And you can't have a meaningful debate if people are rejecting evidence that has been peer reviewed by scientists. How can you have a debate on the political questions about how to address climate change for example, when there are still people who reject the evidence of humans having an impact or that climate change is even happening?
Sure, all humans have self-interest but the scientific method is a self-correcting process to gain information about the world around us. It doesn't matter what political views a scientist has, all that matters is if their claims are testable, verifiable and repeatable.