The neutrality of science haunts heads, laboratories, societies and history. Over and over and time and time again.
Whoever conducts research usually wants to present sound, structured and reliable knowledge that can be understood intersubjectively and on a long-term basis, so it is desirable to leave out as many social factors as possible. However, they always seem to come in through the back door. Science thus justifies one's own values in terms of being human, race, religion, gender, socialisation, economy, etc., and above all one's own habits such as mobility, consumption of the natural world, order, etc.
Glyphosate is contained in the chemical product "Roundup", used extensively in agriculture to kill weeds. The exact effect of glyphosate on human and animal organisms is not known. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the substance as "probably carcinogenic to humans" in 2015. Since then, the approval of glyphosate in agriculture has been the subject of controversy, with both sides presenting studies and meta-studies to prove the harmfulness or harmlessness of the substance. Scientific objectivity and clarity are visibly disappearing, and everyone hears the
Poltergeist of the Neutrality of Science
most clearly when the findings correspond to their own interests.
In the early 2000s, the militant group (mg) used the terms gentrification and precarization in its confessional letters for terrorist arson attacks. Through a simple Internet search, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office of Germany finds out that Dr. Andrej Holm, an urban sociologist at Humboldt Universität Berlin, also uses these terms. As a result, in September 2006, the Federal Prosecutor opened preliminary proceedings against Andrej Holm. For several months he was shadowed; his phone calls were tapped; e-mails were read; and finally in July 2007 he was arrested by a SWAT squad and detained in custody for three weeks. In October 2007 the arrest warrant was lifted and in July 2010 the investigation was discontinued due to a lack of sufficient suspicion. Gentrification and precarization are common terms today and are taken for granted by everyone: The
Poltergeist of the Neutrality of Science
has done a good job here at a high individual price and made global phenomena describable with these terms.