Event Details

Anti-science discourse has been studied in specific areas like anti-vax, GMOs, stem cell research, and climate denial. But little is known about how these discourses compare across topics. This talk presents findings on shared discourses from pseudoscience/conspiracy websites.

Anti-science discourse has been studied through the optic of particular governments (Carter et al., 2019) or specific topics, such as anti-vaccination (Davis, 2019), anti-genetically modified organisms (Cook et al. 2004), stem cell research (Marcon, Murdoch and Caulfield, 2017), and climate denial discourse (Park, 2015). This research often details the development and content of the anti-science position and discourses. Yet, little is known about how the discourses compare across topics. Are there anti-science discourses that are shared across topics or does the discourse vary with the topic? In this talk, I will present the results of the common discourses which are shared between texts from websites known to promote pseudoscience and conspiracy on the topics of stem cells, climate change, vaccination and genetically modified organisms.