I've heard more political folks, particularly those interested in the environment, speak of the work of science as establishing incontrovertible truth. "Settled science," "established science," and "consensus science" are the phrases used to push an agenda.

Our times are not the first time these phrases and this treatment of science was used for political purposes. In 1938 Niels Bohr, famed atomic physicist and humanitarian, was invited to speak to the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Science in Castle Helsingør (Shakepeare's Elsinore) north of Copenhagen. Bohr had spent the preceding years divided between running a state-of-the-art theoretical lab, and getting Jewish scientists out of Germany. He spoke of cultures being complementary to each other as a way of enriching both. The German delegates walked out. They had seemingly bought into Hitler's monoracist propaganda. 

Bohr then went on to say that the common aim of science was "the gradual removal of prejudices."

And in that we have a lot of great insight. All scientists come to science full of prejudices about how the natural world operates. The biggest of which say why it operates as it does. If a scientist is going to interpret their observations, any prejudice will taint their conclusions. But it's hard to get rid of those prejudices. That's why the process is gradual.

When Bohr gave his talk he spoke of political things, not just science. He spoke of science being a political heavyweight. In that he was too right. It is a political heavyweight, but politicians really can't handle a beast that large. Hitler used the work of his scientists, mostly the eugenics, to kill the jews. He used science to support totalitarianism, not freedom. No politician, nor any scientist, can be relied on to use science politically.

Politicians wholly devoted to freedom are much more pleasant than any other option, because they have faith in their fellow men. But science can't really support that. Freedom comes from the heart.

So my general rule is that any politician who mentions science is working toward totalitarianism. Any politician who mentions "Truth" has declared themselves as a dictator already. Watch out for them!

Here is a list of some failed scientists: