Writing & Media

Shorter essays, interviews, and podcasts exploring the central themes of Weaponization of Expertise.

August 10, 2023

Post-Truth and the Rhetoric of 'Following the Science'

Russell and Patterson published an academic essay for a symposium on “post-truth” in Critical Review, the leading journal of political epistemology. The synopsis:

Populists are often cast as deniers of rationality, creators of a climate of “post-truth,” and valuing tribe over truth and the rigors of science. Their critics claim the authority of rationality and empirical facts. Yet the critics no less than populists enable an environment of spurious claims and defective argumentation. This is especially true in the realm of science. An important case study is the account of scientific trust offered by a leading public intellectual and historian of science, Naomi Oreskes, and the misapplication of that theory during the coronavirus pandemic.

March 5, 2022

The Folly of Following the Science

Faye Flam interviews Jacob Hale Russell for her podcast Follow the Science with Faye Flam: “Rutgers University law professor Jacob Hale Russell has studied populism and the public’s attitude toward expertise. He questions the stereotype of populists as those who dislike knowledge and hate science. Instead, their grievances are against use of science to deflect legitimate concerns and questions. We talk about how our policies – especially universal making - came about and why follow the science may be a problematic policy slogan but it’s still a pretty good name for a podcast.”

February 23, 2022

Bloomberg: 'Follow the Science' Is a Slogan, Not a Policy

Faye Flam interviews Jacob Hale Russell in Bloomberg:

Politicians who claim they’re “following the science” on Covid-19 are starting to look disingenuous. Some are using it to stifle debate. “I think it would be wonderful if ‘follow the science’ meant we should bring science into the debate, but what it ended up meaning was ‘Our policy is the right policy and there is no alternative,’” said Rutgers Law School associate professor Jacob Hale Russell, who has been studying the relationship between expertise and populism.

February 18, 2022

Lies Told by Elites: the Mask Debacle

Vinay Prasad M.D. of Plenary Session interviews Jacob Hale Russell.

Listen to the podcast.

February 16, 2022

The Mask Debacle: How partisan warfare over mandates became a central feature of the pandemic

Russell and Patterson published an essay on the problematic debate around masking, which fueled polarization:

The critics of public health messaging do not begrudge scientific progress—indeed, most of them want more research. Rather, people are upset by unjustified dogmatic certainty in one direction, followed by an immediate swoop to utter confidence in the opposite course of action. The pandemic produced a headfirst leap into a series of unprecedented interventions, from masks to lockdowns to school closures. In the first weeks of the pandemic, speed was necessary, and mistakes were inevitable. What was not necessary or inevitable was the suppression of healthy skepticism and discussion.

April 19, 2021

America's Smug Elite Is Harming Our Kids: The push to decouple skepticism from science turns schoolchildren into victims

Russell and Patterson published an essay on the warped discourse that led to extended school closures:

[Elites have openly embraced the notion that the public is better served by exaggeration, downplaying uncertainty, or even deception (such as in official estimates of herd immunity). This disdain for healthy skepticism, a normal part of functioning science and democracy, is corrosive to public trust and impedes the accumulation of knowledge. A climate of overconfidence makes it both more likely that we will adopt bad policy and harder to fix our missteps. …

March 26, 2021

Expertise and Disinformation

Vinay Prasad M.D. of Plenary Session interviews Jacob Hale Russell: “Today we bring back popular guest Jacob Hale Russell, an Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, for a discussion on expertise, disinformation, and intellectual disagreement.”

Listen to the podcast or see the show notes here.

January 27, 2021

Skepticism, COVID-19, and Debating Science in the Era of Trade-Offs

Vinay Prasad M.D. of Plenary Session interviews Jacob Hale Russell: “On today’s episode we are joined by Jacob Hale Russell, an Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. We discuss his forthcoming book on skepticism, elites, and expertise, as well as his article out now on StatNews about the myth of COVID-19 denial. We talk about anti-intellectualism and how science ought to be debated in the era of trade-offs and COVID-19.”

December 23, 2020

Let’s put the straw man of pandemic denial out of his misery

Mislabeling dissent over serious policy disagreements as denial has contributed to the extended closure of public schools, which could ultimately be viewed as the single biggest policy blunder in the pandemic. …

We must stop labelling every valid disagreement as denial, which tends to censor legitimate differences of opinion. In seeking to discourage bad-faith claims, we are also damaging good-faith discussion.

Read the full article, “Let’s put the straw man of pandemic denial out of his misery,” Stat News

September 24, 2020

Taking Populism Seriously

John Berger of Vital Interest, the blog of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, interviewed Dennis Patterson:

I would take issue with your premise that people are controlled in what they think. I agree with you, about the polarization. But in many ways, the polarization is more a manifestation of elite culture – both right- and left-leaning versions – than of voters. Fox isn’t a grassroots media organization based in the Midwest, after all. Nor is Fox news synonymous with populists, because remember populism is voters of both right and left who are turning on elites. Part of the reason that Jacob and I are writing this book is because we are worried about this discourse… Our discourse has basically deteriorated to the point where we can’t have a rational discussion….