The Right-Wing War on Eclipse Glasses

Medical professionals insist that it’s unsafe to look at the sun without eclipse glasses. MAGA Republicans disagree.

The scientific and medical consensus that it is unsafe to look at an eclipse without eye protection is unassailable. But does everyone think so? Apparently not. It has become increasingly trendy in the MAGA community to reject expert judgment and to dismiss scientific consensus as only one opinion. Their latest target? Eclipse glasses.

For fun I decided to ask ChatGPT, “Is there a controversy about whether it is safe to look at an eclipse?” Even though I don’t trust AI, the answer seemed straightforward and satisfactory to me.

The term “scientific consensus” is an emotional trigger for Republicans,. In the MAGA world, the suggestion that “it’s essential to rely on scientifically validated information from reputable sources, such as astronomy organizations, eye care professionals, and government agencies, when it comes to safety guidelines for viewing solar eclipses” is toxic.

Hollywood screenwriter Michael Crichton, who was famous for his anti-science leanings, wrote this in his 2003 essay, “Aliens Cause Global Warming”

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.

Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.

This is undoubtedly part of the basis for Donald Trump’s decision in 2017 to set an example for his followers to ignore the expert advice of both scientists and medical professionals.

Donald Trump ignores expert advice and disregards scientific consensus on August 21, 2017 (source: Getty Images)

Shortly before Trump was photographed squinting at the sun without eye protection, Fox News had published an opinion piece targeting scientific consensus in the context of eclipse viewing.

Fox News disparages scientific consensus as being unreliable in a story published 3 days before the 2017 solar eclipse.

Perhaps the only phrases that trigger anti-science conservatives more than the term “scientific consensus” is “settled science” and “government approved”. In the lead up to the 2024 eclipse, anti-science activists have stepped up their attacks on the very people (scientists and medical professionals) who are insisting to the public that it’s only safe to look at the sun through government approved solar glasses.

Only two weeks before the March 8, 2024 solar eclipse, the CBS News program 60 Minutes aired the episode “Supreme Court grapples with online First Amendment rights as social media teems with misinformation” in which this issue was addressed. The court will decide if social media companies have the right to prevent someone from posting “I’m an ophthalmologist and the idea that it’s unsafe to stare at the sun is a myth created by Big Spectacle to sell more useless eclipse glasses”. Congressman Jim Jordan, who thinks this would be a form of censorship and violation of the First Amendment, said, “I think you let the American people, respect the American people, their common sense, to figure out what's accurate, what isn't.”