That's pretty much the argument of idiotic social conservatives.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/15/when-creationists-collide-with-stephen-colbert.html
In April 2012 Don McLeroy, a dentist from Bryan, Texas, appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report to talk about textbooks, evolution, and the nature of reality. McLeroy is famous for pushing creationism as the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, and the highlight of the interview comes when Colbert quizzes McLeroy about paleontology. “Human beings and dinosaurs walked side by side?” Colbert asks. McLeroy looks uncomfortable. “That’s my personal view,” he replies, and then Colbert pounces: “That’s your personal scientific view.” McLeroy agrees. “Science,” Colbert concludes, “can be a personal choice.” At the end of the interview, the host expands on that point. “I’ve always been a fan of reality by majority vote,” he says before shaking McLeroy’s hand.
....
And once mainstream academic science is seen as a political tool, then it starts to seem patently undemocratic. After all, scientific research is reserved to a highly trained elite. It does not take into account the opinions or worldviews of your average citizen. The winner of a debate, ideally, is the person with the best data, not just the person with the popular support. From within, science may seem collegial and egalitarian. But to the overwhelming majority of us who don’t work in a lab all day, it can seem distant, abstract, and powerful—an authority as inscrutable as Old Jehovah.
Which is why, perhaps, we get public figures like McLeroy, who just dismiss the experts out of hand and choose their own science. It’s all biased anyway—and look, we can vote on this. Our opinions matter. Who are you to tell us otherwise?
Here’s the part that can be hard to swallow: to some extent, McLeroy is right. It’s a quirk of our system of government that, while the scientific facts don’t change depending on the winds of public opinion, our government’s official reactions to them are sometimes subject to a vote. Creationist postmodernism isn’t just the rhetorical tool of savvy activists. It’s an accurate reflection of a strange system, in which school boards try to vote on what their students will learn as fact, and in which, say, a state legislature can outlaw the use of climate change projections to determine certain policies.
Science advocates would do well to remember McLeroy the next time they respond to creationists, or vaccine-deniers, or climate skeptics with a barrage of facts, as if a bundle of correct information will somehow right those persistent wrongs. Sure, the scientific argument may be right. But in politics, being right isn’t enough. Say what you want about postmodernism: in democracy, reality does come with a dose of social construction.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/15/when-creationists-collide-with-stephen-colbert.html
In April 2012 Don McLeroy, a dentist from Bryan, Texas, appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report to talk about textbooks, evolution, and the nature of reality. McLeroy is famous for pushing creationism as the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, and the highlight of the interview comes when Colbert quizzes McLeroy about paleontology. “Human beings and dinosaurs walked side by side?” Colbert asks. McLeroy looks uncomfortable. “That’s my personal view,” he replies, and then Colbert pounces: “That’s your personal scientific view.” McLeroy agrees. “Science,” Colbert concludes, “can be a personal choice.” At the end of the interview, the host expands on that point. “I’ve always been a fan of reality by majority vote,” he says before shaking McLeroy’s hand.
....
And once mainstream academic science is seen as a political tool, then it starts to seem patently undemocratic. After all, scientific research is reserved to a highly trained elite. It does not take into account the opinions or worldviews of your average citizen. The winner of a debate, ideally, is the person with the best data, not just the person with the popular support. From within, science may seem collegial and egalitarian. But to the overwhelming majority of us who don’t work in a lab all day, it can seem distant, abstract, and powerful—an authority as inscrutable as Old Jehovah.
Which is why, perhaps, we get public figures like McLeroy, who just dismiss the experts out of hand and choose their own science. It’s all biased anyway—and look, we can vote on this. Our opinions matter. Who are you to tell us otherwise?
Here’s the part that can be hard to swallow: to some extent, McLeroy is right. It’s a quirk of our system of government that, while the scientific facts don’t change depending on the winds of public opinion, our government’s official reactions to them are sometimes subject to a vote. Creationist postmodernism isn’t just the rhetorical tool of savvy activists. It’s an accurate reflection of a strange system, in which school boards try to vote on what their students will learn as fact, and in which, say, a state legislature can outlaw the use of climate change projections to determine certain policies.
Science advocates would do well to remember McLeroy the next time they respond to creationists, or vaccine-deniers, or climate skeptics with a barrage of facts, as if a bundle of correct information will somehow right those persistent wrongs. Sure, the scientific argument may be right. But in politics, being right isn’t enough. Say what you want about postmodernism: in democracy, reality does come with a dose of social construction.