Wokeness is hostile to objective science. Simply put, objective science is a method of testing theses about objective reality through a systematic process of falsification.479 Theories that survive the process of falsification are regarded as provisionally true; at the same time, they are to be tested again and again. Non-falsifiable theses are viewed with scepticism.480 The goal of objective science is the most accurate possible prediction of reality, so that scientific theories should correspond to reality as precisely as possible.
In contrast, the woke view of science: wokeness considers objectivity neither possible nor desirable.481 Objective science with a realistic view of truth is considered a “white” form of science. It is regarded as presumptuous to want to describe an objective reality with scientific theories (see Knowledge). Objectivity is considered an instrument of oppression created by powerful white men to exclude marginalised viewpoints. The universal principle of objective science—that scientific theses are only true if it is irrelevant who tests them—is rejected.
On the contrary, especially lived experiences are relevant because they are to make alleged oppression visible (see Standpoint Theory).482
This particular view of truth was strongly influenced by the postmodern ideas of Foucault: in Foucauldian thinking, power and knowledge are connected as power-knowledge; science thus becomes an expression of power.483 This view of science as a question of power was adopted by woke activists. Similar to Foucault, in the woke view only allegedly objective science maintains oppression.
As a solution, science, which is allegedly always political, is to be deliberately politicised. Now all scientific findings are to be considered problematic if they contradict woke viewpoints.484
In practice, science is politicised as soon as scientists neglect their effort to understand the world and instead primarily pursue a vision of how the world should be (see Critical Theory). Once enough scientists understand themselves as activists, the postmodern thesis is fulfilled and science becomes a political power game. As a result of the politicised understanding of science, barriers are erected that are to prevent a counterweight to activism from existing in science.
In practice, activists often proceed similarly: utopian promises are made, speculations about empirical falsification are put forward, dissidents are threatened with cancel culture (see Postcolonialism, Critical Pedagogy, Decolonisation, Climate Justice, and CRT).485
The Soviet-communist past warns of what effects a politicised, activist pseudoscience can have: the ideas of so-called Lysenkoism, according to which plants acquire their characteristics only from environmental factors and not from their genes, led to enormous crop failures. As a result, millions of people starved.486