In the New York Times earlier this month University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank offered an opinion as to “Why Young Men Are Losing Faith in Science”:

After 30 years as a researcher, science communicator and university science teacher, I’ve been unsettled by what appears to be a growing skepticism of science among some of my Generation Z students, shaped in part by the different online cultures these young people have grown up in. While I cannot speak to what happens in every corner of the internet, I can speak to the one I’ve been invited into: the “manosphere” — a loose network of podcasts, YouTubers and other male influencers. I’ve appeared on some of the manosphere’s most popular shows, including Joe Rogan’s. I’ve watched how curiosity about science can slide into conspiracy-tinged mazes rooted in misinformation. And I believe the first step out of the maze for young men begins by reasserting to them the virtue of hard work — an often grueling but indispensable part of finding the right answers in science. …

The manosphere can foster genuine interest in science among young listeners. But framing science as a debate to be won makes it easy to paint established scientists as opponents who must be overcome. And one of the easiest ways to win the debate is to suggest scientists are either self-satisfied elites who won’t consider new ideas or, worse, liars who know the truth and are hiding it. October 3, 2025

Frank makes a number of good points; his defense of classical science is well worth reading. The problem is, however, that the aspirations of classical science are only a part of the story.

The conspiracy theories that inevitably flourish in virtual man caves (and in pubs) are a problem. But they do not flourish in a vacuum. Recently, we learned from Vince Bielski at Real Clear Investigations,

In southern India, a new enterprise called Peer Publicon Consultancy offers a full suite of services to scientific researchers. It will not only write a scholarly paper for a fee but also guarantee publishing the fraudulent work in a respected journal.

It is one of many “paper mills” that have emerged across Asia and Eastern Europe over the last two decades. Paper mills are having remarkable success peddling tens of thousands of bogus academic journal papers and authorships to university and medical researchers seeking to pad their resumes in highly competitive fields.

These sophisticated outfits also engage in trickery to get papers published, infiltrating journals with their own editors and reviewers and even resorting to bribery, according to investigators and a white paper from Wiley, a New Jersey-based publisher. The scale of the fraud is eye-popping: One Wiley subsidiary, Hindawi, retracted more than 8,000 articles two years ago for suspected paper mill involvement.

“Paper Chase: A Global Industry Fuels Scientific Fraud in the U.S.”, October 8, 2025

Does the average Rogan fan know this? No, not in any detail. But corruption has a way of seeping around. Terms like “the assured results of modern science,” “the science,” and “trust the science” become shopworn, morphing into cynical asides.

It’s not a conspiracy theory or misinformation to say that there is a lot of fraud in science right now. Restoring trust includes dealing with that.