Hell, look how many leaks were coming out of the FBI in the weeks leading up to the election. Keeping a blanket gag on any bureaucracy is a futile endeavor.

> Keeping a blanket gag on any bureaucracy is a futile endeavor.

Look what Obama did to Snowden and Manning, and that from a Democratic president.

Trump meanwhile has stated multiple times that he supports torture and Guantanamo - I don't know if I'd have the courage to be a leaker under a President Trump. One thing is for sure - anyone caught leaking anything opposing or contradicting Trump will spend a long time behind bars or worse.

Is it illegal to leak non-classified information? I think at worst you would be fired.

> I think at worst you would be fired.

Remember "Three felonies a day"? When you're targeted by Trump or his cronies, you don't stand a chance.

>mostly left-leaning scientists

I know it's popular to say "reality has a liberal bias" but I don't think it does us a service to keep promoting that myth.

According to [1] most scientists are indeed liberal: 52% of scientists describe themselves as liberal versus 9% as conservative. The numbers for the general public are 20% and 37%, respectively.

[1] http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-...

Maybe my meaning was lost. I don't think it does a service to our political dialogue when we casually throw "mostly left-leaning" on "scientists." We don't want to encourage the instant siloing / ignorance that can accompany labeling someone whose profession is gathering objective evidence with a particular subjective political tribe.

Language matters. I think "reality has a liberal bias" and other patronizing quips have helped usher us into a post-truth era.

What myth?

Until the right stops rejecting science and promoting lies (cough crowd size cough) that saying is pretty much true.

The left is equally guilty of being anti-science when it suits them. The anti-vaxxer and anti-GMO crowds tend to be predominantly left-wing, for example.

Anti-vaxxers are a fringe element of the left. Climate deniers are the mainstay of the right. Do not falsely equivalate the two.

Anti-GMO is most certainly not fringe, particularly not in Europe where it's as mainstream a position as climate change denial is in the US, and just as dismissive of science.

In the US, though, it's most definitely fringe, and that's what's pertinent to the discussion in this thread.

Without context, fringe has no meaning, that is what's pertinent. It's about as popular as Scientology (anti-GMO seems to be about twice the anti-vax).