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LLLAAAWWWLLLL
Scientist = "expert on a topic who has spent a life time studying it and understands it inside and out"....
Yea I can see why you would think scientists are the fraudsters... an expert on a topic makes it really hard to just make up random bullshit and have people buy it.
@freemo @commandlinekid @realcaseyrollins @icedquinn
Really? Cuz the pretty obvious lesson of this decade is that being a scientist in a lab coat is the easiest way to get millions of people to buy your random made up bullshit.
Thats not entierly untrue, when you are proven expert on a topic and know far more about it than your average citizen then people are more likely to trust you. There are certainly cases where scientists have taken advantage of that trust. No one would claim a scientist is infallable.
The only difference is that there are far more non-scientists making absurd claims and just as willing to violate peoples trust, but because their idiots and not experts they just arent very successful.
In the end thats why you dont just evaluate a scientists expertise, but their track record as well. No one should suggest that you need to blindly accept anything any scientist tells you, but even less so should you trust some backwater hick trying to sell you nonsense either.
@freemo @icedquinn @realcaseyrollins @commandlinekid
And on at least a few subjects you need to do the research yourself to be able to know the answers so that you can validate your sources against reality. Unfortunately few people can overcome Gell-Mann amnesia.
The nature of science is to constantly attempt to disprove the status quo to better understand/approximate reality. Of the 99 hair brained ideas, 1 turns out to be right and the continents are actually drifting, Unfortunately that is the exact opposite of how primate politics work and so humans have a fundamental problem advancing sciences faster than generationally. The current pseudo religion of turning the pronouncements of scientists into papal edicts just makes the problem worse.
> "You need to do the research yourself"
Yes this is true.. **if** you are an expert who has years and years of study intimately on the subject so you are at all **capable** of doing the research.
Sadly most people who have "done their own research" dont just lack expertise, they dont even seem to understand the language of the studies or what any of them are even saying.
So yea by all means become and expert on the subject, do your own research, and use that expertise to reject or accept it... But if what you mean is read what some other idiots who know as little as you do think about a subject and then come to your own conclusions.. well yea... no, thats just idiocy perpetuating idiocy. It is also the more common of the two approaches.
@freemo @icedquinn @realcaseyrollins @commandlinekid
Which is exactly why judging science by polls or consensus is the opposite of useful
No one, not even scientists, claim you should just blindly follow polls or consensus.
Obviously if you lack any expertise following the majority of those with expertise is really your only option short of simply not-having an opinion. But admiting your not smart enough to be able to form a useful opinion is a pretty wise thing to do.
Once you have expertise however the polls and consensus tell you where to look first, evaluate the studies and their strong and weak points, and form your own educated opinion. If you dont think the most popular interpritation is true via consensus then look at the next most popular. It provides a way to say "wow if everyone thinks this is legit maybe i should read it over and consider it"
But again, the vast majority of people arent experts able to evaluate or research anything. So in that case, unless your just a conspiracy theorist spewing nonsense, your likely not going to form a strong opinion at all and merely lean towards majority as the most likely due to lack of any other legitimate information.
@freemo @icedquinn @realcaseyrollins @commandlinekid
“your likely not going to form a strong opinion at all and merely lean towards majority as the most likely due to lack of any other legitimate information.”
Have you ever observed actual humans? Forming a strong opinion based on no information but the beliefs of your community or media programming, then attacking all that are on the other side with a blind invincibility of ignorance and faith, is the standard homo sapien sapien behavior.
Yes, it is. The majority of humans do happen to be idiots.
