Of the two forms of politicization that are subverting reason today, the political is far more dangerous than the academic, for an obvious reason. It’s often quipped (no one knows who said it first) that academic debates are vicious because the stakes are so small. But in political debates the sakes are unlimited, including the future of the planet.

Steven Pinker, Enlightenment now: the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress, New York, 2018, p. 374