It will not be far-fetched to suggest that the present era is marred by concerns over post-truth and anti-science. These concerns have also come with accusations against Science and Technology Studies (STS) for fostering an environment in which post-truth and anti-science beliefs thrive. Such accusations have resulted in a debate within STS about how, for example, the symmetry principle should be defined and whether it should be circumscribed. This article contributes to this ongoing debate by offering a somewhat different approach to understanding post-truth and anti-science and by presenting an often-unnoticed genealogy of the Science Wars. It suggests that in the investigations of post-truth and anti-science, we should not limit ourselves to exploring the veracity of the expressed beliefs (whether complete or partial) but also read the meanings and valence through their displacement and alignment with other concerns and analyse them as story-shaping activities. Such an approach, along with providing a better understanding of post-truth, anti-science, and the Science Wars, also brings to the fore the role of race/racism and coloniality that have often been forgotten while analysing these concerns.
Ajit Prasad (Sun,) studied this question.