Of course, Ms. Shvetsova is not a medical doctor, and it’s reasonable to doubt that politics represents any kind of science at all, but just a pretense of it in order to affect some academic respectability. Which prompts one to wonder: what shreds of respectability remain in the universities run by Jacobin maniacs? (Answer: almost none, and zero cred, too, lately, and note that having surrendered entirely to this kind of intellectual racketeering, higher ed is just another major institution whirling around the drain.)
There’s a lot to marvel at, though, in the manifold insanity of Ms. Shvetsova’s quoted views, starting with her overall totalitarian gusto. No ambiguity there about the need for coercion, for pushing people around, with no reference to legal niceties. (Note, political science is a field apart from the study of law, which doesn’t pretend to be science.) The bit I love most is: “It’s about preventing [citizens] from being sick in invisible ways.” Huh…? You know what else is invisible? Your thoughts. You could be harboring hostile thoughts about the folks who seek to push you around, which could lead to the accusation that you are an enemy of the state!
RadioZeitgeist: The Daily ZEITcast 