We bring a science-as-rhetoric framework, which has been used to study the claims of scientists, to examine lay claims about science. Using qualitative content analysis, we scrutinize the rhetoric of science in online reader comments sent in response to New York Times articles covering two recent measles outbreaks. Pro-vaccine commenters use a variety of rhetorical tactics that simultaneously venerate science and denounce the antivaccination stance. These commenters, thus, participate in the ideological practices of boundary-work to demarcate science from nonscience for the purposes of defeating their opponents and advancing their agenda. Our analysis foregrounds how and why this publics’ demarcation of science is a type of moral crusade, that equates antiscientific beliefs with normative chaos. We situate our analysis in the larger cultural landscape wherein laypeople create “us” versus “them” using “science” as their wedge. The importance of developing sociological accounts of these dynamics has been made especially clear in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its many science-based controversies, including those related to vaccination.

中文翻译：

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错与对（实）：在线读者评论作为科学边界工作

我们带来了一个科学作为修辞框架，该框架已被用于研究科学家的主张，以检查有关科学的非专业主张。使用定性内容分析，我们仔细审查了在线读者评论中的科学修辞，这些评论是为了回应纽约时报关于最近两次麻疹爆发的文章。支持疫苗的评论者使用各种修辞手法，同时崇尚科学并谴责反对疫苗接种的立场。因此，这些评论者参与了边界工作的意识形态实践，以区分科学与非科学，以击败他们的对手并推进他们的议程。我们的分析突出了公众对科学的划分如何以及为什么是一种道德运动，将反科学信仰等同于规范混乱。我们将我们的分析置于更大的文化景观中，其中外行人使用“科学”作为他们的楔子来创造“我们”与“他们”。在 COVID-19 大流行及其许多基于科学的争议（包括与疫苗接种相关的争议）的背景下，对这些动态进行社会学解释的重要性尤为明显。