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I think your objection is that a person is being given a label, which I agree, that's usually not fruitful. But the sentiment must still come across: some objec

• Chathamization 10y ago
  Which is fine, but the posts I was responding to were labeling people critical of GMOs in general as anti-science, rather than labeling a particular argument as anti-science. But even if you limit yourself to particular arguments that are contradicted to available evidence, the "anti-science" epithet will gets applied to the anti-GMO bunk ("GMOs cause tumors"), but not pro-GMO bunk ("without GMOs billions would have starved to death") or bunk about automation ("automation is happening faster than ever before"). It doesn't tend to be used to generally describe people who are making claims that are contrary to available evidence. It tends to only be used to attack people who disagree with the user on certain specific issues. It's more posturing and veiled insult than legitimate argument. Then again, even if it was used in a intellectually honest and consistent way (which, again, it almost always isn't), it wouldn't be particularly useful. If someone is doing something that flies in the face of the underlying philosophy of science, address it directly ("How can we verify your claims?" "What evidence would you deem sufficient to decide that this is incorrect?"). Saying something is anti-science isn't useful; it only tells us that the speaker disagrees.