especially if you a scientist and you feed by your government.
Have you ever met any scientists? Here's the thing about scientists: they have one chance at fame. One. There's no other way to fame as a scientist except what I'm about to tell you. The only way a scientist can achieve lasting fame is by
disproving a widely-held theory.
For example, by disproving a globe-earth hypothesis. If there were a shred of evidence for a flat earth, every physicist and astronomer would be jumping all over it and rushing to publish this new groundbreaking, earth-changing, fame-bringing idea.
You're telling me that you really think that a brand-new assistant professor would choose to ignore the chance to rise to the ranks of the likes of Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, or Turing so that he can keep scraping by on his piddling salary for the rest of his life? You think he prefers a life begging for grant money over a chance to make the discovery of a millennium?
If disproving a widely held theory is the only way for a scientist to become famous, then why is Neil deGrass Tyson famous? Nye the science guy? Leonardo Di Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Elon Musk, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking, Michael Faraday etc... etc...
In this day and age, you can get famous in the science community simply by publishing something on behalf of a media company, or someone with ties to a media company. Whether what you publish is legitimate or not is besides the point. Society has become a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours sorta place. Truth doesn't matter at all anymore. Only agendas.
Perhaps there are high-level scientists who have their own suspicions of the flat Earth, but are smart enough to know that to mention it, or to begin investigating it, would be the end of their careers because they would be called crazy and have their credibility stripped from them.
Yes. I think he would rather look away and stick with his salary and wait for his pension to come. He have family to feed and don't want to be mocked by his colleagues. That is how it work in real life. Trust me, I'd see a lot of this in my life.
It's a nice story, nicely-wrapped up in a tight bundle, but real life isn't that clean. Real life is full of risk-takers who'd take that chance. Real life is full of young single guys who'd do anything for their shot at the pedestal.
I really wish and hope you're right. It'll be better for all of us. Have a great day. I need to jump in real world now- flat or round. Back to work: slave. Have my bills to pay and bring food on my table. No time for deep discussion. Real life, like you said.