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Should it matter? You can analyze this disparate piece of evidence independently of the agenda. In fact, you might even say that by putting the cards on the tab

by mlthoughts2018 8y ago

Should it matter? You can analyze this disparate piece of evidence independently of the agenda. In fact, you might even say that by putting the cards on the table, at least this source is transparent about which stance of the topic it is taking, giving you opportunity to take care when evaluating single pieces of evidence.. this is possibly better than sources which purport to be fair and balanced and go to greater lengths to obfuscate ways they are tacitly pushing an agenda. I don’t agree with the concept of forming a high-level conclusion about the general nature of a source of information, and then using that to argue that you should not separately carefully analyze disparate pieces of content from that source.

mikeash 8y ago
Most of us don’t have the time to perform our own analysis from scratch. So, yes, it matters a great deal.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  If you have the time to make ad hoc Hacker News comments in the weeds about the credibility of a link from a comment from a niche post, then you obviously have enough time to evaluate disparate pieces of evidence instead of trying to discredit them by applying blanket heuristic judgements based on seeming one-sidedness from a glance. Nobody is saying you need so much spare time to rigorously analyze every source. That would be a disingenuous false dilemma. Instead, just apply slightly more effort than your stated dismissive heuristic.
  - mikeash 8y ago
    Who’s trying to discredit them? I just asked if their claims can be believed. I thought “can I trust this random Twitter account” would be a completely standard question, attacked on the basis of “duh, of course you can’t, why would you even ask?” rather than because how dare I impugn the reputation of poor whatshisface instead of spending a couple of hours combing through the evidence for myself.

mikeash 8y ago

Most of us don’t have the time to perform our own analysis from scratch. So, yes, it matters a great deal.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago
If you have the time to make ad hoc Hacker News comments in the weeds about the credibility of a link from a comment from a niche post, then you obviously have enough time to evaluate disparate pieces of evidence instead of trying to discredit them by applying blanket heuristic judgements based on seeming one-sidedness from a glance. Nobody is saying you need so much spare time to rigorously analyze every source. That would be a disingenuous false dilemma. Instead, just apply slightly more effort than your stated dismissive heuristic.
- mikeash 8y ago
  Who’s trying to discredit them? I just asked if their claims can be believed. I thought “can I trust this random Twitter account” would be a completely standard question, attacked on the basis of “duh, of course you can’t, why would you even ask?” rather than because how dare I impugn the reputation of poor whatshisface instead of spending a couple of hours combing through the evidence for myself.