3 ms·
It depends very much on precisely what you're talking about. Someone giving an opinion on a physical system? Absolutely should not be regulated. Someone giving
by taneq 5y ago
It depends very much on precisely what you're talking about. Someone giving an opinion on a physical system? Absolutely should not be regulated. Someone giving engineering advice and representing that advice as the result of rigorous analysis and themselves as an authority on the topic? I can see an argument for regulating that.
We place similar expectations on legal and medical advice, and wrong engineering advice is arguably more dangerous than both. (For values of 'engineering' involving 'building heavy machinery, physical infrastructure, etc. which lives depend on - a wrong diagnoses can kill one person, a bad load calc can potentially kill thousands if a stadium collapses. I don't mean giving advice on page layout in CSS needs to be regulated.)
Edit: Note that I'm not saying he should be gagged, and the circumstances definitely need to be considered, just that I understand the reasoning behind standards for advice presented as authoritative. What's going on in TFA more smacks of union protectionism than genuine caution.
- blfr 5y agoWe place similar expectations on legal and medical advice We do and received terrible medical advice during the latest pandemic while people trying to correct it were getting banned from social media. We are also reaping results of decades of terrible dietary advice. The track record for censorship isn't great.
- morelisp 5y agoYou're right, the unregulated dietary supplements market looks so much better!
- blfr 5y agoYou're trying to mock my comment but schizoid posters on twitter pushing their supplements often do have better dietary advice than USDA. The bar set by credentialed experts is so low, people who likely belong in an institution can clear it.
- logicchains 5y agoUnregulated dietary supplements have killed way fewer people than obesity.
- taneq 5y agoAlso very good points. The WHO in particular should face heavy criticism for their early handling (or non-handling) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pretty much everything they said for the first 3 months was about as wrong and harmful as it was possible to be, and seemed entirely driven by political rather than health considerations. The dietary advice thing is mental the deeper you look into it, too. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Wait, it was Kelloggs saying that. More than two eggs a day will make you die of heart disease? Apparently not any more. Was that dodgy advice from the pork board or did Big Egg just buy off the right people? Fat is bad for you and makes you fat, says CSR. Actually sugar makes you fat AND causes cancer, but dietary fat is fine, says Brownes Dairy.