3 ms·

It is also difficult to assess because as someone with a chronic illness I also know that there a lot of people who think they are more knowledgeable than docto

by cc81 7y ago

It is also difficult to assess because as someone with a chronic illness I also know that there a lot of people who think they are more knowledgeable than doctors while they in reality most likely are overestimating single studies or don't have the full picture.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
It's possible to admit you have no idea if what they say makes sense without launching into ugly and dismissive attacks based on a presumption that they can't possibly know what they are talking about. But people rarely meet that standard and typically default to asserting that whatever is currently generally accepted must be correct. That's not at all how actual science works. Actual science admits "This is our best understanding currently. Feel free to improve upon it." Shouldn't we be well past the abusive treatment doled out to Galileo for daring to dissent? He was eventually determined to be correct, but it was well after his death, so it did nothing to remedy his troubles.
- asdff 7y ago
  It should be "feel free to improve upon it, if you've mastered the current understanding and know what to improve and what evidence would be required to validate that improvement." Otherwise any joe shmoe with a youtube following can start encouraging nursing mothers to have a glass of pigs blood before bed or some other nonsense. It's tempting to imagine expertise as something that should be equitable, but it's hard to beat the foundational knowledge of someone who had four years of biology coursework, four years of medical course work, for years of residency, then however many years still in the field, still thinking about the same problems and how to solve them, vs. someone who spent 2 hours searching google or struggling through pubmed articles and are looking to best the person providing them care. Galileo was a university trained physicist and astronomer with over 30 years in the field, he wasn't a layman at all. In fact, a little more on Galileo. He wasn't condemned for 'daring do dissent,' his theories had merit and supporters. Galileo just critiqued people's theories so throughly and aggressively in his letters that he pissed a lot of people off in academic italy by just dismantling their work. Eventually one prick got the inquisition on the case, the pope asked galileo to write a detailed book to set the record straight with his theories, and while galileo did that he did it by making the pope a character in his book, portrayed as complete idiot, circulated the book all over catholic Europe, and shit naturally hit the fan. Apples and oranges.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

by cc81 7y ago

DoreenMichele 7y ago

It's possible to admit you have no idea if what they say makes sense without launching into ugly and dismissive attacks based on a presumption that they can't possibly know what they are talking about. But people rarely meet that standard and typically default to asserting that whatever is currently generally accepted must be correct. That's not at all how actual science works. Actual science admits "This is our best understanding currently. Feel free to improve upon it." Shouldn't we be well past the abusive treatment doled out to Galileo for daring to dissent? He was eventually determined to be correct, but it was well after his death, so it did nothing to remedy his troubles.

asdff 7y ago
It should be "feel free to improve upon it, if you've mastered the current understanding and know what to improve and what evidence would be required to validate that improvement." Otherwise any joe shmoe with a youtube following can start encouraging nursing mothers to have a glass of pigs blood before bed or some other nonsense. It's tempting to imagine expertise as something that should be equitable, but it's hard to beat the foundational knowledge of someone who had four years of biology coursework, four years of medical course work, for years of residency, then however many years still in the field, still thinking about the same problems and how to solve them, vs. someone who spent 2 hours searching google or struggling through pubmed articles and are looking to best the person providing them care. Galileo was a university trained physicist and astronomer with over 30 years in the field, he wasn't a layman at all. In fact, a little more on Galileo. He wasn't condemned for 'daring do dissent,' his theories had merit and supporters. Galileo just critiqued people's theories so throughly and aggressively in his letters that he pissed a lot of people off in academic italy by just dismantling their work. Eventually one prick got the inquisition on the case, the pope asked galileo to write a detailed book to set the record straight with his theories, and while galileo did that he did it by making the pope a character in his book, portrayed as complete idiot, circulated the book all over catholic Europe, and shit naturally hit the fan. Apples and oranges.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]