Learning from the history of science

[Outis]

The way I look at how discourse about the subject of minor attraction is suppressed is to look at it within the context of history and other situations where a subject has been suppressed in the same way.

An obvious comparison can be drawn with how the church suppressed scientific discussion that conflicted with the church world view. As the discipline of science started to develop in Europe, learning from the longer history of science in classical societies but now more formally structured, it would often conflict with the church and therefore state view of the world. The difficulty with science was that it came with evidence and so it would say "society believes x, but we ask that it looks at the evidence, holds public discourse, even if the conclusions are uncomfortable, and we believe you will conclude that x is false, and y is true".

The church would suppress discourse and evidence to the extent that even discussing it could land you in prison, or worse. Why did they suppress it? Because they had already looked at the evidence, could see it was very persuasive and feared that others would find it as persuasive, and so shut it down.

That is what is happening today with discussions around the subject of minor and adult attraction. You can conduct research onto how to deal with maps, you cannot do research to look at if minor attraction has positive virtues or should be considered normal and acceptable. You can conduct research that reaffirms the established world view, but not research that contradicts it. You certainly couldn't publish it.

It is the very fact that people are going out and saying "all we ask is that you look at the evidence and conclude for yourself" that is considered so dangerous. It's the fact that many people would be persuaded if that was allowed to happen.

The challenge for advocacy is to find ways to safely present the evidence and arguments in a way that doesn't get instantly shut down. Scientists in the past had to deal with the same challenges with the church and state.

- Gelileo, forced to recant his views, placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life, his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems banned.

- Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake.

- Michael Servetus, arrested and burned at the stake.

and many many more examples.

How did scientists get new ideas out?

- They framed discoveries as hypothetical rather than factual to avoid directly conflicting with doctorine. For example, Copernicus framed heliocentrism as a "mathematical
convenience", not a claim about physical reality.

- They published works in more tolerant regions.

- They published in Latin so only educated elites could read it to avoid causing offense.

- Private circulation and secret societies such as natural philosophers circles and the Invisible College which later became the Royal Society.

- Patronage and Protection, finding wealthy and powerful supporters which could include institutions.

- The printing press when it arrived allowed for mass produced material to be distributed quickly.

- Publishing anonymously under Pseudonyms.

- Appealing to religion and states on the grounds that the works did not conflict with their views. In terms of science, it was uncovering the works of God.

Generally, it took courage, cleverness, networks and new technology. The cumative pressure eventually led to change.

Today we have to do much the same with our own messaging. We should publish but consider where we publish and the form of what we publish. We have our networks, we could frame some works as hypothetical, we could look for ways to publish contentious ideas through universities and other establishments, we could find ways to make ideas align with doctorine such as ideas and research helping to combat abuse, we can use technology to publish ideas and research in ways that are harm to suppress etc.

And remember, it is the fact that our message is persuasive and powerful that makes it necessary to suppress.
Those people who are involved in activism today will be a part of history just like those pioneers of science, pushing out new ideas and challenging old doctorine.