about quality—it threatened the narrative. Vested interests—corporate, political, cultural—don't want science; they want a megaphone.

This is why scepticism is non-negotiable. Blind faith in "experts" is a sucker's bet when they're pocketing cash or dodging cancelation. Leiter's right: science isn't a monolith—it's a process, and humans screw it up. Questioning the Vioxx hype could've saved lives; doubting climate models might've spared us wasteful green boondoggles. A 2022 Nature survey found 44 percent of scientists admit pressure to tweak results—scepticism spots that rot before it festers.

It's not about rejecting science—it's about demanding proof. When Stanford's John Ioannidis showed most published findings are false (2005), he proved scepticism isn't cynicism; it's rigour. During Covid, sceptics who challenged mask efficacy or ventilator overuse—later validated by studies like Cochrane (2023)—were shouted down as heretics. Yet they were right to dig. Vested interests thrive in echo chambers; scepticism busts them open.

Unchecked, this fraud costs lives and trillions. Big Pharma kills with bad drugs; climate scams drain economies; ideological science dumbs us down. Scepticism isn't just healthy—it's a firewall against being pawns in someone's game. Leiter's call to doubt the "Stand up for science!" crowd isn't anti-science—it's pro-truth. When the system's this corrupt, trusting it's the real risk.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/how_science_lies.html