Science Quote by Bjorn Lomborg

Lomborg’s line reads like a preemptive inoculation against the culture-war antibody test: if you dislike my politics, don’t let that disqualify my spreadsheets. The phrasing is clunky on purpose, almost pleading, as if he’s talking over the noise of a panel show. By calling himself a “bad right wing guy,” he borrows the caricature his critics might already be using, then tries to strip it of power. It’s a rhetorical judo move: concede the label, deny its relevance.

The intent is to relocate the debate from motives to methods. “Right or wrong independently” is the scientist’s ideal of argument-as-object, detachable from the speaker’s tribe. In a world of hot takes and purity tests, he’s asking for an old-fashioned audit: show me where the numbers break, not where my voting record might land. The repeated “right” and “wrong” also functions like a metronome, insisting on binary evaluation in a discourse that often prefers insinuation.

The subtext, though, admits the opposite pressure: he wouldn’t need to say this if the reception of climate and development policy weren’t already polarized. Lomborg has long been framed as either a brave contrarian or a convenient skeptic-adjacent figure, depending on who’s reading. The quote tries to carve out a procedural neutrality - judge claims, not vibes - while quietly acknowledging that in public science, credibility is never just data. It’s identity, funding narratives, and which side is accused of laundering doubt.