Last month, American rock star Gene Simmons, frontman of Kiss, warned his cohort of devoted fans that they would not be welcome at his band’s ‘End of the Road Tour’ gigs unless they were vaccinated against Covid-19. Suspecting that there were ‘science deniers’ among his hardcore fanbase, to emphasise his point, Simmons added: “I don’t care if you think the Earth is flat.”
While it’s easy to empathise with the singer’s position, pronouncements like this raise the question of how best to communicate with people whose minds are closed to irrefutable, undisputable, incontrovertible scientific fact. While the ever-popular Simmons will no doubt have got his point across, what can those of us who are not metal gods do?
Help is at hand in the form of Lee McIntyre’s superb ‘How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason’ by Lee McIntyre (The MIT Press, £19.99, ISBN 9780262046107). Something of a...